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.

An explanation (written from my desk at the 'Brush)

It's funny how quickly the word spreads.

During the last few days, people stopped me on the stairs, professors approached me before class and one person even got down on his knees at the state legislature and begged me not to leave.

And what would compel people to do this? Because I decided that I need a break from the Sagebrush.

Who knew people cared about what I did with my time?

When I applied for a job here in July 2006, I was fresh out of high school and excited about any prospects that UNR could bring me.

That same passion kept me with the 'Brush for two years. I went from designing pages and writing random stories to being an assistant news editor and covering the student government. Then I took on the next year as news editor, covering everything from student deaths to budget cuts to earthquakes.

It was a great two years. Even when I was crying at my desk or frustrated about stories not coming in, I loved my job.

I can't say the same thing about this semester. I don't know why that is, but whatever passion it was that kept me going through two years of long hours and little pay seemed to dissipate. People commented on it - that I seemed more unfocused, that I wasn't working up to my potential, that my priorities seemed to be mixed up.

They were right.

I spent the last three weeks of my life trying to figure out why I work at the Sagebrush. I realized I was here out of obligation instead of passion, and that wasn't good for me or for the paper.

I'll be the first to admit that I never thought this would happen. I'm one of those people who has the five-year plan. This decision wasn't a part of the plan. I'm very comfortable here. It's a paycheck I could depend on in a crappy economy, a place where I know I'll be published, a group of friends I'm glad to have in my life.

But I think it's time to get out of my comfort zone. Or, you know, getter better grades in my classes. I was a good student, once upon a time.

I love the Sagebrush, but I love me more. This paper has been my life for a very long time, and now it's time to figure out what else my life has to offer. When I've figured out my own life, I'll be back. That's not a promise or a guarantee, but I think it's true.

Until then, people in the office are making bets on my return.

Here's the pool for my return date from what I've gathered so far:
- Emerson, sports editor: three hours
- Emily, design editor: Feb. 1
- Nick, EIC: Valentine's Day
- Casey, multimedia kid: mid-semester
- Devin, former photo editor: mid-February

I'm going to start blogging about journalism.

The title of this blog, "Journalistic Rants and Raves," has never actually lived up to its name.

But after recent decisions have changed the trajectory of my path (at least for a while), I will, as of this coming Monday, have more free time on my hands. In other words, I decided to take a temporary leave from the Sagebrush. And in even simpler terms, I quit.

This decision will be fully explained in a later blog post...I'm going to be good and stick to the title: blogging about journalism.

With the Sagebrush out of the picture for a while, I'm going to have a lot more time to figure out why I'm going into this business, and I plan on sharing those thoughts with the world - or rather, the two or so people who read this blog.

I read about journalism all the time. Where it's been, where it's going, how people in the business feel about it, how newspapers are cutting more jobs every day.

If I expect to survive in this industry, my perception has got to change. In another blog years ago, I wrote:

I've just read what is to become of the newspaper I work for. And that's very understandable, seeing as how technology is advancing and changing the world as we know it. I like the idea of having daily news available online, of having something more appealing to the eye so students will pick up and read it.

I just...well, I just want to know that for the next few years of my life, I will continue to work for a NEWSPAPER, and not some sort of evolved hybrid thing-y. I lost my eloquence with that last sentence.

I know that journalism, the field that I've been dreaming of working in for years and years, isn't going to truly change, because the world will always need its gatekeepers and information. But is it so naive of me to want that to continue on long pieces of broadsheet?

I love newspapers. I love the feel of the ink smearing on your skin, the excitement of seeing your byline on a printed page and not on a screen, the anticipation as you slowly open the pages and browse through what's in front of you. I'm a romantic. I admit it.

Things have changed since then. Don't get me wrong - I still love newspapers. I'm still a romantic. For me, it's a love that will never die, much like a teenager's first love.

But if there's one thing that the last couple of years has taught me, it's that the world is changing at a faster rate than I could have imagined. People are losing jobs, technology keeps developing and the word "media" is evolving.

While reading a 2006 article by Jack Shafer, there was one part that stood at in particular:

The newspaper guild (again, reporters, editors, publishers) can't compete by adding a few blogs here, blogging up coverage over there, and setting up "comment" sections. If newspapers, magazines, and broadcasters don't produce spectacular news coverage no blogger can match, they have no right to survive.

What I want to do is not only figure out how to be the best journalist I can be, but save the industry, too. It's a lofty goal, but I know I'm not alone in it.

And how do you do that? By starting with this generation, the ones that grew up with the MySpace pages and Facebook, with AIM and Twitter. You take them, you take their tools and you figure out how they consume media. You use that to your advantage. You fix the advertising problem.

All of that will be explored later, mostly because it's almost 2 a.m. and I have to leave for the airport in 7.5 hours.

But to sum it all up in one point - newspapers may be dying...but journalism isn't.

And I'm glad I finally get that.

Christmas Shoes song.

In honor of the upcoming holidays, I'm just putting this up.
Yes, it's sappy. It's sad. It's corny.
But I love it anyway.