Kate Sheppard discusses making it in Independent Media

Yesterday Kate Sheppard, an Ithaca College alum, visited our Independent Media class to talk about life after graduation and making it in the world of independent media. Sheppard graduated from Ithaca College in 2006. Since then she has been writing for various online independent news outlets including, The Nation and Grist. She has also written for The Guardian, which I think is amazing considering she is only 25. Sheppard mentioned a few important ways to get noticed in journalism:

1. Gain a presence on the internet. Is very important for young journalists to be able to Google your name and get results with your work or blogs.

2. BLOG. Its one way to practice writing and craft your skill while also getting your work out there. You knows who will stumble upon your blog.

3. Develop a special interest. Having a "speciality" or "niche" will set you apart from other aspiring journalists.

4. Network with people. Find out who accepts or reads pitches at a publication. Keep in contact with people you meet even if you don't think they may have anything to do with what you want to do. You never know.

5. Be persistent. Craft your pitches and be aggressive about getting them out there. Eventually, people will be contacting you, instead of you trying to chase down jobs.

Who is the real fact checker?

Blogs or newspapers...

The Huffington Post posted a story from the Toldeo Blade about Obama's view on the shaky status of many newspapers across the nation. ""I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding," the President said,"" the article quoted. Although I am all for preserving the newspaper industry in the United States, I think that I will have to disagree with the president on the trend towards blogs shouting at each other without any real facts. Newspapers do not always have the right facts and in fact, many blogs are now the fact checkers for newspapers. The issue of blogs vs. newspapers is a confusing battle. I am still unsure of how there will be room for both blogs and newspapers in the media world if in the future newspapers are given a non-profit status. 

Blogs allow journalists to express themselves and report without a hovering big brother. In that sense, I think blogs are great for today's media. However, it is hard to weed out the ones that are trustworthy and the ones that really are just nonsense. 

Newspapers are the traditional standard of journalism and because of that they already have the trust of the reader, although this trust can be broken and has been broken in the past by false reporting. Right now, I believe newspapers are constrained to reporting what their publisher and advertisers find important and that is not real journalism. 

What are your thoughts on this issue?