Post Berry project

Composed Sept. 17, 2011

The capstone course, COM 450 Senior Seminar with a focus on Ethics taught by the Berry COM Dept. has grounded into memory Kant, Utilitarianism, Hypodermic Needle Theory and of course make sure to be fully prepared with your portfolio. “You will be remembered by your worst piece…” That looming thought followed us all semester long.  Vividly I remember the day I got my portfolio back and wondered where it was going.  I think it sat for awhile in the back of my car… then it moved into my basement… I’d just graduated and while graduation is supposed to be an exciting time, at the same time, to see “pieces of Berry” hurt.

Yet, everything in that class spending countless all-nighters stressing over circumstances out of my control and still trying to make it through, seem for at the moment to have been worth it. A recommendation made during that final semester was to create a Website. The Website that I built in a couple of hours had a URL that was just generically assigned, but still provided me the opportunity to actually show that I’m better than what paper and words say.

The combination of my unfinished website, portfolio I had dusted off while running out the door and the resume which I created gave me the opportunity that I am now working at. I’m truly excited to be in my assistantship, working in communication, while going to school. It’s an awesome.  I’m able to interact with people my own age that are going to school, while at the same time I hold a job that allows me to be both in and out of office.

I’m excited to be doing my own thing and in a field that I just can’t define as ‘work.’   I’m so happy that Berry gave me the tools  and knowledge to be a solid worker and that I can now define all of this through the education and work I am receiving from KSU. It’s pretty neat in my opinion.  And the people here are supper nice.

You can’t wake up from reality

Composed Nov. 6, 2011

I’ve been waiting for the euphoria to die down a bit, to settle into new surroundings and yet none of its happening. Except change always leaves you to find a new definition of normalcy. It’s not a bad thing either, if I hadn’t been open to change there are so many experiences that I would be able to actually partake in.

This week particularly is interesting for me. Work for me this week takes me to Rome, GA, right down the road from Berry. It’s great to be back. Ever since the start of the school year, I’ve missed the excitement of going back. But my place I’m aware I need to be is right where I am now, at Kennesaw.  I’m happy for that and for the friends that I have both at home and that I made while in undergrad, and it’s great to see how they’re starting to mesh together. How my life is coming together again.

 

Undergraduate Admissions’ down the hall

Composed Sept. 2011

Life this past year has been a little more than up in the air.  In Sept. 2010 I knew that I wanted to continue with furthering my education past my B.A. I had my list of top schools, it just required the time to sit down and apply.  Lurking in the back of my head however, was the question of whether or not I could actually have the brains and stamina to make it through a program should I go immediately into a masters program.

Circumstances throughout the year, narrowed down my choices and the uncertainty of if this really was what I should be doing took its toll. At one point, I was traveling three different directions: interviewing at corporations, reapplying to undergrad and waiting on grad programs.  The first two paths I secured without a problem, yet the third was drawn out, like any one thing that you’ve wanted so badly. Within a week after graduation I learned of a program launching in Fall 2011 at KSU where I was registered to take some extra classes.  Seeing that I already held a degree, I was encouraged to apply.

Looking into the program, I saw that it offered courses that covered my interests.  The programs that I had been interested elsewhere were strong, prestigious, yet I would also be trying to piece together my interests, while this new program oddly just matched up.  I applied.  I think the most difficult part of the application process was dropping my application and the admissions counselor kindly told me that Undergraduate Admissions was just down the hall.

I smiled and said, “I’ve a bachelors degree.”

It’s simply good

Starting a new degree, at a new university has been nerve racking at times. KSU is about 10x’s the size of Berry and seeing that many more people walking around is simply put, nerve racking.  Add to that meeting new people, finding your niche and getting into the swing of classes, its been nice to be able to come home, chill out and know that your friends and family are there for you.

What I can’t get over is this whole process hasn’t been a horror story for myself.  This is my first experience in a public institution. Everyone at KSU is so nice, so welcoming.  Instead of being just another number, I’m a person.  The professors  I study under have taken time to get to know their students.  The faculty/staff that I work with across campus, they too have taken time to get to know me.  I can be wandering down a hall and have no earthly clue in which way I’m heading and someone will take a moment to point me in the right direction. Besides all of the acclimating, I feel like I’m really learning, while drawing from what was instilled in me from Berry. It’s awesome. I can’t thank my Berry professors enough for believing in me, while my professors from KSU took the chance they did.

On top of that, I’m making new friends and have retained those who have been important in my life. I think this is helpful. This year hasn’t been easy by any means for myself, but when I talk to others, we can all seem to agree that in the past year a lot has changed.

But I feel like life is taking off, especially for me and I’m really enjoying it. I’m able to just stop, take a deep breath look at where I’ve been and look at the road I’m traveling down and know that it is okay.  I’m happy about what I’m doing, knowing where I’m going and being able to share my excitement about life with those that are important to me.  While I may not know what tomorrow will bring, for right at this moment everything is alright and life is simply good.

I’m back!

It’s been over a year and a half since I created this blog for my COM 331 Media Economics class at Berry College, but I am once again going to be active on it (mainly because I have this blog and didn’t want to make another one).  Especially during the fall 2011 semester in COM 7200 Communication Theory.  You may notice the jump in COM numbers, well that’s partly because I… 1) am no longer at Berry. 2) am not a junior in college, rather I’m a first year grad student at KSU. Which is, when you think about it: surprising.

Now for everyone that thought, “Dear Lord, it’ll be the end of the world should that girl ever get her MA…” Well that you’re not disappointed my tentative graduation is, Dec. 12, 2012. It will be indeed the end of the world or calendar according to the Mayans.

So now for what I shall post on this blog… I think I’ll say something like how I’ve been adjusting to grad school. Keep it light, funny and completely Cait.  Surprisingly, I absolutely love school now. KSU is amazing and I guess I’ll update the oddities that formerly I’ve never experienced having never been to such a large multicultural university on this blog.  I’ve got a few that’s for sure, like my introduction to Greek life… However, homework does call, so that story will wait until the next posting!

New ideas for news

One idea that I found very interesting is one that will include everyday people reporting news around them.  Rome News wanting to give iPhones to college and high school students to keep track of the daily going-on’s in their lives and report it back to the newspaper.  It will create a unique kind of news that is personal to a specific audience which can be good.  However, one major concern that will have to be considered is that of private matters that are over dramatic being published.

It’s a joint effort

I found Mr. Mooney’s in-class speech very informative yesterday about how a news company has changed to accomodate the economy as well as cut costs in the industry.  I knew of how certain companies had sent work overseas so that processes in those industries could continue on a 24-hour schedule, but really never thought that it would be the same for a news paper.  I was also surprised of how much other effort goes into preparing a newspaper and that it is a job that involves a multiude of different disaplined people, not just editors and journalists.

Free Business Models

Who doesn’t like the idea of free? Actually its rather a good idea. It promotes people to come view the website and receive the information that they want without having to pay extra, while all extra perks and premium features are available for an extra cost. What is good is how free models give media that viewers who may not read quite as much what they want without giving away too much extra.

What’s going to be news

What exactly will journalism look like in the next 20 years? How about the next ten or even the next five years? Will it resemble what news looks like today or will it morph yet again into something that we’re not expecting. Most off we will have to re-define what is news and what is no longer news to people and how they get it through other medias. How will it be decided on what the blogger writes verses the journalist. These are all questions that will have to be addressed and determined to find out just exactly how journalism will continue.

Why buy a paper?

Yes it may have been a spoof on Save the Children, but the YouTube clip that we watched called By One Anyway argues a valid point, that a lot of people struggle with.  Buying a newspaper just for the fact that they will buy a paper because they believe that it will help support a journalist and the profession.  But it also shows us how rediculous our thinking can be.  Though it also does make us wondering just exactly what our real reason are for buying a newspaper in today’s society.