New Media Journalism Final Project--Mastery Journal
Today marks the end of a long race. I have reached the final milestone to achieving my Master’s degree in New Media Journalism, with my thesis class being the last hurdle that needed to be jumped. I am proud to say that I have leapt that hurdle, barely brushing it with the toe of my shoe it seems due to the strict timeline and structure we had to abide by to finally be able to say we have completed all the requirements. We are closing the door to this chapter while opening another to the next chapter. I say this is the end of a long race. But it is not the end. It is merely the beginning, where we get to use the tools gained throughout the last year, applying them to the future tasks to come. This course was THE MOST challenging of the courses throughout this program, as well as one of the most rewarding. In starting this course, I knew it would be more difficult since it involved the completion of our thesis from the capstone project in the last class. This involved a more formal approach with even more thorough research. If this program taught me one thing only, I would say it would be that as an aspiring journalist, research is golden. There is no such thing too much research, but too little does exist. Part of the building reputation in this career is how we establish ourselves in our credibility and reliability. In the end, it always involves the type of information we present, how factual it is, and those sources we use to back up our story. I will say that is my one big take-away in this class as well as the entire program. This course, New Media Journalism Final Project’s focus was 100% on producing a graduate level thesis paper. Normally, this task would frighten me due to its rigid requirements that would render it complete however, our instructor for the course made the process run easily and smoothly. Each week, we submitted a chapter of our thesis for review and revise the chapter per the advice our instructor provided. At the end of the course, all that was needed would be putting the chapters together, creating the end result of a well-written graduate level thesis. There were times I felt I would not be up to task, only to prove myself wrong. I am able to say I have completed a rigorous program in the span of one year, overcoming any fears and doubts throughout this year, finishing strong.














