#writingforinteractivemedia

[labreshaladay]

Writing for Interactive Media

My original objective for achieving my master’s in public relations is to help me create and protect my brand, company, artists and self. The Writing for Interactive Media course this month has helped guide me closer to my objective by analyzing my writing and storytelling. Analyzing my writing has helped me critique my storytelling in a professional, journalistic manor. This has helped me learn how to interact and engage with my audience. Something I’ve learned in this course that can help me outline my personal and professional goals are the outlines I created for each assignment. This simple task has showed me how to organize my writing, so I include all necessary information in the correct format. This course showed me how to take something personal I’m dealing with and put it in a professional tone for a newsworthy article. My favorite assignment I enjoyed working on was the about me sections of the course. Usually it’s hard for me to talk about myself, because I’m used to hearing about others and helping them understand and see themselves. This assignment helped me see my background, personality, skills, and unique identifier displayed in a professional manner that my audience will be intrigued by. This only motivated me more to accomplish my goals and dreams, by being able to set the foundation for who I am and what I have to offer my fans and future employees. As well as what my brand, company, and self, stand for. I remember reading many biography pages of people I am motivated and inspired by. As I read final About Me assignment, I got that same professional feeling as I did when I read about the people that inspire me. With this being said, I’m thankful for everything I learned in Writing for Interactive Media.

[michellemattesoncreativewri-blog]

Writing for Interactive Media

I must admit, I  feared this course, Writing for  Interactive Media. One of my main fears going into this course was interviewing people I didn’t know. I know one part of being a journalist is not having a  fear to talk with people. After all, I let my writing do that for years for me.  However, I did four interviews this month and overcame that fear. I must say,  I’m tremendously proud of myself.

 Also, I learned valuable information in this course. I learned how to an interview, write a  proper headline, how to structure an article in the correct format, and various outlets at my disposal to distribute my articles.

 In addition, I  learned how to include the: who, what,  where, why, when, and who cares, into my articles. All the important information that needs to be in the first paragraph of my article.

 Also, I learned what a nut graph is and how to apply a nut graph into my articles.

 The one thing this course taught me is not to doubt myself, seriously. As I said previously, I  was scared to get out of my comfort zone and go talk with people. I know overcoming this fear will help me in my professional career. I mean, I want to be a journalist. I have to collect quotes from people to make my article seem credible. Now, since I can do this, I’ll be able to go forward and conduct more interviews with future interviewees.

 I found so much value in this class and had an amazing professor that helped me these past four weeks. I’m thankful for everything I learned in Writing for Interactive  Media.

[krystamichelebaron-blog]

I learned that just being news does not make information 'newsworthy.'

Krysta Baron

Originally, my goals for the Writing for Interactive Media course were to (1) master various storytelling methods, (2) communicate themes through articulate writing, and (3) determine necessary story structures for specific platforms. If I had known what type of instructor Meredith Cochie was before I started this course, I could have checked off these goals before we even got started.

One of my strategies for learning to determine which story structures are necessary for specific platforms was to establish habits to actively engage the audience in each platform. I received feedback throughout the course from my professor and my classmates that enabled me to edit my writing in a way that would reach my readers better. I believe that my writing became more relatable because of the critiques I received.

One example of instructor critique making my writing better is the story idea I submitted about ADHD medications and the effects they have on the young boys who take them. I ended up holding off on writing that story because Professor Cochie showed me how much more captivating the article could be if I narrowed it down to one child’s personal journey with ADHD. If I had not followed her advice, my article would have been an extremely surface story riddled with facts from agencies and organizations rather than a compelling story that pulled at the heartstrings of my readers.

I truly believe that developing stories in a way that puts people right into the story is important. One of the first questions Professor Cochie would ask for each assignment is, “Why does it matter?” This question is much more thought-provoking than it seems at first glance. By taking the time to answer this question, I was able to rule out many story ideas because they just did not matter. I learned that just being news does not make information “newsworthy.” I had to find those stories that would make people care.

My professional and personal writing experiences will be much different from now on. My biggest takeaway from this course is how to narrow down a story idea so that it is not just a compilation of facts. I have learned to turn ideas and facts into an engaging story, and I look forward to using this new talent in my future endeavors.

[tkcsr]

Theopolis K. Caldwell Sr.’s Writing for Interactive Media Mastery Journal

I found this class to be extremely helpful on my journey to becoming a Journalist.  In my prior classes I learned how to master my craft, identifying my target audience and new skills such as posting content to multiple platforms.  I learned plenty from my fearless professor. Her attention to detail was very helpful the last two courses. She was such a huge help by giving me the confidence in myself to work through my mistakes and learn from them.  

 My cohorts as well gave a lot of insightful thoughts to my work that truly was of great assistance in during my time in this course.

 My experience in undergrad for a course similar to this one was indeed different as far as rigor. I have to admit that the challenge seemed intimidating at times, I never wrote a content a day in my life. It was always I will cover this story and report it. Now I don’t feel that way. I have a sense of empowerment now that I have a plan.

 My goal before this course was to get a further understanding of online media and by all means that goal was exceeded. Specifically speaking the About, Me page was indeed an assignment that was difficult for me. I don’t know about anyone else but it is hard to talk sell myself. I was always good at listening to others and being able to relay their story but telling my own took some time to process. Letting others into my world is never a problem but writing it is where the issues to play. Even now I am somewhat struggling with being in depth but the assignment along with my awesome cohort’s comments encouraged me to be confident in what I present.

 Personally this course has giving me a blueprint to be a little more organized than usual during my daily life. I have plenty of responsibility as a husband and father working multiple jobs, school my day is consumed with so much but creating an outline has been helpful.

 As in for my career, an outline is going to save my life each and every time I want to “make some stuff” as my fearless professor says. No longer will I be confused about what to write and where to be at and why it’s so important. Rather I work for a newsroom or even produce my own I content I always go back my outline to reference the story.

[britt-lashea-blog]

Writing for Interactive Media ~ Reflection

Full Sail University’s Writing for Interactive Media course was an eye-opening course. It was my first experience in writing as a journalist. Upon entering the course my initial assessment of what we would be doing was a little skewed. I knew we would be writing a little but I thought we would also be tapping into the production of news as well. 

I was happy to be wrong in my initial assessment. There are quite a few steps to getting the written portion of journalism down. I am quite pleased that we started from the absolute basics of how to construct a proper journalistic story. There are layers to the buildup of a story and a proper way to quote an interviewee.  I had never interviewed a person before so the experience was a great deal of help as an ice breaker into providing a quality article to my readers.

What I discovered most in doing the two article requested in this course, was researching my topics and essentially creating an article on my discoveries. Being requested to interview people helped me become in a small amount an extrovert. I normally will not approach someone or seek them out for anything. This class gave me a reason to just strike up a conversation. I learned a lot from the techies in Nashville as well as made a good number of contacts. Learning to network within your circle can help assist you in future adventures; so I am finding out.

Practice makers perfect. Writing for Interactive Media was a stepping stone, a starting point, my foundation into my new writing career. I will use the tools provided to me and continue to practice my craft. In doing so, this will help me continue to achieve my personal goal and purpose.

[write-toexist-blog]

Writing for Interactive Media

During my graduate career at Full Sail, Writing for Interactive Media has been the most informative and exciting course thus far. Interactive writing is a brilliant way to reach readers over a broad spectrum of social media outlets. This course met my expectations and added a building block to the prior course. I enjoyed how public relations were also tied in with journalism. Over the past four weeks I have had multiple opportunities to gain experience in the field of media journalism. Doing research, setting up interviews, and practicing note-taking techniques has been a major highlight in this course. Learning the types of questions to ask in an interview, and how to tailor them to the interviewee have been the most fun. It was awesome to get the chance to conduct interviews with people that are noteworthy within my community. I have learned a lot about myself and who I am as a future journalist. The areas that I feel are weak, I see the opportunity to grow and expand through interactive writing. I now know what questions to ask in order to gain more knowledge on writing for digital media. The areas that I feel comfortable in have been able to shine through my work. Discussion boards have been helpful in seeing other people’s perspectives on profile, how-to, and live event articles. Conducting different types of stories has been an eye opening learning experience. Learning how to publish my own work on my website has been an enjoyable task. It is neat to watch pieces of writing come together. It has been extremely helpful to learn different ways of interactive writing and tools that aid in the editing process. The practice that I’ve had has allowed my level of confidence in my writing to grow. I see myself becoming an effective digital communicator. The personal sense of accomplishment in this class has been overwhelming.

[jessanadeangel-blog]

WIM Mastery Journal Assignment

Looking back on my goal for this course, which was to “gain the tools I need to write effectively so that I may tell my story in a way that engages the audience, enhancing my effectiveness as a motivational speaker,” I think we covered some of the types of writing that I wanted to learn about, but not others. I learned quite a bit by reviewing and writing about various article types in this course, like How-to’s, live events, and profiles, but I would have liked to have learned some creative writing and blog-post type writing, as well. The type of writing we covered will help me in my future career as a digital communicator by widening my knowledge of various ways to write to capture my audience, and provide them with facts and information that may be relevant to my audience and/or my subject. Since I plan on being a blogger rather than a news journalist, I would have liked more practice writing from my perspective instead of just the third person, but I understand why we could not.

 I found the course was effective in it’s goals, and that it met my expectations knowing it was the basis for a journalism degree, and that it was not meant to instruct on how to write effectively as a blogger. The course provided me with the knowledge and skills to be able to write an effective news or media article, research the information I need, interview when necessary, and provided me with a broader knowledge of writing for journalism overall. The course also taught me to research and evaluate an article similar to the type that I am writing in order to gain a better understanding of how to effectively write my own article by seeing the pros and cons from the other article. Overall, I feel I learned quite a bit from the course that will help me in my future career as a motivational writer and speaker, and am looking forward to my upcoming classes.

[dezibritt-blog]

Writing for Interactive Media

First I would like to say thank you for following me on my journey towards Mastery in my field public relations as I attend Full Sail University to obtain my Masters of Arts in Public Relations. In this exciting course of Writing for Interactive Media, the writing was intense. The course expanded our traditional writing techniques to focus on the fundamentals and specific of public relations. As a public relations practitioner specific skills are required to provide your clients with the best representation that you can offer.

 As our intense writing began early on in week one we expand our journalist skills with developing a How To Article. This was extremely different but fun and allowed me to be informative with informative I was comfortable with writing about.  In public relations becoming comfortable with people is only a must to success, case in point the career title “public relations” relating to the public is the foundation.  In week two, we were asked to create a mock press release. In this activity we had to interview an important bystander and cover a newsworthy event. In week three, covering a live community event and interviewing more than one individual for the assignment of writing an event article. Our last assignment was to take your writing to the last level, which instructed us to write a profile article on an individual of our choice that displays character and has proven them to be newsworthy.

 Overall Writing for Interactive Media has given me the confidence and knowledge on how to become a master in my field of public relations. This course has pushed me to stay focus and tackle writing techniques that were needed for me to succeed in my career. This course by far is one of the best. Even though their were days were I felt challenged or maybe even feeling discourage, I knew this course was only to make me stronger and I pushed through it will great success! My course instructor provides us with many resources to be successful throughout the course such as, archives, articles, videos, and more! I will use all these resources as I continue on my journey towards Mastery. All the assignments were relevant and provided a benefited addition to my skills. There was nothing more I could’ve wanted and/or except from this course!