That is Called News

I’m Michelle Chavez, a senior at Montgomery Blair High School with an interest in the journalism field.  My interest stems from the sense of responsibility to keep the people around me informed.  My experience comes from both the local to national level.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Over the past summer, I was invited to the Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference as the Maryland representative.  From this conference, I’ve been able to further my knowledge in the field to the extent that I have been able to teach professionals on a major news network about new methods and programs used to keep the public more informed, with various media, the instant an event is happening.

Usually, for a package to be edited in the studio and then aired, it takes a couple of hours, as I learned from my experience with Univision.  However, technology is changing so quickly that journalism is forced to transform with it.  With the direction I see journalism going, almost everything will be “breaking news.”  When that happens, breaking news will no longer exist.

Some may say that the use of social media, especially Twitter, cannot tell the story like a news package would.  That is true.  However, it is possible to get more information posted through social media than what is currently being done.

While interning for a local magazine, I was assigned to cover SlutWalk DC, a rally to raise awareness about rape victims.  I was able to shoot, edit, and post a video to Tumblr that summarized the event all from my iPhone before the event ended.  The quality may not have perfectly matched that of their thousands-of-dollars-worth camera, but the video was up and the in-depth write-up followed a few hours later.  I, a 17-year-old high school student, had beaten the local news channels.

That is called news.