Just a little about me

There are two reasons I’m writing this blog. The first is to practice blogging , which shouldn’t be hard for me because I’ve maintained two blogs before. (More on that later.) The second reason is to chronicle my growth as a writer/journalist and watch my writing style progress.

I have been into writing since I was very young, and I never found the right outlet until I was in middle school. In seventh grade, I started writing for the new student newspaper, primarily doing humor columns and special interest stories. After two years of that, I had enough articles to get selected for the high school paper, and subsequently spent the following four years writing for the newspaper, acting as an editor, and also leading the school’s Web-broadcast department during my junior and senior years. I won a couple of awards for my writing and a third-place award for overall best newscast for the Web-broadcast department – one of the proudest moments of my high school career.

During high school, I also wrote for The Tribune’s education page during the summer. (At the time, it was The Greeley Tribune.) It was here that I learned a lot of things regarding format that I still use for writing, such as using only said for quotes.

After high school, I applied for a position as a photographer at The Mirror, UNC’s student-run newspaper. I soon took another position as a writer, and the following year decided to dedicate myself to news writing. I haven’t looked back since.

For my beat in this class, I’m following Student Activities at the University Center. I chose this because it’s not much different from what I do at The Mirror – I cover special events around campus, including a couple at the UC. I already know a lot about the UC, the Student Activities office and what goes on there, as well as people who put together and hold events there.

One of my weaknesses as a journalist is writing feature stories. I’ve attempted these in the past at The Mirror, and often they’re no different from the traditional stories I write. I also have trouble writing quickly – it takes a while for me to write a decent story. Technically, I can write a quick story, but they’re usually not print-worthy, in my opinion.

As far as my blogging experience goes, I maintain another blog for my other interest – filmmaking – and use it to promote some of the short films I post on my Youtube page. I also occasionally post video blogs on YouTube, either responding to viewers or showing behind-the-scenes work on films.



As a filmmaker, I appreciate blogging because it allows me to have an additional platform to showcase my work. As a journalist however, I generally turn my nose up at blogs, because often those that claim to be news sites are of poor quality, opinionated and unreliable. I usually hold blogs proclaiming to be news sites in the same category as tabloids and talk radio. I’m not anti-blogger; I’m just much more critical of “news” blogs in general. Maybe this blog will help me appreciate blogging as a journalist.