Friday, April 22, 2016

Career Goals for An Aspiring Journalist



As a broadcast journalist being one of the better storytellers in the business is the consummate goal. As an aspiring sports reporter with the eye of going from a small market to a medium then a major market that type of work ethic to tell the story should shine and work as a branding tool for you the reporter. It brings back to light the week five discussions on branding yourself and what it means to actually brand as an independent person.

A trend has been happening ever since the growth of social media and that is self promotion and branding. Journalists and reporters getting out their stories with a link while also adding a small description. The writing quality and the gained following only help the individuals doing the branding and promotion for themselves as writers or broadcasters. It definitely can be argued that this is one of the most important aspects of this business and class. How are you making yourself unique in the eyes of your target audience?

In the sports and news world people recognize the better storytellers in the business of journalism. Branding goes beyond the name. It is all the pieces that communicate to the reader, listener and viewer about who you are and what you do. For me this is key to understand and continue to work at because getting noticed online, through social media and your stories being shown on-air is tough to do nowadays because as Michael Hyatt would put “It is just too Noisy.”

Ways of sharing the stories have gone from Facebook to twitter as two main user realms that help grow your audience or get you one.  A chance to get views, likes and listens. For example, I have a sound cloud account I was a reporter this year for a High school basketball show in West Virginia called Basketball Friday Night. I would report on the stories of our standout athletes of the week. Trying something new I posted a link to one of my stories from sound cloud on twitter. The story went from zero listens to ten. I found that linking the stories to my social media accounts helped my listening total number as my followers continued to click on the links and hear the story on the standout-athlete.


No one is better at knowing your platform than yourself. The process for branding takes time but can be built to your benefit without the need for hiring outside help. If you have done a great job of this self promotion and building of quality work not only is there audience growth but audience trust for you the writer and broadcaster. Everything hinted at in this post is something I need to be aware of. Making sure I utilize all these aspects to the fullest extent to help build a following and audience. This connection comes full circle for any journalist wanting to make a name for themselves in a crowded and competitive field.

Friday, April 1, 2016

ERUPT IN A NOISY WORLD


            Just as high school basketball player Nicolas Greely pictured above erupts to the basket for the slam dunk that's what has to be done to also make an impact in the online community. Erupt is a strange word to use I know but would you be reading if the word wasn't there. Michael Hyatt wrote in his book Platform: Get noticed in a Noisy World about attracting your audience by turning on the brightest lights you can find. Hyatt talks about "erupting" technically to grow you visitors by having a simple platform.

Platform = Content

Platform and content go hand and hand each are foundations to your sites, stories and products. It is important for the field of journalism because without quality content there won't be a growth online for the creator of that platform. Many pieces of content do not stand on there own anymore it needs a what and who. We have had to learn more about building the audience through understanding how design and simple catchy titles can get your foot in the door for people to read your content. Content is a concept learned week through week in this class without it you do not have a site or blog.

Using it to brand yourself in journalism

We talked about content being used to help establish audience growth and credibility throughout the semester. We also talked about branding. Branding connects with Hyatt's book because in the book it is explained if you have a great platform marketing doesn't become difficult or tough. Branding yourself takes time and in journalism that can be helped with credibility. Learning in week 5 that branding is what sets you a part from many others that cloud the online atmosphere. Hyatt also introduced the fact that messaging comes together with the branding concept because it can be a as simple as a savvy tagline.

Remember

These are points that show the same thinking we have learned from the modules this semester and the book Platform. How each have segments that equal each other. They will be what the people would and should expect from your blog or site that cuts through the noise. Causing the audience to ask themselves if "they identify" and "is there a connection. Platform and content, branding and messaging these four concepts help the individual creator erupt in a noisy world. 











Friday, March 11, 2016

The Game Changer : Sports told in storytelling fashion




Best ways to story tell

Being authentic in sports stories is key to attracting the audience the writer wants as well as keep the ones they already have. Being genuine and using statistics to back up your story. Making sure you are credible and concrete giving your story the power it needs. Using all forms of media as well to convey the story impact. Take for instance the game I want to tell through these game photos of Marshall men’s basketball last home game in the 2015-16 season. The game was a thriller that came to a last second make by Marshall’s Austin Loop (#35) over Southern Miss. Still photos can tell the outcome of the game by the reactions and give you a look at the key point in a game or situation. Having these options give your story weight and power a chance were even multimedia highlights and a recap could be put in the story that do not overwhelm the reader.





A Connection

This is a connection that is important to storytelling because plain text does not do it. More avenues are need to give the story more power. Also giving the article and the site a chance to be search more in an engine as you draw links closer to the site and article. Making sure your HTML can connect easy. Making sure there are ALT txt for photos. SEO options and multimedia are needed to draw traffic to the site and to story tell correctly. Without this there is a struggle to understand the true nature of being a good communicator and storyteller. This needs to happen and videos, audio, text , infographics should be used to tell the story. In my career I have to be able to do this at the best of my ability. I will be in the business of storytelling and to attract an audience I must have vast but not overwhelming media and tools.