Final Reflection, Advanced Digital Journalism.

Journalism for the 21st-century

Attending LaGuardia Community College is amazing and my experience has been transformative. I started college with no direction or idea what I wanted to do with my time as a student. After my first semester I decided to learn how to express myself through writing. I attended my first English class in Fall 2018 and I was hooked. Writing is my passion but my learning disabilities make it challenging.

This semester I attended a class led by Professor Richard Dragan, English 208 Digital Journalism. I had no idea what to expect, and the class was challenging onset, but the skills I aquired provided me with a direction for the future.

Before attending the Digital Journalism class in March 2019, my digital experience was limited. In four months, I learned to structure a news story, blogging with Word Press gave me plenty of practice. I can identify and use basic technology such as adobe flash, photoshop, meta-slider pro, and audacity. Learning about the different technologies to create data visualizations and other types of digital journalism was the best part of the course. I am still an amateur regarding technology, but my skills have improved greatly and next term I will grow them further.

Professor Dragan curated multiple examples of digital journalism so the class could experience and identify the technology used to support it. Digital data visualization, especially virtual three dimensional is my favorite. All math and statistics classes should utilize three dimensional data visualization. The interactive and visual components will keep the student engaged especially in the mundane subjects like statistics. I expect data driven technology to experience growth in a variety of subjects.

My concentration is Journalism but my focus is on Public Policy and Urban Studies. I will use my WordPress blog as a portfolio to cover the stories which impact the citizens of New York and the nation. Covering NYCHA is always a priority due to the fact I live in Public Housing. The family homeless population is also a topic near and dear to my heart and the best and worst stories are yet to be published. Social Advocacy combined with Journalism has taught me the power of community. Generations of journalists have been, and continue to be, the social renegades reporting the stories of the underserved communities in our nation both responsibly and accurately.

Journalism has radically changed in the past two decades. Presently social media, citizen journalism, podcasts and bloggers are the media channels for streamlining information and entertainment. I believe the change has challenged the established print news but most mainstream print organizations have claimed their online presence. The new generation of 21st century journalist are different from the journalist of yesteryear. They grew up with a device in their hand so they possess multiple media skills. They are well versed in many languages, digital/media savvy and use technology to customize the story experience to the needs of the consumer. They will craft a new path dictating the skills necessary to succeed in journalism.

The Journalism Information Session May 28, 2019 at LaGuardia Community College

Tuesday May 28, 2019 LaGuardia Community college held the annual information session for the journalism program. The session highlighted the journalism option at LaGuardia college and included presentations by faculty, student journalists, and graduates of the College. A brief presentation by a well spoken young man by the name of Jonathan Custodio was inspirational. Custodio, a student journalist at Lehman College, received the reporting grant from the Pulitzer Center through LaGuardia Community College 2018, he graduated with an associate’s degree in journalism. The series he wrote for thePulitzer grant highlighted the struggles of the Afro/Mexican community in Mexico. The series is a great read. https://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/preparing-carnaval-coyolillo