Summer 2018
Information Literacy Levels 3 and 4, Original Research Level 1
Information Literacy Levels 3 and 4, Original Research Level 1
The summer after my freshmen year of college, I had the opportunity to intern as a journalist at one of my hometown's newspapers, the Storm Lake Pilot Tribune. I was able to fully experience what it would be like to be a journalist. My duties included a wide array of tasks ranging from creating my own story ideas, completing independent research, acquiring first-hand experiences at events, interviewing community members, capturing pictures at events, and finally, composing a completed article to be published. In about two months, I wrote and published around 20 articles for the Pilot Tribune. Some were stories my boss assigned to me, some I created on my own, some were from public relations pitches, and I even wrote an editorial article. Not only did I gain writing experience from this internship, but I also learned how to do research as a journalist for my articles.
In order to write my articles, I had to evaluate my sources and researched information to determine what would be would be included in my completed article (Information Literacy Level 3). During this internship, I learned that it was important to thoroughly evaluate sources to determine what information I would include to inform my local community. The information that I would be writing would eventually be published and delivered to almost everyone in my town and the surrounding towns. I needed to make sure that I was carefully supplying correct information, so determining which sources to use for my articles was essential. I learned to use community databases and reliable community members for information, such as our local police chief and our official local webpage. Contacting correct interview subjects was also difficult because we first had to decide who was most important to interview, then we had to find a way to contact that person. Sometimes, the information I collected needed another source to confirm that it was accurate. After I collected as much information as I could, I then had to sort through it and determine what were the most important parts to include in the story. I had to keep the articles to a certain length, but I also needed to make sure to include the full story without omitting essential information. In my future career, I know that writing and researching will be essential. I will continue practicing how to evaluate and incorporate information into an article, campaign, or other various activities at work.
This internship experience helped me to understand how to gather and use information effectively and ethically in order to write well-researched articles (Information Literacy Level 4). Overall, my journalist internship allowed me to understand and utilize my information literacy research skills. I learned that I needed to actively, yet efficiently research stories in order to provide authentic and informative news stories while still meeting deadlines. I was quickly thrown into journalism research and writing. I had to learn how to quickly, ethically, and efficiently conduct research and interviews in order to complete articles. I learned how to evaluate information and compare it to other research in order to prove accuracy, and I learned to lean on trustworthy sources. This internship showed me how to actively research and not to just slothfully conduct research because it provides better content and a better story. Reflecting and analyzing your final research is also important because it enable you to learn from your mistakes and improve next time around. Comparing how I wrote my first article to my last few articles, I can see how much I had grown in information literacy skills. A first, I didn’t know where to begin and was often slow at collecting information because I didn’t know how to find trustworthy information. Near the end of my internship experience, I came up with a process that helped me to sift through all of my information and then write my article. While I still had an editor proof my articles, I became more confident in myself that I was producing accurate and quality stories as my internship continued. Being able to reflect on completed work or research will be an important skill in my future career. By reflecting on how I use information, I will be able to improve my skills in my next task and hopefully see better results.
Throughout this internship, I had the freedom to create and write my own stories which required me to identify research questions to begin creating my articles (Original Research Level 1). This internship taught me a lot about research, especially in the journalism field. The first step I had to take to begin my article was to identify potential research questions. These questions helped me to identify possible interview subjects and helped guide my research and write my own stories. At first, I relied on my editor for ideas and questions for my article in order to find the desired direction of the story. Later on, I was able to direct my stories in whichever way I saw best fit, which was guided by the research questions I formed. Sometimes a story was assigned or pitched to me, but I still had to determine the direction of my article. After I came up with my main research question that my article would answer, I then had to begin researching in order to answer that question. By learning how to create questions for articles, I was able to learn more about how to conduct research in my field. As a journalist, one of the main strategies you use to form a research question is by trying to think what your readers or community would want to learn more about. Using this strategy, I was able to create questions that would guide my stories that my community would eventually learn from and enjoy. In my future career, there should always be a goal and a strategy that my work will need to accomplish. It is important to identify questions and objectives in order to guide work, otherwise you become unproductive and lose sight of an end goal.
This internship experience helped me to understand how to gather and use information effectively and ethically in order to write well-researched articles (Information Literacy Level 4). Overall, my journalist internship allowed me to understand and utilize my information literacy research skills. I learned that I needed to actively, yet efficiently research stories in order to provide authentic and informative news stories while still meeting deadlines. I was quickly thrown into journalism research and writing. I had to learn how to quickly, ethically, and efficiently conduct research and interviews in order to complete articles. I learned how to evaluate information and compare it to other research in order to prove accuracy, and I learned to lean on trustworthy sources. This internship showed me how to actively research and not to just slothfully conduct research because it provides better content and a better story. Reflecting and analyzing your final research is also important because it enable you to learn from your mistakes and improve next time around. Comparing how I wrote my first article to my last few articles, I can see how much I had grown in information literacy skills. A first, I didn’t know where to begin and was often slow at collecting information because I didn’t know how to find trustworthy information. Near the end of my internship experience, I came up with a process that helped me to sift through all of my information and then write my article. While I still had an editor proof my articles, I became more confident in myself that I was producing accurate and quality stories as my internship continued. Being able to reflect on completed work or research will be an important skill in my future career. By reflecting on how I use information, I will be able to improve my skills in my next task and hopefully see better results.
Throughout this internship, I had the freedom to create and write my own stories which required me to identify research questions to begin creating my articles (Original Research Level 1). This internship taught me a lot about research, especially in the journalism field. The first step I had to take to begin my article was to identify potential research questions. These questions helped me to identify possible interview subjects and helped guide my research and write my own stories. At first, I relied on my editor for ideas and questions for my article in order to find the desired direction of the story. Later on, I was able to direct my stories in whichever way I saw best fit, which was guided by the research questions I formed. Sometimes a story was assigned or pitched to me, but I still had to determine the direction of my article. After I came up with my main research question that my article would answer, I then had to begin researching in order to answer that question. By learning how to create questions for articles, I was able to learn more about how to conduct research in my field. As a journalist, one of the main strategies you use to form a research question is by trying to think what your readers or community would want to learn more about. Using this strategy, I was able to create questions that would guide my stories that my community would eventually learn from and enjoy. In my future career, there should always be a goal and a strategy that my work will need to accomplish. It is important to identify questions and objectives in order to guide work, otherwise you become unproductive and lose sight of an end goal.
Research Artifact #3
Don't think pink was an editorial article that I wrote while working as a journalist for the Storm Lake Pilot Tribune. This article was different than all of the other articles I wrote while interning since I was a general assignment reporter.
|
|
|
|