Another question is how to include online publications in your portfolio...

On 3/30/07, Allison Steinberg <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> As a current IMA student and a former undergraduate media studies major
> at Hunter with a passion for and focus on journalism, I believe it is
> of utmost importance for a student to publish work in his/her school
> publications.
>
> I have written for my high school newspaper, at Hunter for the Envoy,
> The Word, @Issue (Peter's online magazine in the IMA program) and now
> write for several publications for pay.
>
> Journalism seems to be overshadowed by video in the media department at
> Hunter when it comes to course offerings, funding, and focus. Gregg
> Morris has it right in publishing students work from basic reporting
> on- I remember his emphasis in class on building that portfolio and how
> important that was in getting a job later on. If students can't use
> your clips from school publications to land paid writing gigs, then at
> least they will gain the writing-for-publication experience- invaluable
> insight into how things work in the "real world". Practice makes
> perfect.
>
> The Word, perhaps more than the Envoy, publishes stories of social
> significance. The same is true with the Hunts Point Express. What
> better way to get clips for your portfolio than to be guided by the
> knowledge and experience of well-established journalists like the
> professors in our program?
>
> Students must be lazy or not passionate about journalism if they're not
> contributing to the school papers. What else could it be?
>
> Best,
> Allison Steinberg
> 646.413.8918
> [log in to unmask]
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [log in to unmask]
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 9:04 AM
> Subject: Re: It's 11 p.m. Do you know where your portfolio is?
>
>     Based on 30 years of hiring novice reporters seeking their first or
> second job
> as journalists, I would say there are two keys to winning an interview:
> your
> cover letter and your clips.
>
> Particularly when sent to news outlets that aren't household names
> outside the
> communities they cover, the letter that accompanies your resume and
> portfolio
> will stand out if it shows some familiarity with the
> publication/website/radio
> station.
>
> The letter ought to attract attention; the clips to hold it. Forget
> about those
> clever movie or music reviews. No hiring editor is interested. He or
> she wants
> to know whether you can report the news.
>
> Choose your best three stories, and be sure their leads sparkle.
> Remember that
> the editor who is reviewing your application has 99 or 149 more sitting
> on his
> or her desk, and has a paper to get out, too. The editor is going to
> read the
> first two sentences—no more. If you make the cut into the possible
> interview
> pile, he'll return to your stories and read on.
>
> Many neighborhood newspapers will put you through a mini-version of
> this process
> before they'll even let you freelance a story without pay. So will many
> internship programs. It's a classic chicken-and-egg situation, so where
> are
> those first clips to come from?
>
> The natural answer is the Envoy, the Word and other school-based
> publications,
> and I've been puzzled about why relatively few media students report
> and write
> for them. When Clyde Haberman, the New York Times columnist, visited my
> class a
> couple of semesters ago, the first thing he asked the students was how
> many of
> them wrote for the school paper. He was disappointed when no hands went
> up.
> Being the editor of the City College paper is what got him to The Times
> he told
> them.
>
> I think the Envoy has grown into a much better paper this year than it
> was in my
> first year of teaching here. (Disclosure: its editor was in a class I
> taught,
> and I've been informally offering her suggestions.) Apart from a
> redesign, what
> it needs most to continue to improve is more staff.
>
> That the Word has long been very good is due in part to its
> relationship with
> Prof. Morris's classes, whose students provide a steady supply of
> stories.
> Judging by how few issues have been published, I would guess that the
> Word in
> print has had the same sort of problems as the Envoy in attracting
> enough
> writers, however.
>
> For advanced student reporters, my Neighborhood News class offers the
> opportunity to publish in a neighborhood newspaper, The Hunts Point
> Express, and
> to be accountable to an off-campus community. (Yesterday, I got a call
> from the
> Daily News, which wants to pick up a story from the Express about the
> visit of
> Naomi Campbell to a community center in Hunts Point as part of her
> community
> service sentence. The city's metro reporters followed Campbell's every
> move in
> Manhattan, but it never occurred to them to go to the Bronx. Express
> reporter
> Christina Davis, though, got a call from a reader, and was on the scene
> when the
> supermodel arrived.)
>
> Advanced students can also publish through the class offered each
> semester by
> the Jack Newfield Visiting Professor. The work of this year's class
> will appear
> in the Village Voice, as last year's did, and the department hopes that
> publication will continue to be the distinctive feature of the program.
>
> Let me finish where Prof. Parisi started, with questions for students.
>
> Would you like to see more production classes make publication a
> requirement,
> as, for example, Prof. Morris's classes and Neighborhood News do?
>
> Should we be starting as early as basic reporting to require students
> to publish
> their work?
>
> And what do you think the relation of faculty members to student
> publications
> should be? The Envoy declares its independence on its masthead: is
> there room
> for a faculty advisor? If so, what should the relationship be like?
>
> Bernard L. Stein
>
> ---- Original message ----
> >Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 21:58:57 -0500
> >From: Peter Parisi <[log in to unmask]>
> >Subject: It's 11 p.m. Do you know where your portfolio is?
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >
> >The sentiment has been expressed on another departmental listserv that
> >students are not sufficiently aware of the importance of compiling
> >portfolios of clips as part of their preparation to enter the field of
> >journalism.
> >
> >So, HCJ-Lers, some questions:
> >
> >Are you aware that it really _is_ important to amass a portfolio of
> >clips as you work your way through courses and internships?(It_is_;
> >it's true.)
> >
> >More to the point, what are you doing about it? What obstacles are you
> >finding? Where are you finding places to publish?
> >
> >What experience have you had with some of the obvious venues -- The
> >Hunter Envoy? the WORD? The WORD in print?
> >
> >Professor Buddy Stein may have some words to say about taking
> >advantage of New York City community weeklies, an area in which he is
> >deeply experienced, as editor of the Riverdale Press.
> >
> >What's happening for you on this front?
> >
> >Peter Parisi
> >
> >--
> >Peter Parisi, Ph.D.
> >Dept. of Film & Media Studies
> >Hunter College
> >695 Park Avenue
> >New York, NY 10021
> >212-772-4949
> >"The suffering itself is not so bad, it's the resentment against
> >suffering that is the real pain." --Allen Ginsberg
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
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>



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