News Forum

At first I thought attending the News Forum meeting was just another tedious extra credit assignment that I could fall asleep on. I was proven wrong when people from well-known publications such as Yahoo News and Muni Diaries arrived at the meeting.

These professional journalists had really opened my eyes in terms of what’s happening with journalism currently and what may happen to it later. Before attending the meeting I felt a little uncertain about journalism, since so many journalists are losing their jobs. I was afraid that journalism is a dying concept and that I would no longer have a place for the skills I acquired. Peung, a representative from Yahoo News said journalism is not dying it is simply changing.

Another journalist mentioned that the old ways may be dying, but there are so many new developments in the field that it won’t be so difficult for a journalism student like me to find a job. For example, I can become a copy editor for an online publication or be an online producer.

Eugenia, founder and writer of the Muni Diaries, said that we should experiment with different areas in journalism. For example, Eugenia is an independent journalist and although her website isn’t paying her bills, but her website is still popular among locals because a lot of people enjoy reading strange stories about public transportation.

Graduate school was another important topic covered at the meeting. One of the students who attended asked if applying to graduate school straight out of being an undergrad was the best thing to do. Most of the special guests had mixed feelings about graduate school, not only because of money but also because we may want to change our profession.

In fact they said the best thing to do after we graduate from the San Francisco State Journalism program is to freelance for a little while and possibly experiment with different mediums in the journalism field. At least if one freelances for a while it makes it easier for them to figure out if they want to stay in the journalism field or not.

Lastly, the guests also mentioned they are always looking for freelancers and interns, which is great news for SF State Journalism students. One of the representatives mentioned that they will train their interns to do multimedia, editing, and writing work. If the interns wrote great articles they can get paid for their pieces.

The meeting was so enlightening I may consider asking one of the representatives for an internship this summer.