11/17 EQ

My essential question:
How can I utilize photojournalism and all its elements to such an effective degree that I express common social, political, and economic problems of our generation and promote awareness of said various world issues?

• I selected this as my essential question because it is exactly why I am pursuing photojournalism and it is what I want to accomplish with my work. I want to take pictures that matter, pictures that change things. I want to create awareness and ignite passions with pictures that inspire others to go out and change the world.
• It excites me to begin to find answers to this question, and I do emphasize "begin," because I truly believe I will be discovering answers to this question for the rest of my career. I am excited because this answer provides me with the starting block for what I want to do for the rest of my life and what I want to accomplish with my life. 
• I definitely do think and know this question reflects a desire I have to find out more about my career of choice. I want to know HOW I can accomplish what I want to: taking pictures that matter. I want to know how I can use what I have learned about photography and journalism to accomplish that goal. I want to know the answer because it is a question about my life goal. 

11/10 Blog Post

In the past month at Jacobs Media, I have learned far more than I ever thought I would learn there the whole year. My mentor has let me experience a little bit of everything. I signed up for photography, and I am getting to do some of that (for instance, on Halloween I covered an event and the photos got published on Access North Ga), but I spend most of my time writing... and I love it! I do things like reading a press release and then write a story for Access North Ga from the press release. Then with the same release, I write an HR (headliner) or an RV (a lengthier wording complete with a voice recording) for WDUN Radio. It took me a while to understand what those were... in basic terms, they are the scripts for the news casts! I also update the Associated Press Wire, along with the GNN stories and I add those to the site. My work is always edited by my mentor and then the main editor, who always help me get better everyday. I also do things like edit news cast sound bites, along with pulling the Accuweather forecast for the day and helping record the daily stock news. I am always doing something hands-on, I am never just observing. I absolutely love my coworkers and my mentor and I love what I am doing. Though I must admit, sometimes news stories can REALLY get depressing.

The class that has most helped me prepare for my internship with Jacobs Media has been Yearbook. I began yearbook in eighth grade and have continued ever since. I am now enrolled in Journalism 3, or Yearbook 3. I am the 2014-2015 Sports Editor of the Onyx Yearbook. This class taught me how to interview, a VITAL skill to surviving the real world of journalism. It also taught me how to respond to criticism, how to write articles, how to improve my photography, and how to get along with people even if we have very different opinions. It taught me to understand the hierarchy regarding editors and staff. It taught me to care about what I am doing and to make people want to read it, while still maintaining objectivity and being truthful.

11/9 Blog Post

The following is a blog post reflecting on this article:

http://growingleaders.com/blog/first-soft-skill-develop-students/


Current youth, those graduating from college and entering the workplace, can face many problems in the work place. One of the biggest now is a product of the role technology plays in this generation. Many of the current members of the post-college youth are lacking a skill set that allows them to act professionally in the workplace, as many interactions through social media and technology have prevented them from reaching that skill. Another problem arises from the value many young people place in tattoos and hair dyes and piercings. This leads to problems in the workplace when employers ask for those items to be removed in order to create a more professional appearance.

Social intelligence is simply the ability to understand, interact in, and maintain complex social relationships. It is the ability to be a leader and understand how to absolve possible social conflicts. It was defined by Edward Thorndike as being: "The ability to understand and manage men, women, boys, and girls, to act wisely in human relations." Daniel Goleman said that social intelligence includes: empathy, attunement, social cognition, concern, self-presentation, and influence.

Social intelligence is important because it sets leaders apart. It makes it clear that one is able and has the work ethic needed to make something happen. It the driving force behind making a good impression and without it, one could never move up.

This article spoke to me personally in the idea that tattoos/hair length/piercings are not central to one's ideas. For instance, though I may want a nose ring, it is not central to who I am and therefore not necessary to survival.