Quattrone_Olivia2012

I enjoy journalism because it allows me to contribute to the school in a way that is interesting

to me. I know that the newspaper, yearbook and now even the website are some of the services

that students actually appreciate and I feel happy to know that I am somebody who brings it to

them.

I got started in Journalism through trying to follow in my sister’s footsteps. I saw how much

she enjoyed being part of an organization, so I developed a plan to join yearbook, just like her. I

signed up for Journalism I, determined to be as talented at yearbook as Vivien. As the weeks

passed in journalism class, I realized the amount of work that would come with yearbook. I also

saw the stress of deadlines as I witnessed people crying in front of computer screens. By the end

of Journalism I, I no longer had the desire to join the yearbook staff. I did not want to deal with

the stress of publications at all. But then I decided that perhaps Mass Media would allow me to

enjoy the benefits of journalism, without the stress. Mass Media allowed me to gain more

journalism experience and gradually introduced me to the stress and importance of deadlines.

Through Mass Media, I have developed experience and confidence in journalism.

To journalism I think I have contributed as a person who is eager for the success of the

website. I hope in that my future with Boone publications I will see more people drawn to

hilights.org and contribute to the success and improvement of it, as well as that of the newspaper.

In Journalism this year I have learned about deadlines, dedication, pride and

teamwork.

Dedication is one of the most important traits I have taken from my publication this

year. In some aspects, I have not been very dedicated. I have missed deadlines and lost

points because I did not put hilights.org at the top of my priorities. However, my issues

with dedication this year have taught me the importance of it.

I have also developed pride in the publication. I enjoyed seeing the site working and

noticing that people had answered polls, read and commented on stories, liked

hilights.org on Facebook, or purchased a photo on Smugmug, Even if a student not

recognized a piece of my work, I was proud that my fellow staffers and the website itself

was gaining recognition.

This year on publications allowed me to enjoy working with others more so thatn I did

before. Although most of my assignments were done alone, I enjoyed helping other

people with interviews and headshots when they needed my help. I also enjoyed reading

other staffers work, such as Chase’s sports column.

The skills I learned on the hilights.org staff are going to be helpful later on in life. It

has helped me build skills necessary to Jobs I may have as an adult. The lessons of

working with others, pride in myself and my staff’s work and the importance of deadlines

and dedication are all lessons that I am glad to take away from this experience.

My most significant contribution to hilights.org this year was my review of Extremely

Loud and Incredibly Close. I am proud of this piece because I think it is interesting and

funny. I think it is a review that could influence a person’s decision to see a film.

This review started off as short and not very interesting. I was having a difficult time

organizing all of my thoughts. After I submitted this review to Mark, I began to focus on

making the review the best it could be. I included more of my opinions and expanded on

certain points. I think that doing this made the piece more informative and entertaining.

Through this assignment I learned about the review process. I learned that in order to

effectively review something you must give much feedback and many of your opinions.

I particularly like the finished product because it is everything that a product of

hilights.org should be. It has multiple links, an interesting graphic and a correct caption.

It is also a good length for a web article.

Overall, I believe that this story is perfect for the web and is a good representation of

my writing style.

My weakest piece this year is my Test Prep story. This story was way too short and did

not include many test tips. It was also confusing and kind of off topic. This is a story that

I would love to improve upon.

I believe the reason that I did not do well on this story is that I did not use my time

efficiently. My story was submitted way past deadline. I was in desperate need for points

and this story was not done with quality in mind. It became a big source of stress for me

at the time and I was just ready to get it done.

This story taught me about time management. It showed me that if I do not plan my

time then I would have more stress and a story that I am not proud of. It also taught me

that I need more than one interview for a successful, informative and clear news story.

If I had the chance to improve upon this piece I would present the test tips in a better

way, instead of the one sentence at the bottom. I would have also interviewed one of the

current test prep teachers.

Looking back on this piece, I am disappointed in myself. I wish I would have created

a piece that demonstrates my writing abilities better and that I would be proud to say is

mine.

I am proud of this photo because I think that is shows good action and there is repetition. This photo catches my eye because it is of an interesting and usual event.

I enjoy this photo because of its depth of field and its rule of thirds.

I like this photo because I think it shows good depth of field as well as a strong CVI.

As this was one of the first years that hilights.org was up and running, I think my role

was contributing stories to a growing website.

I was glad to be part of hilights.org this year because it has become such a great

website by having two reviews and several news stories up. The success of the website is

in part because of the amount of items available to view.

This year I also contributed soundslides and reservation conversations. Before this

year, there were a limited number of these on the site. I think videos attract viewers and

my contribution may have led to increased readership for the site.

To gain more viewers, I told many of my friends to visit the website. I “liked”

hilights.org on Facebook and liked many of the stories posted on our Facebook page so

that my Facebook friends could see my activity. This led to our page and site getting out

to multiple people.

Overall I believe that I contributed to the increased readership of our website and the

improved content of hilights.org.

This year, I faced the stress of missed deadlines and assignments. I was both stressed

because of these stories that I either did not complete of turn in because of the points that

I would loose and the effect it would have on my grade. I was also disappointed in myself

for procrastinating. I had trouble with completing a couple of my news stories and my

Photoshop packets.

From these situations I learned that in every class, I must be prepared and put the same

amount of effort and time into all classes. I did not put enough emphasis on the work that

needed to be done for hilights.org.

Next year, if I am on the newspaper staff, I will try to prevent these problems from

ever arising again. I will organize my time and put in the proper amount of effort.

Overall, I did not handle the situation very well. Most of my assignments that I

procrastinated on did not end up being posted. The ones that did end up being posted

were unclear and not something that I was proud of.

This problem has caused me to want to excel in publications and work harder on all of

my assignments, even those in other classes.

My greatest weakness was organization. At the mid-term, I was constantly losing

papers and missing assignments because I had not written them down. I believe that I

have improved my organization in this class and the results have shown.

The first thing I did to improve my organization was getting a notebook for the class. I

kept all of the papers that I would need for the story that I was turning in that week. After

I did this, it was easier for me to make the corrections that Mark or Mrs. Burke suggested.

Before, I would lose the corrected paper, but since I have been using a notebook, I have

not yet lost a corrected paper.

I also began keeping a notebook for all of my past assignments. Since they are all in

one place, I can easily provide Mrs. Burke with a grade sheet when she needs one.

For certain assignments, I kept a calendar. This let me know when an assignment was

due. For the assignments I actually did write down, this helped me remember when

assignments were due and a couple were actually turned in on time.

Improving my organization has helped me improve my work both in mass media, and

the other classes in my school day.

DM17. Entertainment review. I would like this piece to represent me because I believe that it is my best and most entertaining review. I think this piece represents my style as a journalist.

DM17. Entertainment review. I think that this review is also a good piece to represent me and my writing style. I believe that this is an interesting and entertaining movie review

DM44. Photo and audio slideshow. I would like this piece to represent me because I think that it is my best soundslide this year. I believe that it is informative and interesting for a viewer to watch.

hilights.org/archives/4713









hilights.smugmug.com/events/2011-12-BHS-Hi-Lights/Mock-DUI-4-20

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Quattrone_Olivia2012