Job Shadows: What You Saw, Section 1

Here's a sampling of some of the various job shadows done by you all. Take a look and see what you can learn from everyone's visits. There's a lot of good stuff here to help you decide what you want to do with your lives; what you need to be doing to get there; and what to expect when you do get there.

Please give each one of these a quick read, will you?

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When I knew I was going to be interviewing with Lisa Stamos, editor-in-chief, of “Quintessential Barrington” I was very intimidated. All I really knew about Lisa was she has a lot of power in my hometown of Barrington, IL and was a tough business woman; so I was even surprised she let me job shadow her because I know she is extremely busy. But my expectations of meeting with Lisa went completely different than expected this past Easter weekend. 

            I went into the job shadow thinking that she would be showing me the ropes of how the office worked and where they printed this magazine and everything you think a magazine would do. But actually that was not how it went. When I walked into the “Quintessential Barrington” office, it was just Lisa Stamos waiting for me with a cup of coffee just ready to talk to me for a few hours. This was not the typical job shadow I had in mind.

            We talked normally for a little bit and Lisa told me how she didn’t even major in journalism in college at Ripon College in Wisconsin to become the now powerful editor-in-chief she is. She majored in marketing. When Lisa told me this, I was thinking to myself, is this what I’m supposed to be doing for my project? It ends up, this is exactly what I wanted to report about for my JRN 300 class because I have never met such an intriguing business woman like Lisa. This is when I decided to ask questions.

My family receives the magazine, “Quintessential Barrington” and thoroughly enjoys it because of the beautiful way it is printed and the way it honors people throughout the Barrington community.

 “I break the rules of printing a magazine”.  

Lisa said that she breaks the rules of printing a magazine because she wants to be authentic as possible without any controversial content. I found this really interesting because she said she gains respect within the community this way because people will trust her and what she prints. That is what makes her so powerful within the Barrington community. I liked that she could say this in confidence as well. She kept repeating herself,

            “Stand your ground”

            She said this because since she is the editor-in-chief as a woman, she does not want the other business CEO’s in Barrington to walk all over her. I saw this in full throttle because Lisa kept getting calls while I was there interviewing her. These calls were coming from her lawyer. Someone else in Barrington who just started up their own magazine is trying to rip off Lisa and her designs and thoughts with her self-made magazine, “Quintessential Barrington”.  I thought this was interesting that she was taking someone else to court because of a rip-off. Barrington isn’t that big of a community, so I wouldn’t have realized this was happening if it wasn’t for Lisa Stamos standing her ground. She believed that her intellectual property was being stolen and if she didn’t do anything about it she said that this was her of saying it was okay to steal her ideas. So with that, she said

            “be smarter, be wiser, and protect yourself”

            I thought that this interview didn’t really turn into a typical job shadow because she gave me a lot of good advice on the future in journalism and life advice. She also gave me advice to take business classes along with journalism classes because she believes that business goes along with anything you are trying to pursue.

            “It is what you do with your education”

            Lisa kept ensuring that I understood that part of our talk because that was the whole gist she was trying to get at. I thought that was really interesting because I have never thought about my education in that way before talking to Lisa.

            Instead of me just asking Lisa questions, she then turned the tables and started asking me questions about many things. I was really nervous at this point because she was telling me about her experiences and I felt like I was not up to those standards to answering her questions with the things she wanted to hear. She pulled out her most recent issue of “Quintessential Barrington” and turned to pages throughout and would ask me questions such as “what is the most important thing on this page?” I found this really intimidating because I know she wanted specific answers, but I was not giving them to her. But I learned that even though Lisa is very intimidating with her business ways, she was very patient and nice. I have a lot of respect for her.

            One of the most important questions she asked me was,

            “What makes you successful?”

            This question was the most intimidating one because there are so many qualities to make you successful. I couldn’t really answer that, so she answered it for me. She said showing up is what makes you successful, and then continued to say that I would be successful because I showed up and even early for our interview. She believes that showing up makes you successful because that is the beginning step to everything. This made sense to me.

            Since she said I had the beginning steps to being successful she gave me an opportunity to write for her. I was presently surprised that she did this because not everyone in Barrington gets the chance to write for “Quintessential Barrington” I studied abroad this past summer in the United Kingdom and working with the BBC too, so she asked me to write about my experience so she could publish my experience in an issue of her magazine.

This was the way we ended the interview and I couldn’t have been more pleased with her asking me to write with for her. Talking with Lisa Stamos definitely opened many more doors for opportunity than I had before going in.

Lisa Stamos Contact Information:

Lisa Stamos

Quintessential Barrington

estamos@sbcglobal.net

847-381-3860

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I decided to shadow Kyle Austin. He is a Michigan State football and basketball reporter for Mlive.com. He is the lead Michigan State men’s basketball reporter and he also helps out Mike Griffith with football reporting. 

One thing that he likes about the job is being able to travel to different places around the country. For example, he was talking about how he’s been to two Cotton Bowls and a Final Four among other things. 

One thing that he doesn’t like is having to be alert at all times. He told me that he is rarely without his laptop and that he is always checking Twitter. He also said that it is a very time consuming job, because news can break at any time of the day. 

I would like a few things about his job. Like Kyle, I would enjoy travelling to different college campuses and seeing all of the different stadiums. Another thing that I would like is being able to interact with players and coaches of the team. It would be really cool to be up close and personal with so many great athletes. 

One thing I don’t think that I would like is having to be on my phone and laptop constantly checking news and seeing if anything happened. It seems like that would be a little hectic at times. 

Kyle and I met at the International Center and talked a bit about his experiences and how he became a sports reporter. We also talked about job opportunities and internships. He was very helpful and insightful on a variety of topics. He told me kind of what a typical day for him is and what his yearly outlook is. After talking at the International Center, we headed over to football practice for player interviews. I got to sit in the football auditorium and watch him prepare questions for the players he wanted to talk to. Unfortunately, the players that he requested were not available, so I got to see him work on the fly and find a different story idea. He allowed me to ask questions and record interviews with players. 

Overall it was a very eye opening experience. I really enjoyed being able to go to player interviews and seeing how he handles his business. It was cool to see him be able to problem solve and change his story on the fly after the players he requested to see weren’t available. After the player interviews were over we talked for a few more minutes about the day and what I thought about the experience. It was a good experience and I learned a lot from him.

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I shadowed Erin Carlson, the Director of Communications and the Editor of FAITH Saginaw magazine, at the Diocese of Saginaw. She was working on a media release for the diocese that involved filming with Bishop Cistone using a teleprompter. Erin and her colleague, Tom, used to work for WNEM, and they showed me what it was like to work with a teleprompter, microphones, cameras, and other recording equipment.

Erin also showed me some work she and her coworkers were doing for the magazine and for the Saginaw Dioceses website. Erin publishes FAITH magazine four times a year, which gives her a lot of time to work on in depth feature stories about members of the parish. One story she recently finished was about a man who was walking across the country, and Erin got to meet up with him in West Virginia and interview him.

Having the opportunity to spend so much time writing feature stories like this really appeals to me, and I’m glad Erin gave me the chance to learn more about her work on this magazine. Erin also showed me her online work, where she has the freedom to work longer on stories and with less strict deadlines. This kind of work also sounds interesting to me for the same reasons that work on a magazine does: it would give me the freedom to really delve into a story and publish my best work.

Erin and Tom also told me about their work at WNEM, and what kinds of things they did there. Tom didn’t like his work at WNEM, as he found the deadlines too confining. Erin also prefers the slower pace of working at the diocese. I’m definitely glad I had the opportunity to hear their opinions, and I’m sure I’ll consider time constraints when I start looking for a job down the road.

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I job shadowed RJ Wolcott at the Lansing State Journal. Wolcott is a higher education reporter focusing on Michigan State University, Lansing Community College, and Lansing K-12 schools.

         RJ showed me around at the LSJ newsroom, first explaining in depth what was going on in the TV screens. The screens had a browser open with a list of every article they had, how many people were viewing it, how long the people were viewing it for, and if they clicked on the links provided in the article. Another interesting connection this service gave was it showed the total number of viewers on the site total.

         RJ showed me a similar data tracker called Pressbox that he used for his very own stories. It was essentially the same service, but the only difference i noticed was that it showed how many “unique” viewers saw the post, or a viewer completely new to LSJ’s website. It was helpful to see what articles got more views, or what time of day influenced the viewership.

         RJ showed me the stories he wrote, and explained the background of how he found the stories, such as looking at The State New’s website or local channel’s news for an update of what is happening.

         He showed me that for LSJ’s demographic of working 30-50 year olds’, the peak reading time is on Monday from 6-10 a.m. He also stressed that the peak reading time differs for every publication, depending on the demographic. RJ talked about the importance of social media as a network to spread news, and to see what the common people are talking about, which I found to be interesting.

         RJ really emphasized the importance of multi-media skills. He said if he could've changed anything in college, he would've taken more courses on videography or photography. I agreed with everything he said and was inspired to touch up on my multi-media skills. RJ said he took mostly print news internships, and while they were beneficial, he wishes he would've taken a multi-media internship. I am now exploring my options to attain a standard, print internship while also seeking a multi-media internship that would make me a more well-rounded journalist.

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This semester, I was fortunate enough to shadow reporter Rich Tupica. As the managing editor of the monthly Grand Rapids publication Revue and a freelance music columnist with Lansing’s City Pulse, Tupica has experience in both the management and reporting sides of media publication. We first discussed Tupica’s upbringing in the industry, which to some, may appear unconventional. As a self-proclaimed “community college dropout”, Tupica first broke into the business after his self-published, punk rock zine was recognized by City Pulse staff members, who eventually trained him and offered him a position. Now at Revue, Tupica manages a small team of staff writers, graphic artists, web designers, and sales specialists to create the free arts and culture publication. He said that he particularly enjoys his freedom to write about what he has true interest in, whether it be featuring an up-and-coming local band, interviewing his favorite comedian, or compiling guides to local wineries and craft breweries. With only one person to report to, Tupica said he values this creative freedom above all.

I walked away with two main lessons from my job shadow, with the first being the importance of budgeting. Tupica said that a decent chunk of his time is going over facts and figures as well as identifying the most appropriate ways to make and spend money, and mentioned the sooner an employee learns the skill of budget management, the more valuable they are. Additionally, Tupica noted creative drive as another one of the most important characteristics of a reporter. He noted that most great successes come from doing something unique, and encouraged me to push boundaries and stay true to my identity.

Overall, I was extremely happy to have the opportunity to shadow Mr. Tupica. Through this experience, I had the chance to learn more about media management, creative passion, and the field of journalism as a whole, and I look forward to reconnecting with him in the future.

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I shadowed Jo-Ann Barnas on March 9, over spring break this semester. Besides being a freelance journalist, she is Mitch Albom’s books and projects researcher and his charity liaison. I went to her office (the location of which I’m not allowed to disclose), and she showed me around and introduced me to the two other people who worked there. I sat with her while she condensed a bunch of notes and sent an email to Mitch, and then she made a few more calls and sent some emails out to the different charity heads. Basically I got to be in her office with her for part of the day, and then we went to lunch to discuss exactly what she does for Mitch and how she got into the position that she’s in today. I couldn’t attend any of the meetings she had that day since they are confidential.

            She told me about some of Mitch’s upcoming projects, including a play that they just got approved about one of the Red Wings players. Most of what she does for Mitch involves a lot of traveling for research. She was telling me about how for one of his books, she had to go to Chicago and go listen to a bunch of jazz bands, record some of their music, and take notes, in detail, about the atmosphere, the players’ appearance and movements. She even interviewed Tony Bennett for him once, transcribed the entire interview, and then had additional notes for all of his inflections so he could make him a more believable character. Essentially, she is his eyes and ears when he can’t go somewhere. It’s as if she does all the background work for a feature story, and then he puts it all together in a book. She also communicates with all of his different philanthropies. Beyond her work with Mitch, she does take a lot of freelance work, especially in the sports world, since that was her first love. She’s been to every Olympics except one since 1998 as a sports journalist.

            I learned so much in my short time with Jo-Ann. She really put into perspective the broad opportunities I’ll have with my journalism degree – it can lead you in so many different directions. Her job is extremely flexible, and she said that no two days have ever been the same for her. She travels, she interviews, she researches and she communicates with dozens of people every day. I really like that aspect of her job, and I think that sort of thing is something I would love to do in the future, although it’s definitely a matter of having an author know you and find you. When I asked her for advice going forward in my career, she went on forever: create your own opportunity, be aggressive early on, get published, create your own website, and always remember that not every story is going to be your best story. That really struck home with me since I have a hard time writing things that I don’t think are absolutely amazing. Most importantly though, she told me that how you represent yourself is half the battle in this industry, because it’s all about who you know. Being natural and yourself (while remaining professional) will definitely get you places. Good thing I’m a friendly human!

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For my job shadow, I went to Fox17 in Grand Rapids, MI. I got the opportunity to shadow one of their broadcast reporters, Janice Allen. She has been working with Fox17 for two years now. I met her through a family friend, who did Janice’s makeup on her wedding day.

            When I first arrived, I had to sign a waiver for those who come in to shadow and/or volunteer.  This form was pretty simple, just had to give my first and last name, and purpose for attendance. Once I completed the waiver, I had to sit in a waiting room for Janice. She was a half hour late, but that did not bother me at all. I got to watch a good episode of “Jerry Springer,” that was playing on the television. So that wasted a lot of time.

            Once Janice arrived, she sent me into a room where a meeting was going on, while she prepared her things for the day. I introduced myself to everyone before I sat down, and they were all very welcoming. During this meeting, I noticed there was only one man that talked the entire time. I’m not sure what his position was, but I assumed he was somewhat everyone’s boss. This meeting was about the stories that would be worked on for that day. Everyone was assigned something, and those who had questions, comments, and concerns all saved those for the end. There were also a few jokes cracked during this meeting, which made me a bit more comfortable. Since I arrived to the meeting when it already started, I was only in the meeting for about 15-20 minutes. After the meeting, Janice came back to get me and she then introduced me to one of the communication directors, who would be giving me a tour around the building. I got to go into the production studio, the editors room, audio, lighting, etc. One area that I liked the most was the production studio. It was the only room that made me feel like “Omg, this is the real deal.” When I was done with the tour, Janice then asked if I would like to come with her to do a shoot at the Grand Rapid’s Laugh Festival. This is an event that occurs annually, and this year’s laugh fest was bound to be something spectacular, Janice motioned. I excitingly said yes, so she and I drove separately and met downtown at the Calder Plaza.

            The Calder Plaza was very hard to find parking, so Janice was a little worried I wouldn’t make it in time for her shoot, but I definitely was not going to miss it. A downtown resident let me park in his spot in the parking lot. Luckily there was someone nice enough within that time to help out. Once I parked, I rushed my way to find Janice, and as soon as I stomped ground at the Calder Plaza, I seen a huge Fox17 van with a camera man and Janice standing right next to it. I had made it just in time. They were getting the camera equipment ready for the shoot. While the camera man was setting things up, Janice began to ask me questions, like, “What do you want to do with journalism?” I told Janice that my dream job is to work for E! News. Right away she told me she can definitely see me doing that. When I get comments like that, man, it really boosts my confidence. I told her I really appreciated that. Then I began to ask her questions like, “What made you go into journalism, how did you get to where you are today, and what would you say is very important about being a successful journalist?” She responded with so many great answers and that I can absolutely say were beneficial. One thing I will always remember her saying to me is, “Keep all of your work and do not burn bridges!” These two were the biggest pointers I felt she gave. With the work-keeping concept, Janice used some terminology that I never heard, which was a “read,” which is basically a disk or some type of drive that has all of your work on it.

           

            Once the camera man was ready for shooting, Janice asked for me to watch her interview some of the workers for the Laugh Festival, along with visitors. Before Janice did the interviews, I asked her, “Do you write down and think about the questions you are going to ask before shooting?” I remember her saying something like; she likes to just do research before interviewing and ask questions that come to her head when approaching the interviewee to make the interview more natural, and whatever answers she receives, she bases her next questions off the responses. When watching Janice, I noticed that that is exactly what she does. The interviews seemed so natural and flowed very well. I thought this was also a great pointer.

            I also talked to the camera man a bit, when the interviews were done. Something I took from him is that everyday is different in the journalism world. Meaning, one day you may be shooting for a fun positive event and the next day you may have to shoot for a homicide. That really made me think, because it is so true and when being a journalist, you really have to prepare yourself for instances such as that.

            Since there was a half-hour missed on my shadow, I had to leave within a certain time. So by the time the comedians came out for the laugh festival, I had to leave. But within the time I got to shadow, I can definitely say that I took a lot from the people at Fox17, and I greatly appreciated the time and consideration Miss Janice Allen invested into me. She and I are now Facebook friends and she is looking forward to seeing me again.

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For my job shadow, I had the opportunity to follow and learn things from WKAR’s Al Martin. Martin is currently the host of Current Sports, which is the weekly TV show and a daily radio call in program from WKAR. Martin is also a regular sports contributor to the Current State team and does other key sports reporting for WKAR in other media platforms. 

I followed Martin around on the day where he does his radio show. I made new friends and learned new things. I met the team who is doing things behind the scenes and learned that they just so happen to be students fulfilling their requirements for their journalism class. 

I learned that doing radio and TV, you have to have great time management skills because you’re doing almost everything live. You also have to know what you’re talking about and have you’re facts straight. I sat behind the glass during the radio show and watched Martin live as he performed his daily radio showed and saw how things take place from both the radio host and sound engineer point of view. Everyone was friendly and I really appreciated them. 

I talk to Martin after his show about school, short-term goals, long-term goals, and background information. I learned that we both grew up in the same area and both attended school near each other.  He told me that he didn’t start getting internships till his junior year and that its not too late for me to get started and any career that I want to pursue in journalism. He also told me if there is anything that I need, I could contact him for help. I can go back anytime and watch him perform his TV show. 

I don’t know if I want to go into news journalism but he did help me put some thought into that field of journalism. I’m currently leaning towards public relations, but its not set in stone as my career after school. Martin didn’t just help me learn things about him, he also help me learn things about myself and how I could do anything that I want as long as I put my 100% effort towards and be patient. 

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For my journalism job shadow, I went and followed around Justin Rose from WXYZ, the ABC affiliate for Detroit. Justin anchors for the station, as well as hosts the weekly show every Sunday morning called 7 sports Cave. I went and shadowed Justin for the taping of his show, which luckily for me, also usually features two guest panelists also in the field.

            The show starts at 11 A.M every Sunday, so we were instructed to arrive an hour and a half before the show started. This allowed us to see all the pre-show preparation. When Justin arrived he began his pre-show routine. This included going through things with Mike Foss, the shows producer, making sure they were on the same page in terms of the order of the topics they wanted to talk about among other things. Because the show is a free flowing talk show, the amount of planning that goes into it is less than other shows on TV. They still had a rundown like any other TV show, but it was interesting the amount of freedom they are given in terms of what to say. No teleprompter, just free flowing speech.

            Justin was very proactive in making sure we knew how he was approaching things and making sure we were learning while we were there. He showed us the rundown of the show, and talked about how he would lead his guests from one topic to another. He also gave us some career advice because he had free time before the show. He told us to make sure we pursue every opportunity we get, no matter how small, because little opportunities lead to big opportunities.  

            The majority of the day was spent with Foss and Rose. Both guys provided something different. My favorite part was how laid back the atmosphere was, and how friendly all the professionals were. If I were to do this job in the future, I think I would enjoy the freedom Justin had with his own talk show. He anchors during the week as well, but having that freedom for one part of your job is something that could be really cool. You could tell they really loved to do what they do. I also gained information from each one, which made my trip to WXYZ Detroit worthwhile.

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For my job shadows I was able to shadow Tom Mazawey from 105.1 ESPN Radio located in Detroit, and Justin Rose who is a sports reporter from WXYZ. I am glad I was able to shadow both of these people because I got to see two different sides of the sports industry.

            When I went to shadow Tom, I was able to sit in on his radio show with two other guys from 12-3. Radio is something that has interested me ever since I arrived at MSU and being able to sit in the studio and listen to professionals was a great opportunity. When I arrived, the morning show was wrapping up and the guys for the afternoon show were getting ready to go on air and I was able to meet all of them. They told me to never turn down an opportunity no matter where it is and that I should never burn bridges and that networking is important. One of the guys for the afternoon show, Sean Baligian, told me that he had multiple different sports jobs before finally getting the job at 105.1. Sean gave me excitement when he would talk on the radio because he was a funny and knowledgeable guy and someone I would want to be like if I do radio. After the show, I talked with the guys for a little and then thanked them and walked into Tom’s office. Tom told me that there are summer internships available and that I should apply. I think that this shadow was a great opportunity for me to see what radio is all about, and after that shadow I was very excited to possibly get the chance to work for them. It gave me a chance to see what my future could be and that’s something I look forward to.

            After my shadow with Tom, I was able to go to WXYZ and watch Justin tape his show called SportsCave. He started out by making a rundown of how the show will run and after that he looked up just a couple stats about the topics that he would talk about. Every show that he does he usually has two guests to talk with. He. His show was very smooth flowing and he did a great job at hosting it. Afterwards, he gave us some important advice about the sports business. The first thing he said was that we never pass down an opportunity to go somewhere. He made pit stops before he arrived at WXYZ and wouldn’t be there today if he didn’t take those chances. The other thing that he told us was that we should stay doing sports if that’s what we want to do. Whether it is TV, radio, or print, we should be covering sports because that’s what we are passionate about.

            After doing both job shadows, I enjoyed being able to look at both sides of the sports industry. I liked the behind the scenes of both the TV and radio, while seeing how they do the shows. The job shadows both showed me how non-scripted both were and that was something that interested me. Doing both of the shadows has allowed me to see what the future holds and allow me to start networking.  

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I did my job shadow with Anthony Odoardi, who is currently a beat writer for Livingston Daily Newspaper. For the paper, Odoardi covers high school sports in five local towns including Howell, Hartland, Pinckney, and Fowlerville. For my job shadow, I watched as Odoardi covered Pinckney High School’s varsity baseball game against Dexter High School. We watched the game, and Odoardi took notes, as I was able to ask him different questions about his job. I learned how quick a turn-around is for deadlines, his is usually 10 or 11 pm that night, and how everything is for the article is right in front of you as you are watching the game.   Things I notice were, when covering sports, you have to make sure you are paying attention to every little detail during the game, because that is where you get the basis for interviews with the coaches and/or players. A sports reporter has to have an idea of the angle before asking the questions, and that comes from how the game went. I also noticed that with high school sports, coaches a lot of times will try to push their players to get interviewed so they can get the recognition, and I think thats really cool.

            I learned a lot from my job shadowing experience. I though it was really interesting to see someone actually covering a sports game instead of just seeing the finished project. Sports Journalism is something I definitely have thought of as a career path and it was really cool to see what the process would be like for covering a game. Something I can see myself doing is more of a features aspect of Sports Journalism, rather than just covering games. I think there are so many different athletes and situations that have amazing backgrounds that you can create some really compelling stories. Overall, this was a very beneficial experience and I learned a lot about what goes into a sports story. I learned you have to pay attention to even the little things, because often times the little things are where the biggest stories can come from with sports.

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For my job shadow, I was able to shadow Shawn Windsor, a sports writer for the Detroit Free Press. I had contacted Shawn and asked to shadow him anytime soon, and although he doesn’t often cover Michigan State, he informed me he would be going to a basketball practice soon and allowed me to shadow him there.

            When we first got to the Breslin Center, we were able to walk through the center trophy room, where there were many past Big 10 Championship trophies and National Championship trophies. We entered the practice gym, where Shawn introduced me to many other freelance and beat writers for either the Detroit Free Press, Lansing State Journal, or others. He explained that Tom Izzo is one of the only coaches that allows an open practice and questions for him and the players after. The only rules he makes about this is no video of practice and if someone were to get hurt, no one was allowed to say anything about it until the team announced it later.

            As practice went on, it was very interesting to see how intense it was. We all know Tom Izzo is a yeller, but a yeller would be an understatement in practice. The players are also very intense during practice. They run through an insane amount of drills in a certain time period. There are also team managers who are required to clap, yell, and create as much energy as possible to set a real life scene for the players.

            As soon as practice ended, we went up to coaches and players for interviews. We interviewed Tom Izzo first and Shawn introduced me after and explained I was job shadowing him for I was planning on going into the sports broadcasting career and Tom Izzo wished me good luck with my future, not bad. Right after that we interviewed Matt Costello and Denzel Valentine. It was interesting to see how well they are at talking to the media. I feel as though on other teams, the players often don’t want to talk, but I did not experience this problem with the Michigan State Basketball team.

            The job shadow allowed me to get a lot of advice from Shawn Windsor, such as don’t let the negative feedback on Twitter get to you, and practice questions as much as you can because you can only get better from here. It’s also important to keep in mind that not everyone is going to want to talk to you, so if after a few times of the same questions you keep getting no answers, move on to something different.

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I had my job shadow with Jeff Smith, the only full time photojournalist for the Port Huron Times Herald. I went into the newsroom with him and on two assignments. First we went to a family restaurant closing after 22 years, then a high school soccer game. I learned about his editing process, his role, and daily tasks.

I learned that I really enjoy the newspaper/newsroom environment! I got to take pictures along side him and see how his vision worked in different situations. We went over my portfolio and he gave me advice on my pictures. He gave me advice on breaking into the industry and what types of internships to take.

Going through my portfolio was definitely the most helpful. Getting a different perspective on your work is amazing; I think I shot better this weekend after the job shadow! I even got advice on how to set up my portfolio online to apply for photojournalism jobs.

I think I made a valuable connection in Jeff. He encouraged me to keep bouncing photo ideas by him and stay in touch! 

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I shadowed David Eggert, who is currently the only full-time reporter for the Associated Press’ Lansing bureau. His office is a few blocks down from the Capitol in the shopping district.
Dave is a Michigan government and politics reporter, so right now he is mostly dealing with updates about the Flint water crisis and the Snyder administration’s response. Before the Flint water crisis, Dave frequently went down to the Capitol building to sit in on Senate and House sessions and write about the policies being enacted.
Besides the AP, Dave has worked as assistant editor at the State Journal, statehouse reporter at The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, and journalist at MLive Media Group. He was actually laid off from the AP in 2009 after working there since 2004, and returned in 2012 when a position opened up for him.
He mentioned that layoffs were a big thing during the recession, and many reporters lost their jobs. I was surprised to hear how few AP reporters there are in Michigan.
Although he graduated with two degrees in journalism, he started off in political science and he did not necessarily begin his schooling career with the idea that he would end up as a writer. He mostly likes his job because it deals with politics, but he says that it definitely has its pros and cons.
Something good about the AP is its reputation of giving sources a fair shake, having a wide reach, getting the whole story, and being competitive in getting the stories out first.

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Reporters have a “national wire,” which is a database of news stories coming in as they are reported. From there, journalists can find the whole story easily and quickly.
Dave also likes that there is something different to focus on and write about every day (besides lately with the Flint water crisis).
Something changing in the AP is that reporters need to “write for the ear more” so stories can be easily translated into news and radio stories, which generally means keeping the writing under 130 words. Dave doesn’t like this aspect of the job, and I don’t think I would either.
The main drawbacks are the long hours sitting at a desk in a small office, “cutting through the noise” to get at the truth and the newsworthy content, and getting stuck in a groove by covering the same beat for a long period of time.
It’s also hard to put in work on something on the horizon while working on pressing matters for right now. AP does want more “investigative” type stories, but as Dave mentioned, it’s hard to find the time for this while pressing updates need to be written about.
Dave is very helpful and a great person to talk to, but I was surprised to see that this kind of reporting is not as exciting as I was hoping it would be. I’m not sure if I want to do hard news political writing anymore — maybe writing features or for magazines would suit me more. I just don’t want to get stuck in the same rut and keep reporting about the same things from the same perspectives. I want an exciting career and I think that maybe this might not be the right way to go about it. 


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I shadowed Kenneth Palmer, a breaking news journalist at the Lansing State Journal, on April 18, 2016. Palmer is one of the journalists at the Lansing State Journal that does not have normal hours; he usually works from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. So after I was done with class on that Monday I headed over to the Knapp’s Centre building in Lansing, which is where the Lansing State Journal recently relocated.

            When I got there Palmer said that some of the days working as a journalist are exciting and others are boring, and the day I ended up job shadowing him ended up being a more boring day where he did not have to leave the office. Palmer’s day depends on if he gets a call where he has to leave the office to cover a story, or else he usually is sitting in his office making calls and writing stories.

            The first thing Palmer showed me was a huge TV screen in the middle of the room that showed how many people were on the Lansing State Journal website, which articles they were viewing, and how long they have been on those articles. Palmer said that he glances at the screen throughout the day to see which articles are more popular than others. It’s interesting to see which articles are popular among readers because according to Palmer, some articles that he thinks will be very popular are not and some articles that don’t seem very important end up being very popular.

            After sitting next to Palmer at his desk for a little bit, everyone in the office gathered for the 4 o’ clock meeting. Everyone on the Lansing State Journal gets together at 4 p.m. to discuss what they are working on and when the deadlines should be for those stories. After the meeting, everyone heads back to their desks to continue their work.

            Palmer was working on an obit story the day I shadowed him. He and another journalist were working on getting interviews from family members of the man who died. According to Palmer, sometimes journalists on the Lansing State Journal will post a shorter story right away, and then they will add to it when they get more information. Palmer also tends to posts stories without having an editor read it, which I found interesting. Since he has been working on the Lansing State Journal for such a long time, he is trusted to post stories without making mistakes.

            Around 5:30 p.m. Palmer was notified that there was a fire on Oakland Avenue. The first thing Palmer did when he received this news was tweet that Oakland Avenue is closed due to a fire. He then called the fire department to get information about the fire, and it turns out that by the time he called the fire was put out because it was not that big of a deal. Nonetheless he wrote a blurb about the fire to keep the people on Lansing notified.

            Palmer talked about how journalism is now becoming a job where you have to know how to do many more things than just writing an article from taking photos to editing. The best advice Palmer gave me during the job shadow was that being a journalist is a job where you have to go out and do it. Journalism doesn’t just come to you, you have to go out and find a story yourself. Although this job shadow was not very exciting I did learn a lot from Palmer. Being a journalist is much different than it used to be, because you need to be more well-rounded and some days you spend the whole day in the office.