It’s a rainy night in Boulder and the world couldn’t be more beautiful right at this moment.
I guess it’s a good time for me to take a step back and give a little more context to you (my audience) about what I do when I say I’m journalist. Or at least one that’s in training.
I’m well into my third week of school as a senior at the University of Colorado Boulder and I feel like time is moving too fast for me, especially since I’m scheduled to graduate this December. I’m scrambling to get everything together, from classes to internships to graduation forms. So yes, I am a 20-something-year-old news-editorial senior that’s not at all ready to face the real world.
For credit this semester however, I’ve gotten an internship with a local weekly newspaper in town called the Boulder Weekly. I guess this is the extent of my journalism “career” right now. For the most part, I love my job. I’ve always loved what I do, especially since with this internship, I get to write so much more than my previous one with a magazine company. Also, my editors are often times so helpful and absolutely hilarious. But if I were to pick the best part about working with them? It’s the free coffee and bagels. Lifesavers.
I’ve been writing ever since I could remember. But I’ve only started actually getting into the reporting gig about a year and a half ago. I started out with the campus newspaper and then branched my way out from there, occasionally switching it up and dabbling in social media. So although writing comes like second nature to me, reporting, as I’ve learned, is another skill that I need polished.
This week’s journalistic challenge? Cheerleading.
My news assignment for the week was to write a cuisine story for the paper. Jeff, my editor, assigned me the topic of nose to tail dining. Nose to tail is an interesting dining experience where guests are basically served the entire animal. Insides and everything.
…I know right.
Surprisingly though, as I did my research and talked to my sources, a lot of people actually like having it. It promotes sustainability, prevents wastage, and is often really tasty since the meat is carefully prepared, seasoned and paired with some type of alcoholic beverage.
I turned in my article, confident that with the work I had produced and only hoping for the best. Within an hour of turning it in, my editor sent it back to me with feedback. You know, I’m gonna be honest, it’s always been a little hard for me to read what professors, lecturers and editors call “constructive criticism”. I’ve gotten better with it since I first started but there’s always a flutter of nervousness and I almost always hold my breath while reading the edited version, complete with red comments in the margins, until I’ve reached the very end.
Cheerleading in journalism is what puffery would be in advertising. O.K. maybe not as skewed but you get the idea. In the feedback, my editor had noted that I’d included too much cheerleading in my article, which basically meant that I’d included too much promoting or supporting of a certain point of view.
First reaction was denial. Of course not. I was absolutely objective and tried including a variety of sources. But then I read his feedback again. And again and tried to process it fully and I got to see his point. Then, I didn’t feel as offended or disturbed by it. I was actually really grateful to have that pointed out to me because now I know that there’s a fine line between describing something and promoting something.
At this point in my life and education, I count it extremely important that I have mentors all around me for reasons just like this one. So, thanks Steve!
Adelina Shee 