For the sake of transparency, I will be honest and say I am taking this class because I need 18 credits this semester to be able to graduate early. I am a psychology major and minoring in criminal justice, so taking a journalism class never crossed my mind before. Looking at the list of elective courses and seeing JOU-1300 there were a few reasons for why I decided to take this class. I want to improve my writing skills, I am very curious about journalism as a profession, and I just enjoy learning about topics that I do not have any previous knowledge about.
Being a good writer is an important skill regardless of your profession. Seeing as this class would focus heavily on written assignments, I believed it would be useful to help me, especially since I tended to avoid writing as much as possible for most of my life. The reason is that when I was younger I was diagnosed with dyslexia, which made writing, especially spelling, extremely difficult for me. This caused me to dislike writing as I struggled with it, however, as I got older I fell in love with reading which in turn helped me slightly improve my writing abilities. While I still heavily struggle in this area I do enjoy writing more than I used to, and I am hoping this class will help me further improve my writing skills and make me more confident in my writing abilities.
Another reason for me to decide to take this class is that I am curious about journalism's impact on American society. Journalism is an important profession that sometimes gets overlooked by the general public, so I am looking forward to learning about the history of journalism and the societal impacts it has. Seeing what separates a news site that has poor journalistic integrity compared to one that has ethics and standards is extremely important. With most news sites being heavily fueled by personal beliefs or opinions, it is important for any person to know what to look out for when they are looking for a news outlet to get updates on current events. I believe this class will help me be better at spotting what sources are influenced by opinion and which ones are committed to reporting the truth.
Finally, I just enjoy learning about topics that I don’t know anything about. When I saw that this class was available for me to take as an elective it was the most interesting one that was offered. I know next to nothing about journalism and I am genuinely curious to learn more about it, the history behind the career, the way the profession has evolved, and the importance journalism has in history sounds extremely interesting. I believe that gaining new knowledge about a new topic is important, as it can help with critical thinking skills, and help you gain a new perspective on something. I am genuinely interested to learn more about journalism and to see the different aspects journalism plays in our society.
While I do not plan to go into a journalism career I do believe that the knowledge I gain from this class will be useful to me and help me in the future. Not only that, this class will make me more well-informed about the current state of journalism, the impact it had in the past, and the current role it plays in today’s society. For those reasons that is why I decided to take JOU-1300 as an elective course this semester.
