Media Participation Project

For my Media Participation Project I worked with Ben Sumner, who is the editor of CapitalsOutsider.com, a contributor to Gunaxin.com, and on staff at the Washington Post where he also contributes when he gets a scoop. Ben is also a UMD graduate with a degree in Journalism. On October 9, 2014 I began writing game previews for Capitals Outsider and have written a total of 11 articles (which can be found here) for the site since then. In addition to my articles I also attended and covered the Capitals Season Ticket Holder Party at the National Zoo in Washingon, D.C. and took photos of the players as they went through autograph sessions for the fans. I am scheduled to attend the Capitals' December 11th game next month at the Verizon Center to cover the game from the press box as I plan on continuing my work for Capitals Outsider.

I picked this particular project because I love sports and I want to do Broadcast Journalism. Covering the Capitals was the perfect opportunity for me to experience the side of Journalism that I was interested in coming into this project. This experience greatly influenced my journalistic aspirations as it showed me that covering sports is as appealing as it looks on TV when one is watching as part of the audience. I also discovered that writing for a newspaper, blogging for a website, or even contributing to a radio show are all great ways to get into Broadcast Journalism especially when sports are the focus of one's work. Seeing how exciting everything is in the world of sports from behind the scenes was just a bonus to me as I was already sold this is what I wanted to do for sure after I began writing for the website. This was very relieving to me as it affirmed my original goals and has motivated me to continue on the course of Broadcast Journalism with the desire to cover, analyze, and deliver sports news across the TV's of homes all across the country.

This Media Participation Project in my opinion has jumpstarted my career in the field of Journalism and I believe working with Ben is a great thing to have under my belt further down the line, as I'll need connections and work to reference for any future jobs or internships. As I continue working for Capitals Outsider I will try to expand the types of articles I write and also work towards finding the blogger voice within me, which would be vital to utilize at this point in my college career.