Professional Practice Blog Post 1-SPJ Panel

The panel hosted by the Society of Professional Journalists was a nice event that taught me a lot about the real world of journalism. Here are five takeaways from the event.

I. News is Relative to the Platform: Depending on whether you’re doing broadcast, print or radio, things are going to come at a different pace. News that’s relavent at this moment might not reach your print publication for a week or so just becasue of the timing. You might not need to address the issue on every platform, but if you do, you might have to change the angle.

II. Local Can Sometimes be Better Than National: I say this because the people on the panel were local journalists. In addition to what I said above, sometimes you have more freedom to address different angles than if you were to be a national reporter. With national, it’s fast paced, a race to see who can get it done first and the fastest, but you stand risk of reporting the same information that other platforms do. At the local level often times you touch more hearts and make more of an impact.

III. Journalism Degrees don’t Always Lead to Journalism: Out of the three panelists, one didn’t take the traditional route to journalism. The two other panelists took a more traditional route, but it still can take a while to get your foot in the door.

IV. Make Connections: They advised us to take everyone to coffee when we get a chance. These people become future recommenders, friends and people to call on in the future. It may be a little awkward, but it’s something I think that can make or break a position. Use those resources!

V. Love What You Do: If you love what you do, you’ll never see it as a job.

Who Inspires Me as a Communicator?

The person who inspires me the most as a communicator is Anthony Bourdain.

From the moment I was old enough to hold a kitchen knife and use it correctly, I knew I wanted to be a chef. I began talking to myself in the kitchen acting as if I had cooking show and thousands of people were at home watching me when in reality, nobody was watching me but my mother. I began changing the channel whenever my mother wasn’t looking from HGTV to Travel Channel and I would always be mesmorized by Bourdain. He was always in some new country doing some weird thing, living his best life and not giving a single fuck.

It got to the point where I became more interested in Food Network and Andrew Zimmern, another idol of sorts. But as I sat in my bedroom in my apartment this year, months after his passing, I decided to watch an episode of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown and I remembered why I fell in love with him in the first place.

A lot of people like family-friendly TV personalities, ones that smile and show too much gum and make silly jokes and puns. I like Bourdain because as I stated before, he doesn’t give a fuck. He drinks and swears and has just as much fun as people do off camera, on camera. He is a mix between the love to travel and eat and showing people the reality of wherever he is. Life abroad isn’t like the media always portrays it, but it isn’t what the media doesn’t show as well. He finds a way to highlight a person, a story, something unique that makes the place special and makes you want to care.

Above I included a short video going into detail about Bourdian’s show. He sees things that other people don’t see and that’s what I want to do. I love to write and I love to cook, but people don’t care about me. People care about the stories of other people and things that make them cry or things that are within their reach. I want to travel the world and eat and make friends and give people a reason to care about the world beyond their scope.

Anthony Bourdain is a true pioneer in his craft. He has no problem telling you like it is and moving on with his day and drinking a bottle of beer while doing so. I aspire to be as much of an inspiration he is to me, to someone else in this world. Rest in paradise, Bourdain, you will be missed.

What is BKCHAT: ​UW-Madison?

It all began with a YouTube video. My friends and I really wanted to find an excuse to sit around and argue about stuff, so we decided upon BKCHAT, a video series where a topic is picked and debates, comments and arguments come together. Below is an example of what BKCHAT looks like on the LDN (London) scale. (TEASER: PROFANITY)

My friends and I are not this experienced nor do we have the camera skills and capacity to make it look this good, but we are trying. Below is an example of what my friends and I do. Not as fancy, I know but the message is still there! Enjoy and comment with ideas!

Veteran in Janesville Found Dead- Reaction

Dan Eccles, Vietnam veteran found dead August 2018

In Madison, Wisconsin we have a pretty decent population of homeless people crowding the lower half of State Street. Many people pass them without giving them a second thought, ignoring their requests for change or to purchase a newspaper. This story written by Neil Johnson from Gazettextra stood out to me because the homelessness problem is something that frustrates me.

The piece tells the story of Eccles, a Vietnam veteran who ended up living on the riverbanks of Janesville, Wisconsin along with over a dozen others. In addition to dealing with possible post-traumatic stress disorder, he dealt with alcohol abuse and was found getting into fights walking around with his three-footed cane. He has had multiple run-ins with the police, resulting in misdemeanor arrests and ordinance citations.

His brother John gave him money and tried to help him get back on his feet even after put in the foster care system and being in the Vietnam war himself. After their house burned down, Dan and siblings were separated. John and Dan only crossed paths once in the war and even after the fact Dan remained estranged. It got to the point where John purchased a funeral plot for Dan in preparation for what was to come. A decade later Eccles was found dead near the river.

It should never get to the point where over 300 people are forced to live on the streets in a nation that is attempting to build a wall to prevent people from coming in. These people are human beings lacking the most essential parts of life and are being ignored by the powers that be.

The reason why I chose this story to talk about is because I wonder if this is a story that resonates with our homeless population. So many are being passed up, and as someone who often is focused on my destination, I fail to remember that they are people. I feel bad not being able to give them any money as a broke college student, but I wonder what I can do to help them.

This story is so important because they are being passed every day with little to no regard. This article tells the story of one but also brings light to the issue of homelessness itself and raises the question of how far are we going to let this go before action is taken.

As a consumer of media as well as a journalist, I hope to see change happen soon. I hope that we can take stories like this and prevent things like this from happening before it gets too late to do anything.

About Me

My name is Enjoyiana Nururdin and I am a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I was born and raised here in Madison, WI and am majoring in Journalism and receiving a certificate in Political Economy, Philosophy and Politics.

I fell in love with writing at an early age and was fortunate enough to be able to begin my career in journalism at the age of 13. I am currently a freelance writer for The Capital Times feature segment “Let’s Eat,” a producer for The Black Voice, an editor at Simpson Street Free Press and the External Relations Intern for the Odyssey Project.

Professional Practice Blog Post 2-Writing With Impact Training

I wanted to start off by showing my appreciation for these online opportunities to do the professional practices. It’s nice to be able to have flexibility when you’re a busy college student. I wanted to watch the videos on writing with impact. Here are five takeaways:

I. Defining My Purpose: “What is your purpose” sounds really harsh, but in reality it’s important. Figuring out why what you’re writing is important and also what it’s for. Who is this for? For you or for the public? Is there an agenda? If there is, you might want to readjust. There’s a plethora of things going on.

II. Everything has a purpose: I sometimes struggle with being punny because I want everything to be funny or make people cringe because it’s so good. But sometimes, stuff just has to be stuff. It takes talent to keep things short and sweet but also impactful.

III. Understandable, Engaging, Relevant, Actionable: These four things go hand in hand and I think it’s important to have these things in the back of your mind when you are reporting and trying to make things “impactful.” The video dived into language and making sure it’s understandable, engaging in terms of culture, relevance in relation to position and what actions can be done based on power.

IV. Write for people: When you know about your audience, you have a better understanding of what it is that you want to get across. Then you won’t have to worry about trying to use big words and eloquent phraaes becasue people don’t talk like that. Get straight to the point.

V. Writing is like acting: You put on a voice for people like acting. You portray a certain character like when you approach a new topic. This is really cool and all but I think it’s also important because you have to be responsible with it while also having fun. People can also tell when you suck at acting and it’s sometimes easy when you suck at writing, for lack of a better term.

Places I’ve Been, Places I’m Going…

Here is the link for my StoryMap Alternative Story Form. I hope you enjoy!

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