Today Alan Rusbridger stood before MP's to defend the right to release intelligence leaks in The Guardian Newspaper. A key component in writing my stories for my degree is choosing a story.
News is everywhere. Sifting through what is relevant, what is interesting and what is ethical to write about is a whole different ball game. Yesterday, crime correspondent Sandra Laville gave a guest lecture about Journalism post the Leveson enquiry. She stressed the difficulty journalists face in making quick decisions about what to write about and how these decisions are usually made.
Although being a student journalist means I don't have to decide whether or not to release names or identities about people involved in my stories (or even more serious issues) it does create a difficulty in what to cover and what to leave out.
A strength of mine when it comes to writing is varying my work. I rarely like to stay on the same topic, and each of my self generated stories had originality and I stayed well away from soft stories, which I avoided because from a personal point of view, I often find them tedious to read, let alone write.
Upon reflection, the slow but steady progress made from my first story has improved greatly, they have more depth and certainly tell the story in a more concise manner.
The main thing I learned from my experience of writing news stories: there is no room in Journalism for shyness. Being shy won't get you the story, the quotes or the confidence to write well.
This is a blog written by a first year Journalism student. My name is Anna-Karin Sager and this is my offloading place for all things creative and reflective.
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