Week 2: A reporter

Aaron Rognstad, our newest reporter, shared his experiences as a reporter, both for newspapers and the military.

Here's his notes on today's class:

Jack asked me what the most important things about being a journalist were, and I told him to make sure the information you write is accurate and free of factual errors. I told the students to always double-check spellings of names (something I should do more of!) and to make sure they get the technical details correct. Most importantly though, I stressed integrity and honesty in your writing, because without that, a journalist isn’t worth his word, and that’s everything in journalism.

I also went a little into my background and how I came to be a journalist. I told the class it was the military that got me into reporting, and I expressed a desire to be a war correspondent at some point down the road. I told the students if they want to a future in the journalism biz, they should immediately try to write for their student newspaper and get published as soon as possible to begin to get experience and some clips under their belts. I also told them to get on with their college newspaper when they go off to university, and then after that to get an internship. I stressed these stepping stones as crucial to landing a job as a reporter some day.

Any questions comments about the class today? Feel free to leave some!