Category Archives: Mallory

The Future of Journalism

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Recently, I went to a discussion panel titled, “The Future of Journalism: The End or a New Beginning.” The debate featured two writers, Hugo Martin from the Los Angeles Times, Richard Perez-Pena, from The New York Times (both of which are Pomona alums and alums of The Student Life) and Geneva Overholser, director of USC’s Annenberg School of Communications.

It was very interesting to hear the perspectives of three different people who are actively working in the industry. Richard Perez-Pena has specifically written about the changes in the journalism industry for the NYT. Based on what Pena said, it seems that it’s hard to predict what will happen anymore, especially in journalism. All three agreed that journalism is going through some major changes, moving more and more into the online realm. Pena from the NYT said that while the newspapers for the times have horrible numbers, their online numbers have been breaking records every month. The move to online journalism has also led to a lot of layoffs and a move towards hiring more freelance writers. Hugo Martin of the L.A Times said that there used to be hundreds of people that would just cover a certain L.A neighborhood, now that team has been reduced to just one person. Martin suggests that this is problematic since there are not enough people to cover the smaller, but nonetheless important stories that are deserving of attention.

Geneva Overholser, Director of USC’s Annenberg School of Communications, was very positive about the future of journalism, suggesting that with the changes that are occurring right now, this is a good time for journalism to reinvent itself. Often these changes are characterized in such a negative way, so it was good to hear something positive from someone who knows the business. While this is encouraging, it’s still difficult to think of the unknown, especially when so much of my life after college is unknown at the moment. Personally, I think it would be very difficult to make a living doing freelance straight out of college. Especially since no one knows your work or your name. If I end up not doing grad school, maybe I could try to get an entry level position somewhere at a PR firm and continue to do freelance on the side. No matter what, I want to keep writing, it just might be difficult to pursue a career in journalism right after college.

Right now, grad school still seems like one of the best options for me. My first application is due tomorrow for UC Berkeley’s program, thankfully they don’t require the GRE, however, they want their applicants to have more experience in the journalism field. I am not sure if I have enough experience to be admitted but I decided to apply regardless. One of the great things about Berkeley is that they have a magazine writing program, which would be perfect for me. Some of the other schools I am applying to (like NYU) have similar programs. I will be taking the GRE this Friday, so wish me luck!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions…

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Senior year has been full of lots of decisions, which is something that I have never been that great at. The other day I was planning to buy a new nalgene bottle online, and it probably took me 20 minutes of serious debating for me to finally decide that I wanted the color of my new water bottle to be hot pink (the color choices really were endless, but come on, a water bottle? When I think about it, it seems so trivial, yet there I was going back and forth between hot pink and sky blue). If choosing a color is this hard, how am I supposed to make decisions on much more important things, like which grad schools to apply to or how to conduct my thesis?

As far a grad school progress goes, I will admit that I have not studied for the GRE as much as I would have liked to at this point, however, I can confidently say that I have made a list of most of the schools I want to apply to, with their requirements and deadlines in a nice little spreadsheet. I have included some top reach schools, some middle level schools, as well as some schools that (I hope) I would be able to get into without too much trouble. After some more research I found a journalism program at CUNY that looks super appealing to me. In the past few years, due to the increasing use of new technology to spread information, lots of journalism programs have been re-structuring their curriculum to provide “new media” approaches. The great thing about CUNY’s program is that it is brand new (they opened in 2007) and was actually created with the changes in the journalism industry already in mind. One of the schools pre-requisites is that students have iPhones in order to send and receive information as quickly as possible!

I have also made some progress on my thesis as well. I have started my literature review and have found lots of interesting materials so far. I have also tried to start contacting professors who I have previously taken classes with who I think might be able to offer some advice or at least some reading suggestions, even if they are not officially once of my thesis readers. I figure the more suggestions I have, the better my thesis will be.

Finally, I have tried to organize my life by starting to use iCal instead of my notebook planner. The great thing about iCal is that I can easily see what is happening for the entire month, something that I wasn’t able to do very well in my other planner. I can also color code everything, which for some reason I find quite fun (wow, I’m a dork!). Hopefully, if I have everything written down and somewhat organized, making decisions will be much easier.

I Have a Thesis Topic!

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So much relief comes with choosing a thesis topic. I had been thinking about thesis for so long. It started near the end of last year, continued over the summer and trickled on down into my senior year. Unfortunately, I could never seem to come up with something I was completely satisfied with- until now. If you know me, or have read any of these posts, you know that I enjoy journalism and media and that I want to continue a career in media, either doing magazine journalism, or something related after college ends. Well, I figured out a way to tie that into my Sociology thesis, even if its not the most direct connection you would think of. I’m not sure what took me so long to realize I wanted to incorporate media into my thesis, but I finally came to this conclusion the other night, in one of those moments of self-realization.
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Things Come Together

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Sometimes things just magically come together. This is now my second week as the Life and Style editor at TSL (The Student Life) and I couldn’t be happier with my job. I have learned so much about how a paper actually works (which I know will be beneficial to me later on if end up working for a newspaper or magazine). Last year I worked as a staff writer for TSL, and I had no idea how much actually goes on behind the scenes. So much happens after a story is submitted. For instance, it goes through the section editor, copy editors, managing editors and the editor-in-chief before it actually makes it to the print edition of the paper- and sometimes there are problems that need to be fixed along the way (facts are unclear, the writing isn’t up to par, or the article isn’t quite what you had in mind when you first assigned it). One thing I have enjoyed about editing is seeing the variety of writing styles and ways in which people choose to convey a certain topic. I have definitely learned a thing or two from my writers and columnists (who truly are fantastic). I have also really enjoyed being on the creative side- working with our design editors and discussing what kind of photos should accompany the articles.
Working for TSL has made me think a lot about how working for a magazine or a newspaper would be. Every Friday, we publish a 12-page paper, and yet my weekdays are absolutely packed. Based on my experiences at TSL alone, I would definitely say that working in publishing fits that crazy, fast-paced, slightly stressful work environment stereotype that I assumed every publishing office had. I imagine that large day-to-day newspapers like the LA Times must have a HUGE staff! Because, honestly, there is no way I can imagine producing over 15x the amount of content we already have to produce on a DAILY basis. All I can say is, whoa!

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Know Thyself

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So much has happened since my last blog post. I had been in the midst of trying to find an internship, and after many emails, interviews and trekking into LA, I finally decided that having an internship this semester was just not the right thing for me. Now that this tiring process is finally over, I’ve had some time to reflect. Here is what I learned from the process:

It’s Hard. I mean really hard. I never expected it to be easy but lets face it- it’s a never-ending process of research, emailing employers, sending out resumes, cover letters and in my case, writing samples and then NEVER hearing back from people (I know Karyn has mentioned this too!). After all that work that’s kind of tough, but it happens all the time. I probably sent applications to over 25 different companies, and in the end, I ended up taking a freelance position with an online magazine and getting two other offers, which I didn’t end up taking. This brings me to my second point…

Know Thyself. This is probably the most important thing I learned from this whole experience (besides learning how to write a good cover letter and thank you note). I know it sounds cheesy, but it true, it’s so important to know yourself. This helps during the internship search process and interviews (where employers will ask you a ton of questions about your skills and personal strengths). It also helps to know yourself when its time to make big decisions, which brings me to my third point…

Trust your Instincts. If you have a feeling the internship or job may not be right for you, you probably shouldn’t take it. After going into LA for an interview, I got a strange feeling about the place I would potentially be working at. Personally, getting a strange vibe like that was a warning sign, especially since I can only think of one other time in my life where I have had an experience like that. I quickly realized that that internship was not right for me and I decided to turn down the offer. Which brings me to my fourth and final point…

Request an In-Person Interview. It’s so important to see where you might be working. You will get to see the office space and get an idea of the work environment, meet people you will be working closely with and gain a better understanding of the company.

In the end, I’m glad I went through with my internship search. It was an excellent learning experience and it has given me a good idea of how a job search will go. In the meantime I have decided to take on more responsibilities at The Student Life Newspaper. This semester I will be the editor of the life and style section. After working as a staff writer last year, I’m so excited to have this position and learn more about the management side of running a newspaper. I think it will be a great experience for me, and its something that will really help when I seriously try to get into publishing. Also, I have finally registered for the GRE, which I will be taking on December 5th. Let the studying commence!