By Jillian Clemente
12/18/2015
2014 Wilson Graduate
Journalists: we’re relevant. We’re important. We matter.
We’re in an ever-changing world, and we’re keeping up in all ways, from an online-version of the newspaper to still being critical in small towns across the country.
We hold power – if we don’t find the story and deem its importance, neither will anyone else because we’re the voice that people listen to.
That’s the heart of journalism – finding a true story and revealing it to the public - and it’s so cool how that applies to every type of journalism, from business to entertainment to political.
And it’s more than just words. There are pictures, spoken words, film, technology and data to be processed, understood and revealed to the public. Anything that gets the reader to feel is an excellent form of communication, and it has to come from within your own interests because other people find that stuff cool, too.
And it’s all starting here in this publication. I got the spark for simply finding the truth in high school, and journalism turned out to be the best pathway for me to achieve that goal. All I did was keep writing and reading what I found to be the most interesting and necessary to me, and that’s when I started to develop my niche.
In nature, a “niche” is a characteristic that animals have in order to survive, such as a different sized beak to reach one food source that another bird cannot. Turns out, in order to survive, I needed to study and write about a subject that I absolutely loved, one that interested me, one that I could re-read my article and not cringe or be bored with the subject matter.
My niche is those birds, that tree, all of the twisted hiking paths – I need to be an outdoor writer because that’s what will get me up in the morning. There’s no pressure to find your own soon, or right now, or know everything before you get to college. I still don’t know many things – heck, I’m still need to go food shopping this week and figure out what classes I’m taking next semester.
There’s only pressure to go into each story with an open mind, as long as there’s an inkling that you should be going near that story. The way to do that? Go for the ones that sound “cool” or “interesting” or “fun.”
In this way, your niche will be revealed to you. It’s nothing you can force or prepare for, it just happens. And it’s wonderful.
The most important thing is to keep doing your thing. My thing is writing, so I do it for my school newspaper at West Virginia University for the past 3 semesters. I took charge and wanted to write for it, so I did it.
Other people’s “things” can be writing, or it can be visual, broadcast, or working with data. But it’ll all still be relevant and important and powerful.
I know my words may echo that of Shia LaBeouf’s, but seriously, don’t let your dreams be dreams. The experiences are much better if you’re doing what you want, the satisfaction much sweeter seeing your work published.
12/18/2015
2014 Wilson Graduate
Journalists: we’re relevant. We’re important. We matter.
We’re in an ever-changing world, and we’re keeping up in all ways, from an online-version of the newspaper to still being critical in small towns across the country.
We hold power – if we don’t find the story and deem its importance, neither will anyone else because we’re the voice that people listen to.
That’s the heart of journalism – finding a true story and revealing it to the public - and it’s so cool how that applies to every type of journalism, from business to entertainment to political.
And it’s more than just words. There are pictures, spoken words, film, technology and data to be processed, understood and revealed to the public. Anything that gets the reader to feel is an excellent form of communication, and it has to come from within your own interests because other people find that stuff cool, too.
And it’s all starting here in this publication. I got the spark for simply finding the truth in high school, and journalism turned out to be the best pathway for me to achieve that goal. All I did was keep writing and reading what I found to be the most interesting and necessary to me, and that’s when I started to develop my niche.
In nature, a “niche” is a characteristic that animals have in order to survive, such as a different sized beak to reach one food source that another bird cannot. Turns out, in order to survive, I needed to study and write about a subject that I absolutely loved, one that interested me, one that I could re-read my article and not cringe or be bored with the subject matter.
My niche is those birds, that tree, all of the twisted hiking paths – I need to be an outdoor writer because that’s what will get me up in the morning. There’s no pressure to find your own soon, or right now, or know everything before you get to college. I still don’t know many things – heck, I’m still need to go food shopping this week and figure out what classes I’m taking next semester.
There’s only pressure to go into each story with an open mind, as long as there’s an inkling that you should be going near that story. The way to do that? Go for the ones that sound “cool” or “interesting” or “fun.”
In this way, your niche will be revealed to you. It’s nothing you can force or prepare for, it just happens. And it’s wonderful.
The most important thing is to keep doing your thing. My thing is writing, so I do it for my school newspaper at West Virginia University for the past 3 semesters. I took charge and wanted to write for it, so I did it.
Other people’s “things” can be writing, or it can be visual, broadcast, or working with data. But it’ll all still be relevant and important and powerful.
I know my words may echo that of Shia LaBeouf’s, but seriously, don’t let your dreams be dreams. The experiences are much better if you’re doing what you want, the satisfaction much sweeter seeing your work published.