Why I do what I do

Diego Sorbara
Autobiography

How I really got into journalism is by far one of the most unglamorous stories of my life. It isn’t as exciting as when I decided I had to go to Canada and ended up wandering around Vancouver at 3 a.m. with a crazy Australian I met a few hours earlier; it isn’t as funny as the time my mom dropped the Christmas ham on the floor and had me trim off the usable meat to serve to the family. I got into journalism because I love language.

We have to rewind all the way to 1983 to understand my love of languages. I was born on a blistering hot December day in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It wasn’t until I was two that we moved to the Chicago suburbs. From a young age, I was brought up in a world split between English and Spanish. I began to appreciate the nuance of language and the way words came together to tell stories.

What really fueled me was my French class. As we would learn more about French grammar points, the subjunctive, the pluperfect, the imperfect, I would start learning about those same points in English. All of the sudden, language, both French and English, started making perfect sense to me. Comma usage wasn’t just an intuitive thing anymore; there were actual rules for where those suckers go. Semicolons weren’t just decoration; they had an actual purpose.

Initially, I wanted to be a French teacher. My mom, ever the realist, quashed that dream fast. “You’re a horrible teacher,” she told me. “The kids would hate you.” Ouch. It’s true, though, I’m not what you’d call a “people person.” However, my high school journalism teacher clued me into something called copy editing; she even gave me the doorstop to her room, an AP Stylebook.

My parents, however, didn’t care much about career path. My dad loves CPAs and engineers. “You know, Diego,” he reminds me every time I go home, “those accountants make a lot of money.” The father of my best friend, a seasoned reporter for the business page of the Chicago Tribune, would often explain (read: rant) that journalism is where the human soul goes to die.

Coming to MU only cemented the fact that I was meant to live behind a desk. While most journalists love to “hit the ground running” and to “chase” stories, my favorite part was the writing and revision. Really, I disliked intruding into the lives of others just so I could write a story. But the largest weakness I have as a journalist is that I’ve always been an incredibly shy person. The hardest thing for me to do is lift that phone or tap someone on the shoulder and ask for an interview. I knew after writing a few articles that I was not cut out to be a reporter. How I passed Missourian, with a good grade to boot, is beyond me.

It wasn’t until I made it to the production side that I found a niche. Finally, there was a place where people were concerned about the craft of editing and about honing skills, a place with an atmosphere of teamwork and not competition. I love editing. I don’t think about it as a game of Space Invaders, zapping out errors and ambiguities. It’s about taking the work of someone else and making it shine.

Despite people questioning me about my aspirations, I’m steadfast. Last summer, I was an intern at The Hartford Courant. Aside from becoming adept at evading dodgy characters in the slums of Hartford, where I foolishly ended up living, I realized that there’s nothing finer than the smell of terrible newsroom Chinese food, bad coffee and copy ripe for the editing in the evening (I never, however, got the hang of getting up early). This summer, I’m heading up to work at the night copy desk of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. But after August I’ll be pretty much unemployed. So if you see someone with a “will edit for food sign,” please be kind; I might’ve read your work once.

Autobiography

Danny Dougherty

It’s odd that I got into journalism because I love to write. After working on every facet of my high school newspaper I came to the University of Missouri-Columbia to learn how to write and report.
In my first year here I decided to work production shifts twice a week at the Maneater. I had page design experience from high school and went in to a workshop on basic quark so that I could take on some design work.
When I got to the evening workshop, the quark workstations were full and the editor running students through the program was already busy. Not wanting to have the time go to waste, I sat down to learn Macromedia Freehand.
During my freshman year I began to understand a new type of storytelling. Originally, when I thought of journalism I thought of reporting and turning up hard news stories. A year of working on charts, maps and all sorts of diagrams had me understanding that the news isn’t just about revealing corruption or informing the public. It’s also about making information accessible to people and keeping them interested day to day. While most of what I did, that could really be considered newsworthy, consisted of charts and maps—I also produced a large share of illustrations and diagrams that ranged from describing how to change the oil in your car to illustrating various precautions the department of homeland security was recommending.
After that year, I returned to reporting. I was worked the cover public safety beat for the Columbia Missourian and found myself dealing with police officers, firemen and sheriff’s deputies. The entire experience was a bit of a wakeup call for me. There weren’t hard-hitting stories here, at least not in the flashy earth-shattering way. There were lots of tight-lipped public servants, a few distraught families of various victims and piles and piles of documents and data that were terribly hard to analyze. I’m not saying I didn’t get a thrill out of driving out to the scene of a fire and interviewing emergency responders, but I am saying that reporting wasn’t all glory.
Now, I understand the value of such news reporting. I found it exciting to cover the beginnings of a murder trial and to investigate the administrative policies of the county jail. I just never found the same enthusiasm I had when I was creating art to accompany stories. After writing an in-depth piece looking at overcrowding in the local jail, I was certainly proud of myself but I didn’t see the same impact in that story. I also suspect that very few readers made it through all forty inches of type or took the time to really analyze the statistics on jail population that I had littered across the story.
When, that next semester, I went back to working on info graphics—this time for the city paper and not the student one—I found the work even more interesting. I felt like I had a better understanding of what reporters needed when they came to me for help with telling their stories and I knew what research I was capable of doing to augment their reporting. I found a thrill in sitting down with a writer and sketching ideas out that would tell stories in a unique way. I hadn’t felt this thrill when sitting down with editors and talking about what strategies to use while covering a trial. When I had the opportunity to take an internship at US News and World report, I jumped at it.
At the Missourian I had a certain amount of enthusiasm for what I did, but it was always a part of my course work. When I got to US News there was an entirely different thrill. It had never really dawned on me that the University of Missouri was terribly different in how it did things. When I got to DC and started talking about how I had covered various stories in the past, the rest of the graphics department was blown away by the idea of a school running the city paper as a part of its curriculum. The other artists also treated the pieces I had done as professional work. Up until this point I certainly had enjoyed my work, but I had never really considered what I was doing my job in the professional sense. Working with experienced reporters, who listened to the suggestions an intern had on how to best convey the meaning of a story, was rewarding in and of itself. Having the opportunity to learn a whole slew of new reporting and design techniques and tricks was absolutely invaluable. By the time I got back to Missouri not only was a validated in what I had been studying in school, but I also had found that I really could help the overall journalistic enterprise by creating high-impact images that conveyed information in ways that blocks of text alone could not.
As I prepare to graduate, I hope to further develop my ability to look at stories and think visually about them. I also am working on developing experience at editing print graphics and managing other artists for larger stories. Finally, I hope to learn a bit about Flash and interactive graphics in the hopes that I will have an opportunity to help the development of the growing online journalism field. I hope to work for a publication with integrated art and editorial staffs and have the opportunity to not simply create diagrams to accompany other reporters’ work but to also help decide how to tell the stories they are working on and add my own understanding of how to communicate information to readers in interesting, creative and informative ways.

autobio

I’ve always considered myself a smart enough fellow, particularly mature and aware of what I wanted to do. Not really anymore, though. I think the realization of impending graduation will do that. As a youngster I wanted to be an athlete, but it’s not quite as simple as an incapable athlete turned sportswriter. Instead I wanted to be a lawyer, like my grandfather was before his retirement.
He and I share similar cynical outlooks, political viewpoints, and passion for sports. So since the beginning of high school I thought law school was what I wanted to do. I still think I might want to, but might seems like an awfully soft commitment level for such an endeavour. I also wanted to go to a more esteemed institution for my undergrad, but that didn’t ever really happen. No offense to the U of M, but if you’re not going for the J school, which I wasn’t, it isn’t the most sought-after degree. By my sophomore year, I added journalism to my english major. In learning the art of sportswriting, which truly has become a pleasure for me (except when on deadline for the Tiger Tipoff), I have developed a new passion which has muddled the view of my future.
Without knowing what I want to do, it’s hard to assess my strengths and weaknesses in my prospective field. But for this exercise I will look through the journalism prism, sports reporting, as my intended focus. I think my writing ability is my strength, but sometimes it lacks clarity. The Missourian is a blessing of a learning opportunity in the sense that you get real on the job training. That sounds too simple, but for what was a kid admiring Missouri athletes a few years ago (I’m a townie, I liked the Tigers), having access to the lockerroom is a thrill along with a job. The level of enjoyment I get from doing this, along with the satisfaction of a good article, is what has me wondering if law school is still for me.
I am not the most polished interviewer; I could never do broadcast. I am too shy to enjoy speaking on the air, deathly afraid of public speaking, and thus sometimes lack assertiveness in an interview setting. I also procrastinate, which is quickly being remedied, somewhat at least, because of hellish deadlines. Next Wednesday there is an eight o’clock game, which means after the coach twiddles his thumb for a half hour before his press conference, I will have about 20 minutes to turn around a story. If I’m not inc class following that game, it’s because Greg killed me.
He won’t though, because he’s a good guy. Greg Bowers and in my 105 class, Ray Murray, have both been great influences to learn under. Those are the types of opportunities I really cherish from this school.
I think beat writing is sort of my calling, if I stay with journalism, for the time being. I like the familiarity of a team, the rapport with a coach and players that comes with the regimen. Down the road I would like to do column writing. I like the ability to infuse a little bit of opinion. Columns also allow for more descriptive, in depth writing.
I have no real abilities, or desire to learn any medium outside of print. Therefore the decline of newspapers is a threat to this livelihood. Internet writing is ok, but I see it as a place to post a newspaper article. For my interests, it isn’t a job in and of itself to write for the internet.
It seems as if fusing my two areas, law and journalism, could work. I wouldn’t mind covering cops and courts, it’s just that I like sports so much more, and feel my knowledge base is much stronger in sports. Either way I am confident enough I will have a job, someday. I just don’t know what that might be at this point.

Drew Bruno

Design philosophies (or philosopher)

I grew up with a father who loved to tell stories. He’d affect his accent, don hats and do just about anything to make my two younger sisters and me laugh and engage in his tales. I would always try to repeat his stories to my friends, but they would never have the same kind of nuance or cleverness they did when he told them – the most I could muster from my audience was a half-hearted laugh or embarrassed sigh.

Although I attend Mizzou, I grew up in Dallas and San Antonio. I am the first member of my extended family to attend an out-of-state school, more notably a big 12 school that isn’t the University of Texas. This really only poses a problem during the football season — especially since my sister goes to KU. We try to keep things as complicated as possible in the Baird household.

I was given a Montessori education until age 13, which really cultivated my sense of self and independence. After I received a scholarship to a small private high school, I moved from Dallas to San Antonio to attend Texas Military Institute (which of course is the logical progression after going to Montessori school). In both middle school and high school I was always involved in choir, drama and the school newspaper. I was drawn to the interactive and storytelling aspects of these activities – I loved the wisdom, humor and insight they allowed me to impart.

I decided to start my collegiate life at a small liberal arts school in San Antonio. I had no idea what I was doing and changed my area of focus several times – at one point I was even a costume design major. I left after my first year, unsure of what I wanted to do, or even what I wanted to study. I took a job at a law firm, and worked there as a filing clerk for six months – and was pretty unhappy. I knew I needed to get back to school as quickly as possible.

I had always loved writing, but I decided to pursue Journalism after speaking to my aging godmother in Virginia. She is an alumnus of the Missouri J-school (class of ’45), and told me that being a purveyor of the news had been an important part of her life, a job she called the “noblest of all professions.” Well I’m not one to argue with experience, and within three weeks, I applied, was accepted and headed off to a state and a school I knew nothing about. When I walked into the newsroom for the first time, there was no doubt in my mind that studying print journalism was a wise choice. The energy of the newsroom had a magnetic draw I never experienced with any of my other pursuits. This was it.

I have reached the point where I am in the newsroom more than I am at home. I decided on newspaper design because I love the broad view of the news I get to take – putting together, organizing, and presenting the news of the day. I still consider myself the newsiest of newshounds, but now I just look at it through a different lens. I stilll have no success at recanting my father's stories, but now I tell my own stories with the power of words, pictures and graphics.

Well, that might be getting a little lofty (and slightly cheesy), but my point is I know where I’m going and know why I love what I’m doing. I know I have a solid news philosophy and comprehension of effective writing, so it’s some of the software nuances I would like to work on – matering all of the wonderful Adobe products (InDesign, Illlustrator, Photoshop) as soon as possible, which I have discovered is much easier said then done. I’m excited about first job possiblities and different locations – and know that there is ALWAYS room to grow in the news business.

Autobiography

I was born in Chicago, IL 21 and a half years ago. Both of my parents graduated with degrees from the University of Missouri with an emphasis in advertising. Both were supremely accomplished in their craft, as they garnered high GPAs and excellent jobs soon after college (my mother’s first job was at Leo Burnett, while my father eventually settled at an ad firm in Chicago).

From a fairly early age, I was interested in writing. But my main interest was not in writing about the truth, but instead crafting wild, outlandish lies in the realm of fiction. In elementary school, I tried my best to win a contest that chose the best short story in our grade. Needless to say, my stories about game shows that turn contestants into mice and boys being transported to a land where penguins ruled the roost did not make the final cut. These setbacks, however, did not deter me from working to improve my writing. My parents were my biggest supporters. They helped me by proofreading my papers and giving valuable advice on how to craft better syntax and pursue more logical arguments.

Of course, not all of my attempts were successful. One episode that I remember humorously in retrospect is a time when I wrote a report on the key events of 1989. My main focus of the project, of course, was the collapse of the Berlin Wall. For some reason, I didn'’t know that much about the period, even though it had transpired only a few short years before. And so, I provided stunning details such as Mikhail Gorbachev, who was famous for "having a red splotch on his head." My dad was so angry at my attempt that he threw the papers across the room.

Although this was scary at the time, it sparked something inside of me that would continue to this day – a desire to obtain and keep knowledge. This included all realms – history, literature, pop culture and current events. Within a couple of years, I won the current events competition in my high school. I also found that I was excelling at history for the first time in my educational life. This was important, because for a short period of time during my sophomore year of high school, I was seriously considering studying history in college.

But things changed when I began in earnest my work at my high school newspaper, The Statesman. It was run by Carol Jo Dagro, an educator who was nominated for the prestigious honor of Illinois teacher of the year. When I thought I was going to quit journalism after failing to crop a photo correctly, she gave me a smiley face sugar cookie and told me to keep going.

I did. Unfortunately, as I look back the paper, it didn’t teach me much about reporting. It was a glorified newsletter. It did, however, allow me to craft an opinion column, which I enjoyed immensely. Ms. Dagro didn'’t let me write more than two articles about politics a semester. But when I got the chance, I hit the ground running with as much force as possible.

At Missouri, I immediately wrote for the Maneater, which I feel to this day was the greatest force behind my evolution as a journalist. There, I learned how to ask questions, find sources and write creatively. The Missourian gave me a chance to venture out of Columbia and into rural areas that I had never experienced before.

But my greatest experience was my internship at the Columbia Daily Tribune. Working there taught me immense discipline, as I had to turn in stories assigned at 8 a.m. three hours later. The internship also gave me an opportunity to delve into feature writing, which had never been my strong suit. I received a bevy of clips and a lot of good advice from the editors. Although I still felt I had plenty to learn, I did gain knowledge that was simply unobtainable at the J-School.

I feel I have definite strengths as a writer. Some of pieces that I've written while I've been at this school I am very proud of -- especially the articles I wrote when I was at the Tribune. Of course, there are articles that I felt were subpar due to either a careless mimisspellingispelling or slightly wrong fact) or a lack of imagination. While I've improved my ability to spot mistakes and prevent them from going into copy, I still have a lot of work to do. And although I'm sure any newspaper can count on me to work as hard as I can to deliver good stories, I always fear I'm going to let them down as soon as they compliment me.

On the cusp of graduating from college, I am hoping to get hired by a newspaper in either the Midwest or the South. Despite being from a rather Yankeeish enclave, I've spent some of my best times in Florida and Oklahoma visiting relatives. The best case scenario would involve me working for a few years before considering going to graduate school. I definitely want to work in the field before deciding to invest another degree in the realm of journalism.

I guess my ultimate goal would be getting a spot in a major metropolitan newspaper as an op-ed columnist. I know this is not going to happen right away, but I feel if I immerse myself in enough knowledge, I'll be ready.

Welcome to our class blog!

This blog will showcase the thoughts of students in Journalism and Democracy, the senior capstone class at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

This week's assignment is for the students to blog a biography, analyzing personal strengths and forecasting the opportunities and threats they will face in an upcoming career.

Prof. Steffens

Autobiography

I can start by saying writing papers or having to describe myself has never been the easiest thing for me to do. I don’t know where to begin or what to use that the people listening might find interesting about me. I know this problem isn’t exclusive to me. It seems a lot of people have a tough time describing themselves, but here is my stab at it.

I recently turned 22 and was born in St. Louis, Missouri, where my permanent home still is today. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had a strong interest in publication. I love reading the news, I love informing people of new things they hadn’t known before, and I loved to see my name in print. As I grew older, I gained an even bigger appreciation for news and news publications, and was eager to join the high school newspaper as a sophomore at McCluer High School.

There, I learned from my journalism adviser the basics of what journalism was and how to put out a respectable publication. As a junior, I was made editor of the high school paper and took it upon myself to ensure that our staff made the best paper we could with the tools we had. I loved everything about it and determined that this was a profession I would like to be involved with in my professional life.

My adviser helped me fine tune my work and over the course of the three years we spent working together, became a good friend of mine and is someone I set out to college hoping to never disappoint or let down.

In the fall of 2004, I worked as a sports writer for the Columbia Missourian and was assigned to cover the Rock Bridge High School football team. I enjoyed it very much and was able to manage a workable routine with the Rock Bridge head coach, who wasn’t the easiest coach to deal with for a young, learning journalist. He wasn’t the most accessible and he wasn’t very willing to go out of his way to provide stats or other important information. I successfully managed to cover the team’s entire 10-game season and produced several interesting features on players as well. When the season wrapped up, I was assigned to Hickman High School wrestling and covered a few meets before the semester ended.

If in this assignment you are looking to learn about my inner workings, I can tell you that the thought of being a letdown, to both to myself and to my high school journalism adviser, occurs to me quite a bit. Sometimes I feel like although I want to be a reporter, copyeditor or work in online journalism, I feel as if I’m not good enough to be successful in any of those professions. Sometimes I feel like my writing is lacking or that I can’t think of the right questions to ask a source. Sometimes I feel as if I’ll miss something important in copyediting that could be disastrous, and sometimes I think that my online journalism work could fall short of expectations as well.

The thing is, I know I can do these things and do them well. Sometimes I think I just lack the confidence in myself to get them done to a level of my personal satisfaction.

I have applied for a copyediting internship at The Sporting News, a weekly sports magazine with an office in my hometown of St. Louis. After submitting a resume and clips, I received an editing test for further evaluation of my skill. I was told I did very well on the test, but slightly less than a few of their other candidates, therefore not disqualifying me but also not guaranteeing me an internship either. I think situations such as these add to my confidence issue, knowing that the best opportunity for me is potentially out of my reach. I’m confused as to where to go and what to do should this opportunity fall through, and that’s a bad place to be so close to graduation.

I know things tend to work out for me, however, and I never seem to be in a spot where I can’t find a way out. I think landing a job or internship would help restore a lot of that confidence I sometimes lack and would go a long way to helping convince myself that a successful career in journalism is in my future.