The magazine project… GREAT!
The magazine project provides an opportunity for me to prove and elaborate my knowledge in practice. In my magazine project, I decided to topic on introducing/ profiling a Japanese anime. Since I am familiar to this subject, I can find and give information easily.
Throughout the magazine project, I am happy with the results, but I do think I could do better. The reason why I think it could be better is that I do not have enough technical skills. For instance, I spent a lot of time try to figure out how to put a large-print headline in the middle of a three-column page. At the end of the project, I still have not figure out a way to do so. A headline is very important for a journalist. It is the first thing that readers are looking for/at. On the other hand, the information/ graphic box, it would be looked better and more professional if I have more technical skills.
From the beginning to the end, I spent around six to seven hours to finish the project. It consumes lesser time than I thought. I spent most of the time of the magazine-style piece to rewrite, rewrite and rewrite. As a result, it is the most satisfying part in the whole project. With the process of rewriting, the story came out another point of view that I have never thought of at the beginning of the writing process. In addition, when this “surprise” came out, I had a second thinking journalism is really interesting and unpredictable.
Throughout the project, the most enjoyable part is the information/ graphic box. It offers me an opportunity to be creative and have fun. But at the same time, I controlled myself not to put too much graphics and information in the page that I do not want to overwhelm readers with all the graphics. Therefore, I chose the most suitable, most related, and most representing pictures on it. But unfortunately, I was not able to find any sound clips and even I found one, I did not know how to put it on the page due to my lacking technical skills. On the other hand, the least enjoyable part is the broadcast script. It may be due to the topic I chose, I found that it’s harder than I thought to write a broadcast script on it. I did not have any problems on writing a broadcast script on the previous assignment. But, somehow, when it comes to this project, this topic, I stopped for a while to think how to write the script.
I would like to do a totally different topic next time. If doing the same topic, I would like to use a different angle to write the story. For instance, I would think I am one of the characters in the anime and introduce/ profile the whole anime.
As I mentioned before, I was really surprise while I was rewriting and rewriting the magazine-style piece, and I suddenly came up with a total different point of view. It had really shaken my mind a little bit. The unpredictable, the unexpected feeling makes the job more exciting. Moreover, by doing the information/graphic box, it makes me understand that journalism is not all about writing but also creativity and have fun.
My suggestion for students who are or going to do the similar project is that find a topic that you are familiar with and try to use different angle to write the story. Don’t be afraid, be creative, write down what you think, keep writing, writing and writing. Rewrite, rewrite and rewrite, until a “surprise” comes up to you.
