I spent a very, very, very long time this morning trying to figure out what song I titled this post after. "The beginning of something good"...it's on the tip of my tongue and I cannot remember the song name! Nevertheless, what I'm trying to say with the title is this: this semester is the beginning of something good. If you were following my earlier posts, I described what it was like working as a journalism student and rising up to work at the Columbia television station, KOMU8. Now, with just two weeks remaining of the entire semester, I'm finding myself reminiscing about this semester. Okay, I always thought the word reminiscing sounded sad...I'll say: looking back in retrospect (I like that phrase better!), this semester has been a great journey. I had, without a doubt, one of the most challenging classes I've ever taken. That's Broadcast 2. Since it is in my sequence for my journalism major, of course it's supposed to be challenging. I always appreciated the challenging classes the most. Even if I didn't score a high grade in the class (Political Science freshman year...a decent, mid-range B, but I thought I would make a C or lower), I walked away with an experience and knowledge I'll never forget. Broadcast 2 takes that to another level. There are times in the class I felt quite comfortable, grade-wise. I felt like I was doing well. Then other times I thought "Uh-oh. This is getting a little bumpy". Same way with the class work in the class. The most work-intensive class I've had, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Why? Because every time I go to lecture for Broadcast 2, I learn something that I'll never forget. Every time I go to the 2 and a half hour lab where we critique our work for the week, I learn something from my work as well as everybody else's work. It's a win-win situation (well...unless you do something really bad and don't want anybody else to see it). I also believe Greeley Kyle has been one of the best professors I've had and met at the university. Have you ever had a professor who is so passionate about what they are teaching and they'll help the students out in so many ways? That's Greeley Kyle times 100. His stories and lectures may be the most epic things I've ever heard.
Moving on from classwork, I've learned my fair share of broadcast language and knowledge by working as an actual reporter at KOMU8. Last week was Thanksgiving Break; therefore we didn't have any classes. The Thursday before Thanksgiving break was the last week I reported at the station. The last story I worked on was about MoDOT improving narrow, two-lane highways. After budgeting the large projects for more trafficked highways, MoDOT realized they had more money to spend on roads. This story ended up turning out much better than my horrid second reporting shift (read my last blog related to KOMU work), however I shot all footage, spoke with all my official sources, and found my main character for the story all between 3-5 pm. After this story, I realized that I can work well under pressure and finish my story so long as I work with my CCC moto: Cool, calm, and collected. I believe this is my slogan from working as a broadcast journalism student. So, all in all, this entire semester I feel like every time I didn't remain cool, calm, and collected, everything fell apart. This semester equals one of the best experiences of my life, and most definitely one of the moments in my life I will never forget.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Through the Mists of Recession, Jobs Rise
I have a feeling I'm not the only American who frequently speaks about the nation's unemployment rates, the stimulus plan, and the dreaded "R" word, recession. I even covered a story about unemployment rates at KOMU about 4 weeks ago. Since then, the government has good news for the American people:
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/dec2009/db2009124_771110.htm
So, is it true that there will be fewer pictures like this?
http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/news_impact/2009/01/large_unemployment-line-outside.jpg
One thing I have learned taking a few business classes this semester and speaking with my politicians, many Americans are afraid to use the word "recession". To some, a recession means harder times. Times that will look more like the Great Depression. On the contrary, other Americans say the country is without a doubt wading in recession. However you describe the state of the economy, there's no denying certain facts. Facts like unemployment rates skyrocketing. After many months of an increasing unemployment rates, the numbers are finally seeming to stop or at least reverse. According to the article above, people are now finding jobs. This is a great article from the facts and figures side of things. It's great to see that the jobless are now finding jobs, and this article does a great job providing those concrete and hard facts that can give Americans a (better) piece of mind knowing that finding jobs may be getting easier.
Still, I wonder if it's more than just the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act providing the jobs to the jobless. Yes, I do believe this stimulus package is helping, but is it really helping America that much? Last year when this stimulus package was announced, I had a very interesting conversation with a USPS mailman. For more than an hour, he and I discussed the stimulus plan and the economy. One thing I won't forget him speaking about was how he believed the stimulus package won't help matters. He said if the government just waits, in due time the economy will work itself out of this bind and people will begin finding jobs. Since then, I've debated that topic with myself. Is that true? Just as an accountant says in this article I found, "it's going to get worse before it gets better."
Although the article does a great job giving statistics and showing figures, I wish it went into more detail about why people like the accountant feel this way. Maybe it's true what the mailman said, or maybe it's completely wrong. Maybe the only way to fix the economy is through this stimulus plan. There's no easy answer, and there's no way to find out if the other answer would have worked out better or worse (not issuing the ARRA; the stimulus plan). So, like anything else, choose a side. But in the end, we should be grateful for the small things. Like the fact unemployment rates are slowly declining.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/dec2009/db2009124_771110.htm
So, is it true that there will be fewer pictures like this?
http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/news_impact/2009/01/large_unemployment-line-outside.jpg
One thing I have learned taking a few business classes this semester and speaking with my politicians, many Americans are afraid to use the word "recession". To some, a recession means harder times. Times that will look more like the Great Depression. On the contrary, other Americans say the country is without a doubt wading in recession. However you describe the state of the economy, there's no denying certain facts. Facts like unemployment rates skyrocketing. After many months of an increasing unemployment rates, the numbers are finally seeming to stop or at least reverse. According to the article above, people are now finding jobs. This is a great article from the facts and figures side of things. It's great to see that the jobless are now finding jobs, and this article does a great job providing those concrete and hard facts that can give Americans a (better) piece of mind knowing that finding jobs may be getting easier.
Still, I wonder if it's more than just the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act providing the jobs to the jobless. Yes, I do believe this stimulus package is helping, but is it really helping America that much? Last year when this stimulus package was announced, I had a very interesting conversation with a USPS mailman. For more than an hour, he and I discussed the stimulus plan and the economy. One thing I won't forget him speaking about was how he believed the stimulus package won't help matters. He said if the government just waits, in due time the economy will work itself out of this bind and people will begin finding jobs. Since then, I've debated that topic with myself. Is that true? Just as an accountant says in this article I found, "it's going to get worse before it gets better."
Although the article does a great job giving statistics and showing figures, I wish it went into more detail about why people like the accountant feel this way. Maybe it's true what the mailman said, or maybe it's completely wrong. Maybe the only way to fix the economy is through this stimulus plan. There's no easy answer, and there's no way to find out if the other answer would have worked out better or worse (not issuing the ARRA; the stimulus plan). So, like anything else, choose a side. But in the end, we should be grateful for the small things. Like the fact unemployment rates are slowly declining.
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