Season's Interviews

Dear bloggers, dear friends, dear family,

It's been a great week! I have started with the new study book on "Interviews" last week. It is a great joy to read. I love the little exercises (they keep my brain busy), and what a feeling of success each time I find out that I solved them correctly. So far, I really like this study book. There is only one thing I'm regretting...

I realized I don't have much time for friends and family any more (not as much as I used to). That is very unfortunate. I wanted to let each one of you know that I think of you a lot and miss you. I know that each of you understands... it is too important to let go. And I really love it so far. So, I just wanted to thank all of you for your understanding.

My big sister always told me to never let my dreams go. She still thinks that way. Now, she has four kids and a husband. She lives in a nice house near the coast. I visit her every summer. I love my two nieces and two nephews. That was her dream.

My dream is to become an "important" reporter. I want to inform people, I want to advice them and, most importantly, always tell them the truth. I realized throughout this year (and even before that on a more subconcious level since I haven't thought about it as much before I started this journalism course) that there has been so much bad journalism out there. Ill-informed journalists who just want to sell the story as fast as possible. I don't want to be this type of journalist. I truely believe that sometimes it is better to just wait it out until you have more information. What do you think? Am I right?

So my plan for this holiday season is as follows: Since I'm reading the study book on Interviews, I want to interview some of my family members during my visit for Christmas. I want to try out some techniques and get some practice that way. I will let you all know how it went. I think Interviews are incredibly important in every way. There is hardly any journalist who doesn't need to interview people. That's why I think it is important to get some practice. Even during the holidays. :)

Merry Christmas to everyone. Stay tuned for more in the New Year (get there safe)!

Best,
Kate

Post partum colloquium

Hello again, dear blogger (and journalism) friends,

It's Kate, your journalism student who is incredibly sad today. You know what happened? Well, here is my short story (but feeling a lot better now).

So I was "online" today to "meet up" with the tutor to help me with some questions I had regarding my study book Trade and Business Journalism (remember?). Anyway, there were too many students online so I had not really a chance to thoroughly go through all my questions. :/ Don't get me wrong, these online colloquia are great. I appreciate them, especially since there is no other way to interact with anyone about details of a specific journalism field. Right now, I'm a little frustrated. So then I called the student's office and asked them if a tutor could help me out over the phone. They said "no" but I can write a personal message to one of the tutors. So I did that, too... Well. Of course, there is no response yet. I suppose it takes a little bit of time. And who knows how many requests they get? I might not be the only one. I was so surprised to see how many students actually made use of the online colloquium.

Aside from that little unfortunate situation I'm doing really well. I'm close to finishing the first study book and look forward to taking this exam next week. It's going to be my very first exam, so that is so exciting.

I have not decided yet which module book I will study next. I have two choices so far: Arts Journalism and Interviews. Not sure which one I prefer. They both look really interesting. Interviews seems to be a little thicker than the other one... but since I have to read them both, it doesn't really matter. Might as well get the thicker one over with first. So "Interviews " is next, I think.

Hey, feel free to send me more messages! I'd be happy to chat with you! I already am in touch with some of you, so that is really great. Let me know what your favorite journalism topics are and such. Also, I'd love to hear from some more experienced "journalists" some stories if you may. :)

You'll here from "this" journalism student again next week. Then I'll take a little holiday break. Stay tuned, friends!

Kate

'Tis the season!

Hello, dear Journalism friends,

And thank you for all your interesting questions! Unfortunately, I cannot answer them all right away. Please be patient for a little bit longer as I am trying to answer each one of you thoroughly.

I had no idea journalism had so many "fans".

But still, these days, you hear a lot of bad things about it. Why? Well, obviously, this election year had a great impact on that. Journalists are being accused for "fake" news, for being biased. You know what I think? I think this is all just to blame someone else... Seriously, can we really blame journalism for bad coverage? Yes we can. However, there is always another side to things like that. We can't blame "journalism" for it, but most certainly "journalists". They broke our trust in reporting. Not all of them, but some of them did.

With this in mind, I want to become a journalist with principles. Truth, ethic, trust.

By the way. I almost finished my first course book on Trade and Business Journalism. It is fun, but also really tough questions included. I will take the online exam tomorrow. Let's see how that goes but I'm pretty confident.

Stay tuned until next week!

Yours,
Kate

Dear Journalism friends,

I hope your Thanksgiving holiday was marvelous! I sure had a great time with my relatives. We filled our bellies with delicious food, laughed a lot. And, of course, I talked about my current journalistic endeavors. :)

So I got a grade on my very first exam in journalism studies: An A-! I was very happy, although I still have to figure out how to get an A+. :) I'm happy, though. It was my first try and the result is more than satisfying. I'm a person of constant improvements. So next time, I just want to make sure I get all the answers right.

So what else is new? I guess I started a new module book called "Business and Trade Journalism". Why, you ask. Well, I thought this might be an interesting current and future topic for journalists. It has nothing to do with politics (although - who knows?). I have always been interested in the world of business. So that's why I'm really excited about this topic. I will talk about this module in detail next time. So far, I only got to read the very first page. Thus, not much to tell at this point.

I've been thinking a lot about the objectivity topic in journalism that everyone talks about right now. Ever since the election happened, people realized that objectivity in (political) journalism is at stake. But was it ever any different - did we ever have objectivity in journalism? Do we need it? Yes, we do. It is supposed to be an ethical goal. Journalists carry an important responsibility: Informing people without pushing them in a certain direction.

Stay tuned until next week!

Yours,
Katy

Pre-Thanksgiving Exam

Dear Journalism friends,

So I took my first online exam ever this week. I can't say that it was easy. I can't say that it was hard, either. I definitely learned a lot during the process. The online access to an exam is definitely something I have to get used to. I have not taken any exams online ever before.

Look, usually, you have a piece of paper (or several) right in front of you. You can feel the pen in your right (or left) hand. Now, you have to press down the keys, there is a monitor and there is a software - hopefully reliable enough - to test your skills. In the end, it is the tutor who grades your exam, of course. But who knows? That thought of a software grading my exam came to my mind after I took the exam.

Now, let's evaluate the accessibility and handling of the software. I suspected it to be somewhat scarier than it actually was. I was surprised of how "easy" it was to log on and click through each single task. Each task opens in a separate window so it is never too distracting to see all the tasks at the same time. I really liked that a lot. I will be getting a grade for it sometime within a few days. After calling the students office, a really nice secretary told me that it usually takes only a couple of days. So now I'm all on fire! I can't wait to receive the result!

I will be going home for Thanksgiving. My grandmother is making the Turkey every year. I will tell her and all the other relatives about my studies.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! (And stay tuned).

Katy

Taking exams at home!!!

Dear Journalism friends,

what a week! I have been studying like crazy, and I managed to finish an entire module in only one week. Yes, I did it! On a side note: This module book has 35 pages, including exercise tasks after each chapter. Have you ever had a moment where you felt really proud of your achievements? I have this moment. But I'm not getting too comfortable. There is still so much more work to do - I'm just getting started.

Oh, I have "attended" one of their online seminars for the first time. It was weird, but at the same time very helpful for students who were attending. First, I wasn't really sure what to "say" or "ask" in this virtual seminar room. But eventually, I figured it out - also, the tutors were very understanding and helped me out. All in all, it is a good thing to have online seminars, especially if you're learning on your own. I even think it's a must-have for every online course. So there it is, my first positive experience!

I decided to take a little break now over the weekend. There is still an online exam to take but not until some time next week. I can take it anytime I want - isn't that great? I can be totally relaxed hat home (but I still will be a little bit nervous - I hate taking exams, but from at home it will be so much easier) and take the exam! No teacher standing there and watching me all the time, no uncomfortable classroom where the clock's ticking. It is totally awesome to take an exam on my couch where I can hold a cup of tea every once in a while during the exam.

I will let you know how it went!

Stay tuned and be good.

Hello Journalism friends!

Have you ever wondered about learning methods specifically for online students? What they really need is a lot more discipline. Because there is not teacher in a classroom who is trying to push you through a class and is giving you homework. You are entirely on your own. You have to make your own schedule, do your "homework", repeat the learning material and so on.

I have been asking myself this question: What is a good learning method for me? Well, I have lots of trouble with just memorizing. I find that incredibly boring. Also, you will forget everything after just a few days. It depends on how intense and how long you have been memorizing learning material. The best way for me is creating my own metaphors. It is not always easy, depending on what you are learning. But you should give it a try, too.

If metaphors won't work for you, there are some other ways to "memorize" learning material, I'm sure. I have not thoroughly enough looked into that yet. Maybe I'll find out more and write about it in my next blog entry.

So I have finished/completed the module including the online exam. It was not a picnic after all, but I don't like it to be too simple. It is good that it's challenging. I will get graded on my online exam over a period of two weeks I suppose.

Well, not much more to tell for today. Have a good one, friends! Stay tuned.

Katy

Interviewing is fun!

Hello again, dear readers!

This week has been a good experience. I have actually read the entire module book on how to conduct an interview in just one week! It was quite a lot of work, but I really enjoyed reading it. What I still need to do is working through all the exercises after each chapter. These exercises look like a good training method for students. I really appreciate this method as it forces me to read and memorize/learn from chapters right away. So I will do just that over the weekend.

There has been quite some talk about the objectivity of journalism, or whether it has become less objective. This is a very tough topic. My personal opinion is that journalism can never be 100% objective because it is just the "job" of a journalist to evaluate and put some of your own personal opinion into an article. However, I think journalists should try to keep it as objective as possible, for example by considering different opinions and trying to evaluate them. I wonder if the internet is partly responsible for all this talk about objectivity. Sometimes it seems to be as if journalism has become solely a piece of someone's "personal opinion".

If I ever become a successful journalist, I will try my best to keep my writing as objective as possible.

Take care until next week. There will be an update on the finishing of my first module. I probably will have taken the online exam by then.

#objective journalism #interviews #firstmodulefinished #onlinestudies #journalism

Hello again,

It's been a week since my last entry. Quite a few things have happened regarding my journalism "career".

First of all, I have started my online studies in Journalism a few days ago. So far, it's been a refreshing new start of something that I already begin to love. The experience of reading a certain topic and having this feeling of "I love it" is worth so much. I don't know if I have ever felt like this before by just reading a study book. I don't think I have.

So here is the first module that I started working on: It is called "Interviews" written by Joanna Szylko-Kwas from University of Warsaw. I love her writing style! I always thought conducting an interview is not hard. You just ask questions and write down the answers. Little did I know! What I have learned from this module so far goes far beyond writing down questions and answers. There are sooo many different techniques and ways of asking questions. Even what needs to happen before the interview starts is a whole new world to me. As I have only read one chapter so far, there is not much more I can say about the module at this point. There are exercises after each chapter, apparently, which I need to work on. I will do so this weekend and talk about it in my next entry.

Stay tuned and take care!

The journey begins!

I am beyond excited to publish my experiences in journalism and as a distance education student in the same field! But first, here is a quick overview of my “previous” life as a non-journalistic writer. Yes, I used to write. I still love writing, always will. Here it goes:

You should know beforehand that journalism has not been on my radar ever since graduating from High School. To say the truth, I wanted to be a writer… poetry, novels and the like. I took several classes in creative writing and attended a couple of book clubs every other month – only because my schedule wouldn’t allow for more. I started writing at the age of 17. My first “novel” – or should I say short story? – was finished. I did not show it to anyone. I was afraid people might reject it as childish and badly written. So time goes by. I kept on writing several poems, and yes, I started on a novel shortly after. It had about 250 pages and dealt with growing up in a broken family in 1940’s New York City. Sounds like an interesting topic, doesn’t it? Well, the publishers had a different opinion. I haven’t tried to publish anything ever since. I was on the lookout for a long time. I thought about giving up writing entirely. But I just can’t do that. It is my joy, I just love it too much. What to do?

I decided that I want to be a journalist. I have an idol, her name is Christiane Amanpour. Yes, I like her a lot.

So this is my previous “career” in a nutshell. Do you want to know more about me and journalism? 

Stay tuned.

 #distanceschool #learningjournalism #writer

Katy's adventure starts soon...

Hello, I’m Katy! :) This is my journalism blog. I will blog everything about my experiences as an online student, and everything else interesting and related to journalism. Feel free to follow me! Stay tuned for more...