If in some strange case, you end up on this page again...

Blogger's been fun, but I've moved on.
Please visit my new blog, which can be found at http://blog.jessicaestepa.com or http://jessicaestepa.wordpress.com. Both URLs should lead to the same page.

Goals for winter break.

Once I'm over being mad at everything, I plan on being productive.

Really.

1) More internship applications. As per last blog post, you can see my success rate is nonexistent. Thus, I will need to apply to more internships to up my chances of actually working this summer vs. being a bum and avoiding my parents' house by staying in Reno.

2) Switch blog over to WordPress.

3) Work out the whole "covering state legislature" thing with j-school and Sagebrush.

4) Figure out what exactly I will be doing with journalism next semester (meaning: more lists). Will include state legislature coverage, potentially (hell, hopefully) working more at the RGJ, teaching myself Flash and several more Web things (or at the very least, starting that process), and reading more "future of journalism" stuff.

5) Find a job so I can eat, live somewhere and be warm in my decades-old house.

6) Read the entirety of "Elements of Style." Yes, I've never read the entire thing cover to cover.

7) Make Dell fix my laptop and accept those files are gone forever in Hard Drive Crashed Land.

8) Make plans to: pay off credit card debt, graduate on time, accomplish a very specific goal that I won't announce on Blogger (for now).

9) Read. Just read. I need to do something that makes me happy, right?

Places I won't be working at this summer.

- Washington Post
- Orlando Sentinel
- St. Petersburg Times
- Buffalo News
- Star Tribune (where I was only known as "Internship candidate)
- San Jose Mercury News (which titled its e-mail "FW: Intern Rejection Notice")

List will be updated as more letters arrive.

Maybe I should set my sights a little lower. Or study abroad. Or both.

I know rejections are a part of life. I received plenty of them last year, and I expect I will receive many more in the years to come.

But it's just one of those days where you're like, "Really? On top of everything else, this too?"

Sigh.

Switching to WP soon.

Will be officially implemented and have the URL for this blog (blog.jessicaestepa.com) soon enough:

http://jessicaestepa.wordpress.com/

Thoughts?

You know how Facebook makes things official?

Well, I guess it's official now.




I feel so weird. Not good, not bad...just weird.

My Publish2 entry.

So there's this contest I've decided to enter since it's something I think about constantly: the "I Am the Future of Journalism" contest, being put on by Publish2.

The way it works is that you submit an entry where you can write text, create a video and a slideshow to convince people out there that you are the future of journalism. Then others get to decide if you made your point by voting for you.

It's kind of interesting, because the person who wins gets a job with the company. That's one way of doing it, right?

I doubt I'll win or even make it the final 10 entries. After all, I'm one of hundreds of journalists, and all of these journalists have similar ideas.

But I figure I've got nothing to lose.

Here's what I wrote for my entry.

A couple of weeks ago, I received a group invitation on Facebook:
“Don’t Let Newspapers Die!”
I declined the invite. The group has since grown to 32,101 members.
After reading about cuts and layoffs and watching advertising numbers decline, I came to one conclusion: newspapers ARE dying.
But here’s the second part of that conclusion: journalism isn’t.
And that realization right there is why I’m the future of journalism.
To save quality journalism, the kind of journalism that some fear will die out as newsrooms continue to shrink, it’s time to let the print product go.
Focus on the Web – that’s where people get their information these days.
And don’t let the journalistic quality slip. Combine the old school journalism skills with technology skills. Be a good writer and reporter – but learn how to record audio and shoot video too.
And that’s only step one. Step two is to make the journalism we do relevant to a public that has grown use to a 24/7 information landscape.
This is where social media comes in. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter…millions upon millions of people use these Web sites every day. Reach out to them.
Newspapers have signed up for Twitter accounts. But don’t just hook up your RSS feed and let it go. Have someone actively update it and check it. Answer questions that readers may ask.
Maybe when we’ve connected with our communities again, we will find a way to fix the advertising problem. That’s something I don’t know a lot about – but I’m willing to work to figure it out.
I’m the future because I get this. I’m the future because I want to share this with others.
But to me, the most important reason for why I’m the future of journalism isn’t because I get or I want to share it.
It’s because I believe in it.
So, to the 32,101 who want to save newspapers, I admire your conviction. But I suggest it’s time to set your sights on something new.
Join me in creating a future for journalism we all can believe in.

To-do list, end-of-semester style

- Finish ethics paper and response. Due ASAP.
- Write two English papers (or one big one) on Emily Dickinson. Maybe one big's the way to go. Less research. Due Monday.
- Write interpretive piece on budget cuts. Due Friday.
- Study for Econ midterm on Monday.
- Figure out when I am driving home.
- Clean car.
- Clean room.
- Pay bills.