Mastery Journal Entry
Before decking the halls with boughs of holly during December, I dipped my toes into the world of investigating and researching during the Research and Investigative Skills Development online course. Throughout the course, I was challenged to go through public record websites to find valid information related to the beat of my website, which in my case is traveling and tourism. I will admit that while this is the fifth course that I have taken with Full Sail University, this has by far proven to be the most challenging of them all. However, it did force me to work harder than ever and use different delivery methods to help support the topic of the articles I have written. During my time on this course, the three aspects of the course helped me complete my assignments and reach the goals I had originally set for myself before starting the course.
The first is creating an infographic graphic which fulfills my goal of making my articles more appealing to readers with visuals other than photographs and video clips. This has also allowed me to put my art and design skills to the test, as I have never created an infographic before, and I have found this a great challenge. I needed to figure out which formatting would be perfect for delivering my message to the world. The second is getting to know your interviewee while asking the questions needed for the data of the article. As a journalist, it is my job to not only gather information from the people I have interviewed but to also get to know them on a personal level. This has fulfilled my goal of making connections with others outside of this course.
The final aspect that has helped me get through this course is the reliability of the many sources that I used to help me search for the information needed to write my articles. Throughout this month, I have used a variety of sources such as Google Scholar, Internet Public Library, and the Library of Congress. With these search engines, I was able to find articles with reliable and trustworthy sources to deliver accurate information to my readers, and with this aspect, I have fulfilled my third goal of delivering accurate information to my readers. After all, I cannot just base my story on rumors that have been circulating in the industry for weeks.
Overall, this course has been a wonderful opportunity to help me gain investigation skills and fulfill the three goals needed for my career in the journalism field and I hope that when I look back at my time with the institution, I can clearly say with confidence that I can investigate just as well as any reporter in the news industry.