The first thought I had when starting work on this program was: “Wow, This is what it’s like to work in a professional newsroom.” For so long, I’ve had a bit of imposter syndrome when it came to my journalistic work. Since I’ve had to work in non-professional school environments for my entire career up to this point, I was worried that I would be unable to handle the stress and environment of real professional journalism. However, if Next Generation Radio is anything to go by, I actually thrive and do better work in an environment like this one.
The access to reliable and capable people to assist me with my story has helped me create one of the best pieces of journalism I’ve ever made. The ability to work with editors to solidify my stories into the best they can be is a skill that I will cultivate and grow to be able to put out top-notch journalism.
I also feel extremely lucky to be able to be connected with so many skilled professionals in the journalism world, and I feel their support and expertise has been invaluable. I hope I will be able to maintain the connections I’ve made throughout this program to gain support in my career.
In terms of things I wish I did differently, I do wish that I was able to communicate and collaborate as much with my fellow reporters, and in the future I will attempt to maintain connections with other reporters so we can provide support for each other. I also feel some of my work early on was limited by my lack of self-confidence, and that my story may have been even better if I had that from the beginning.
I believe my biggest takeaway from this entire experience is that I should be more confident in my abilities as a journalist, and that I should seek out capable people to surround myself with, so I can really make my stories shine.
