Karla Casique Media Participation Project

For my media participation project, I contributed to a number of publications on the Maryland campus. The first publication that I approached was Unwind Magazine, a fashion & style magazine. They only publish once a month and their meetings are open to any writer that is interested. I attended the first meeting of the year back in September and wrote a Fall Playlist, where I gathered 5 songs and wrote a short description on each one. I wrote for Unwind later in October, where I reported on the line of holiday products for the business LUSH. I visited nearby shopping centers and interviewed the workers and managers on the products, even asking them for a demonstration in order to tell the readers how each one was used and the effects it had on the skin.
    The variety of articles that I wrote prepared me for any type of situation--whether it was writing about the music industry to covering beauty products. However, the most influential experience that I've had in UMD has been reporting for the Writer's Bloc, a digital publication which covers a wide spectrum of topics.
     I joined the Bloc in late November. My first assignment was reviewing Congo dancer and storyteller Faustin Linyekula's performance at the Clarice. It definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone, as I had never seen an act quite like his. Afterwards, I became one of the reporters in charge of covering the Ferguson protests on campus. Becoming a participant as well as a journalist during these events revealed my abilities and focus, highlighting my determination. It also showed me that in order to become a journalist you have to get both sides of the story, no matter if you are uncomfortable with the situation.
    I have learned immensely through these two mediums and others. I will continue participating in them and broaden my horizons as a journalist.

Media Participation Project

   For my media participation project, I chose to interview a journalist currently working in the field. I chose Stacie Jones, editor-in-chief of the Reading Eagle newspaper, a company based out of Reading, Pennsylvania. I chose the Reading Eagle because it is the local newspaper in my hometown county of Berks County, PA. Additionally, I wrote articles for the Reading Eagle and my editor was Stacie Jones while I was in high school.

   Stacie is in charge of a section of the Reading Eagle called "Voices". This is unique because it is one of the only remaining sections of a newspaper dedicated to teenagers in the United States. The section is run by teens, with high schoolers contributing to all of the articles, fiction-pieces, short stories, artwork, and photography in the section. It is a weekly publication that she oversees.

   Stacie taught me a lot about the field of journalism and the opportunities that are out there and available to me. It was also interesting to learn about the path she took to become an editor of a newspaper, and she offered me good advice to help guide me in my career.

Media Participation Project

For my media participation project, I volunteered at the CNS studio at UMD. Along with other JOUR200 students, I observed the CNS-TV show Maryland Newline. I observed two shows on October 8th and October 22nd. This was my first time being in a TV studio and observing a show from a staff standpoint. It was a brand new and great experience and I was inspired by my visit.

When I first walked into the studio, I was surprised at how organized and professional the student staff are. When the show started, I can feel the nervousness just by watching the broadcasters speaking in front of the cameras. I was impressed by the broadcasters, as they speak in a very professional yet interesting manner. Even though the broadcaster made a few mistakes during the show, she still managed to overcome her nervousness and continued to broadcast like nothing happened.

Even though we did not help to produce the show, I learned a lot just by observing what everyone was doing and how they work together to produce a show. I think this was a wonderful experience for beginners who are interested in TV production. Observing a TV show from such a close view encouraged my interest in TV production, and further, my interest to pursue journalism as a career. Through my time here at UMD, I hope to become a professional broadcaster through hard work and hands-on experiences.

 

Media Particpiation Project

For my media participation project, I wrote an article for Unwind Magazine here on campus. This was such a new and exciting experience for me. Although I have written many articles for my high school newspaper, writing an article for Unwind seemed like an even bigger deal. Before I could begin writing for the online magazine, I had to go to a story assignment meeting. I attended the assignment meeting on October 6th, 2014 and while in the meeting I realized how organized the magazine staff was. The possible fall issue stories were split into different categories including, news, arts and entertainment and style. The editors introduced themselves to us and explained the criteria for each story that was placed in their section. Stories were assigned by the editors. Whoever was the first person to raise their hand for a particular story was the individual who got to write the story. 

I was given the opportunity to write a beat about a Fall Study Music playlist and it was in the category of arts and entertainment.  This story did not require anything but my personal opinion on perfect songs to listen to while studying for midterms. This made writing the story fun and easy to do. It took me roughly half an hour to write the story because I had already had a list of songs in my head. I really enjoyed writing for this magazine because it was a popular magazine here on campus but the staff were very welcoming and supportive. I developed a good relationship with my editor and she ended up

This experience taught me a lot about myself and my interest in becoming a journalist. I learned that i truly do enjoy writing stories and the print journalism is something I can see myself majoring in. I also learned that meeting deadlines are one of the most important things when being a journalist. Writing for Unwind made me want to return to another story assignment meeting at some point this year. This experience was so eye opening in the sense of allowing me to decided on how to spend my time wisely here at UMD. 

Media Participation Project-Connor Bell

                          Media Participation Project

            When I heard about the media participation project, I immediately knew what I wanted to do from the start. Because I have wanted to be a sports journalist my entire life, I decided I wanted to do something related to that specific topic, luckily I inquired about WMUC Sports Radio. WMUC is a sports radio station located on south campus; they specialize in on campus sporting events, providing a pregame report, in game radio broadcast, and post game analysis of every Maryland sport home game. They also run a broadcasting booth so students can actually have their own radio shows talking about sports and bringing in surprise guests. I was inquiring to be a post game journalist for the football team when I first heard about WMUC through Beteck on ELMS. After going to WUMC’s first informational meeting back in September, I talked to Marissa Morris, the head coordinator of sports writers for WMUC. She told me that because I was a manager for the football team already, I could cover post game football stories. However, instead of writing recaps for games, or about different statistics for different players, I chose to be with the reporters themselves and go to the press conferences held for Head Coach Randy Edsall.

            My first press conference came during the week of the Maryland vs. Iowa game, a time where morale was low on the team after they suffered a terrible loss to Ohio State the week before. The scheduling of the press conferences would actually work out great with my own personal schedule; the conference would be at 12:30 every Tuesday, and practice would end at 10:30 AM. The conferences are held in the 5^th floor of the Tyser Tower Suite in Byrd Stadium. There I was greeted with the smell of free Sbarro Pizza, accompanied by huge stacks of stat sheets for anyone looking to read some interesting facts between Maryland and their opponent for the week. Coach Edsall usually starts the conference a coupe minutes before 12:30 and he sits in front of a microphone and, as you would expect, takes questions from the press. However, before media are allowed to answer questions, Coach Edsall starts with an opening statement regarding the opponent for the week, and then the floodgates open and questions pour out all over the room.

            To be honest, I never have asked coach Edsall a question yet out of the 4 conferences I have been to, all I have done is take notes on what he says to different questions. I am actually scared to ask him a question just because I work for him every day and I think that would just make things awkward between us. To be honest, it was just really awesome to be part of something as cool as a press conference for my favorite team and school. I had always seen those conferences on TV and listened to them on the radio, but now I was finally able to be there in person to watch Coach Edsall answer all the questions that were put before him. There is one thing, however, that I’ve always noticed from the press conferences I have gone to, Coach Edsall never goes to into depth when delivering responses to questions. He keeps the media almost completely locked out of what goes on inside Gossett Football Team House and limits his answers to as few words as possible. This often does not give me much to write about, but I make due nonetheless thanks to the provided stat sheets for the teams that week.

            After I had gathered all the information I had needed to write an article for the week, I began my article that same Tuesday night as the press conference. My boss, Marissa Morriss wanted the article in as early as possible from the date of the press conference, so I would usually get it done by Wednesday night. My piece consisted of mainly what was said at the press conference and was no more than 300 words. But what is cool about WMUC, is that they post your article not only on their website, but also post it to Twitter and Facebook using your Twitter handle and Facebook name so everyone can see your work on social media we all use. This is just another example of how being involved in the media can help us gain better ideas on things we care about, and allows us to bring a more educated opinion for discussion when regarding certain topics like sports.

Briana Provost Media Participation Project

Unwind Magazine Media Participation Project

 

          When I first learned about the media participation project, I was really excited to have a reason to write and get involved with some magazines and newspapers that would allow me to do that. When I saw Beteck’s email about Unwind Magazine, I went online and looked at some of the types of articles that their writers were writing and I thought it would be a great opportunity for not only the media participation project, but also build up my writing portfolio.

          When I first got to the Unwind story meeting, I was surprised to see a list of stories all along the black board. Once the meeting got started, each staff writer for their own individual section read the list of stories that their section had to offer, and then asked for any pitches for that section. I expected them to prioritize seniors, juniors, and generally more experienced writers when it came to picking stories. However that wasn’t the case, the people who raised their hands first once a story was called off got the best story.

          For the story that I chose in the style section, beauty adventures, there was no given topic; each person who was chosen had to pitch their own idea for their piece. The beauty adventures articles consist of first-hand accounts of some type of beauty experiment. In the past some people had dyed their hair, or tested out a new product and reported the results. So when I was chosen, I immediately thought of an old golf coach against an opposing high school who always wore one or two different earrings to see if people were paying attention to her. Thinking that it would a great story, I pitched the idea to the editor, and she thought it would be a great story as well. However, she recommended that I start with smaller earrings and work my way up to larger less subtle earrings throughout the week.

          I did what she had recommended, and tried to see if people would notice my “new look”. I was surprised, however, to find that not one person said anything to me. So then my article took a different direction. I talked about two different possibilities, one being that people don’t pay attention to each other as they used to, and the other being that maybe people are becoming more acceptable of different styles, and if someone did notice, they kept their opinions to themselves. To say the least, it felt really good to send my first college article into the style editor of a college magazine. Due to limited space in the magazine, my article did not appear in the print copy of Unwind, but it can be accessed on the online site.

          Coincidently, I ran into the editor of Unwind, Amanda Eisenberg, and she said she really enjoyed my article. Then she invited me, as well as a few other freshman and sophomores, to come to the staff writers meeting. Because I went to the meeting, I got to claim what story I wanted to write about this month before the story meeting. I also got a sneak peak at what it would be like to be a staff writer, which is something that I am now considering applying for next year. I’m not even sure I would be interested in a staff writer position if it weren’t for the media participation project, and the long-term opportunities it has presented. This project gave me the push I needed to get involved in a campus magazine.

Media Participation

For my Media Participation Project, I worked for the Prince George County Sentinel under editor Holden Wilen.  I did research on a topic that I thought was important, particularly in local politics.  Then I pitched a story and wrote an article about how the vote of the youth counts.  I discussed recent win of Larry Hogan as Maryland’s governor and talked about how the voter turnout was much lower than in previous years.  I also got the opportunity to speak with a group of youth in Prince George county to hear their reactions and thoughts about the importance of voting and how much education they had about the topic.

I decided to work for the Prince George Sentinel because I wanted to write about something that genuinely means something to me.  I’ve been able to experience working with children in Prince George County every Saturday morning.  After the Maryland governor election, we had an in depth discussion with these students about voting and why voting is important.  The high schoolers I discussed this with did not have the knowledge of how to vote.  Since some were 18, this was very sad, because they had missed their opportunity.  Although I was planning to write my article on something completely different, I decided instead to write about how disappointing it is that children don’t see the importance of voting. I felt like writing about this topic could influence young people and also raise awareness for parents and other adults so they can educate young people.

This sparks my journalistic aspiration because it made me realize that I want to continue my journalistic career by writing about things that will make a difference to the youth.  I feel as though there is a way to convey news and politics to the youth so that they can understand it better than the current adult-based news offerings.  This project helped me clarify that my change in major was a good choice for me, because I am most passionate about children and how I can help them.