What I have learned from working at the Headliner:
Over this semester, all journalism majors had to write five stories for the Canstar Newspaper. Currently, I am on my fifth story. I wanted to take this time to reflect what I have learned about this experience. Before this class exercise, I had always wanted to work as a freelance writer for a newspaper and never really had the guts to actually follow through with it. This assignment forced me to have to follow through with it and I am very happy that I did. I really enjoy this type of work. What I really enjoy is thinking of new story angles. I never knew how much I would enjoy this. What I like most about this is the fact that the idea comes from my own head and then it is turned into a tangible piece of news. I just absolutely love this feeling.
From working in public relations and raising awareness for whatever organization I was working for, I had to attract the attention of journalists to entice them to cover my story. Now, on the other side of the fence, I am the journalist pitching the news angles. It is really interesting to have had both experiences to see what each entails. I think I like both but when the idea is born in my head and accepted by my editor and eventually published, the sense of ownership and accomplishment is really rewarding to me.
My last article that I submitted was about a congregate meal program that the RM of Macdonald is trying to get off the ground. I found this story because I was thinking that with the transition of winter, seniors in rural areas must be facing different challenges than urban seniors. My research produced information about a contact in the RM of Macdonald who is the Seniors Coordinator. I cold called her and we talked about seniors issues that she was contending with and the congregate meal program angle surfaced and I knew this would be a story. A congregate meal program is providing a public venue where seniors can purchase a balanced meal at low cost for either their lunch or dinner.
I submitted this completed story last week Thursday. I ended up driving out to Starbuck Manitoba. Luckily, the roads were still dry at this point. Starbuck is a real little town. I was able to meet with a group of seniors and the Seniors Coordinator at the same time as they were attending a lunch and learn about living with Alzheimer’s. The seniors were a tough crowd and I was only able to take photos of two of them but I at least got the visuals I needed. When I submitted this story, I felt very accomplished because it was my idea from beginning to end and I was very proud of what I had uncovered and developed.
Another thing that I learned that I love doing is meeting all the new people from having to interview them. The relationships that you make from this experience are people I would never have before met. I am really happy I also chose the rural newspaper instead of my original choice of the paper for the River Height area. Writing for the Headliner has given me the opportunity to get out and explore rural Manitoba which is something I would have never done before. Some of the little communities are so quaint and pretty. The people are also very real and down to earth.
I have also learned a lot about writing for newspaper. I realized that I had a tendency to editorialize too much and learned to paraphrase quotes better.
Plus, I now pay close attention of the order of my paragraphs putting the most relevant information first and making sure my story angles are timely. The feedback from my editor was really helpful. Each time he supplied me with constructive criticism, I tried to incorporate this into my article. He was very understanding and patient and understood that these things take time to learn. This assignment as a whole didn’t feel like work to me. I really enjoyed the process and the journey.
This experience made me became more familiar with how to learn how to take photos as I had never used a professional camera before. So, even that was a bit daunting at the beginning. I learned the power of auto focus!
I would like to continue working as a freelance writer. I think I am now curious to find out what it is like to be a freelance writer for a magazine. That will be my next step.
I would love to hear about your experiences throughout this semester doing the community news assignment.
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