Career Fair

On October 21st, I attended the Career Fair that the Phillip Merill College of Journalism was hosting at the Stamp Student Union. I was not there for a very long time but I was there long enough to see the different tables. The lines were pretty long because the Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors were all anxious to be a part of the competition that these internships require.

I signed in at the front and walked into the ballroom. I was interested in seeing the different local radio stations and spoke to a few of the people there. I am a Freshman, so they are not really looking for Freshmen, but they did tell me what I could do to in order to become a good candidate for interships or jobs in the Journalism/Communications field.

A few of the tips were:

• Get yourself published (whether on a campus publication or any other publication.)
• Keep copies of your best clips.
• Maintain your resume and cover letters updated. (Proofreading is key!)

After a cheese and cracker snack, I proceeded to the table where my brother's friend Karen was working. She works at the University of Maryland but also works for the wire service Mcclatchy. Karen told me that Mcclatchy is a wire service that has about three-hundred newspapers subscribed to its wire service. 

Their internship, that could be of use to a Freshman, works on rolling admission. The best time for me to apply would be in the Spring so I could start in the Summer or the Fall. The requirements are simple. A letter of recommendation, five of my best clips from campus publications or from a publication that I write for (fortunately my blog work at The Smart Girls Group works), and basic application information. The internship allows me the freedom to write about whatever I want and it is unpaid. I do, however, receive credit for college and it could count as my internship requirement for my Public Relations major.

The Career Fair pretty much covered every spectrum of media. From radio to magazines to newspapers. Every student there was dressed professionally and very interested in what they were pursuing. You could tell by their preparation.

-Tiffany Lorente

Marvel Jackson Cooke

            Marvel Jackson Cooke was born in Mankato, Minnesota in 1903 and went to the University of Minnesota. After graduating with a degree in English in 1925, Cooke went to Harlem, New York during the Harlem Renaissance. In Harlem she took a position as an editorial assistant for W.E.B Dubois at the NAACP magazine The Crisis.

             She later moved on to work for The Amsterdam News as the newspaper’s first female reporter. During her time there Cooke organized the first union at an African American-owned newspaper and led a strike that lasted 11 weeks. Cooke then began working as an assistant managing editor for People’s Voice. Eventually she gained recognition and was offered a job at The New York Daily Compass, where she was the first female reporter and the first African American reporter. While writing for The Compass she was praised for her efforts of under-cover reporting of the working conditions of New York City domestic workers.

            In 1953 she decided to leave the journalism world and focus more on political activism. She was elected New York Director of the Council of Arts, Science and Professions. Cooke became a member of the Communist party and was subsequently asked to testify two times in front of the United States Senate’s Subcommittee on Investigations in 1954. The investigations did not change Cooke’s political views and she went on to serve as a national vice chairman for the American-Soviet Friendship Committee for eight years.

            Cooke spent her late years returning to journalism and writing for the New World Review as well as sponsoring political events. Cooke passed away after losing a battle with leukemia in 2000 at the age of 99. Her legacy is remembered through her achievements as the first female and African American reporter at an all-white newspaper and through her political accomplishments.

Source: 

• Minnesota Encyclopedia, Minnesota Historical Society. "Cooke, Marvel Jackson (1901-2000)." Accessed October 22, 2013. http://www.mnopedia.org/person/cooke-marvel-jackson-1901-2000

Career Fair!

I attended the journalism career fair which I thought was a very good way to get acquainted with the local journalistic opportunities available. However, the day's experience turned out to be a big disappointment.

 Initially walking into the ballroom,  I saw a sea of business attire which immediately made me intimidated. With my business clothes being at home, I felt really under dressed and uncomfortable to try and attempt to make connections. Not to mention I had my book bag in hand, due to the fact that I had class right after.

With three resumes in hand I was ready to talk to two organizations from the get-go, which were the NBC table as well as the WUSA 9 table. With those being two major news businesses in the area I figured that they would be the perfect place for me to get broadcasting internship experience, but due to the extensive lines and time constraints I wasn't able to actually talk to the organizations. Just before my departure though, I spoke with a peer and they reassured me that the organizations weren't looking for freshman because we are simply just not what they are looking for.  That subsequently made me feel a tad bit better.

I think my biggest upset of the day had to be missing the Multi-Platform/Broadcast Journalism Panel. I knew that there was insight that I could have definitely benefited from by attending this panel, but as usual class got in the way.

The career fair was wonderful despite my bad experience. In the coming years however, I now know what to expect and I'm hoping that in turn makes for a better experience for me.

Robert R. McCormick

Robert R. McCormick was born on July 30, 1880 in Chicago Illinois to US ambassador Robert Sanderson McCormick and Katherine Medill McCormick.

 His grandfather, Joseph Medill was the founder of the Chicago Tribune and former Chicago mayor.

 McCormick completed his undergraduate education at Yale. He was a member of the secret society, Scroll and Key. After graduating Yale, he attended the Northwestern University School of Law. McCormick then went on to be one of the founding members of Shepard, McCormick and Thomason law firm.

In 1904, McCormick began his lifelong participation in civic affairs as he was elected to be the Alderman of the old 21^st Ward in Chicago. During his term, he was appointed as the President of the Sanity District Board.

In 1914, McCormick began to take active leadership in the family business, the Chicago Tribune. As editor and publisher, he made several impacts in spheres of business, technology, journalism, press freedom, and politics. McCormick led many press campaigns against political corruption and waste, as well as various government policies such as: prohibition, the New Deal and America’s entry into World War I.

He led the newspaper industry into a technical innovation. During the 1920s, McCormick brought color to the newspaper industry through his development and use of colortograuvre. Additionally, he created a new system of shaping printing presses to increase productivity.

Most importantly, McCormick laid the groundwork of the concept of higher education in journalism. His goal was to see journalism become a profession. As a result, he was the driving force behind the founding of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Robert R. McCormick’s impactful ideals and reforms still thrive in modern society through the McCormick Foundation. The foundation has contributed more than a billion dollars for journalism, early childhood education, civic health, social and economic services.

"Colonel Robert R. McCormick (1880-1955)." Who Is Robert R. McCormick? N.p., n.d.

 Web. 21 Oct. 2013.

"Colonel Robert R. McCormick." First Division Museum at Cantigny. N.p., n.d. Web. 21

 Oct. 2013.

Ritchie, Donald A. American Journalists: Getting the Story. New York: Oxford

 UP, 1997. 239. Print.

William Monroe Trotter

William Monroe Trotter is an exceptionally morally courageous man who died never ceasing to speak up for his beliefs. Normally, when one’s opinion is not in the majority, it goes unspoken. Monroe Trotter, as he preferred to be called, was never shy to break the ‘rules’ of the spiral of silence. His life’s work, an African American newspaper called The Guardian attests his character with its mission to fight against discrimination. The fight was namely aimed at Booker T. Washington, considered the most famous African American and a dominant leader at the time, whom Trotter confronted multiple times for his pacifying ideas on African American’s next step towards equality. Though the paper wasn’t profitable and its aggressiveness turned off political party subsidies and advertisers, Trotter and his wife Deenie devoted their life to its publication. After spending a month in jail for allegedly provoking a fight held at one of Washington’s speeches, he got the attention and gained respect from W.E.B. DuBois. Together they created the short-lived but very influential civil rights organization called the Niagara Movement, aimed at combating Booker T. Washington’s “ Tuskegee Machine.”

Trotter began to feel the stress of his long life of dedication to the paper after facing awful reviews and never-ending financial problems that grew even more troublesome during the Great Depression. On his 62^nd birthday Trotter was found dead at the base of his apartment building, it’s unclear whether it was the result of suicide.

W.E.B DuBois admired Trotter for his “Unselfishness, pureness of heart and indomitable energy.” His spirit and passion can still be felt today almost 80 years after his death. He is an unforgettable figure in equal rights and his independence and unwillingness to suppress his opinion will be an inspiration for all journalists indefinitely. 

http://www.biography.com/people/william-monroe-trotter-9510831

http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/exhibits/dubois/page6.htm

American Journalists Text 

Walter Winchell

Walter Winchell, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, grew up in the East Side of Harlem with his parents until their eventual divorce. He taught himself how to dance and formed a dance act with two other boys called, "Little Men With Big Voices."He dropped out of school at the age of 13 in pursuit of bigger and better things.
 He got his introduction to journalism in 1917 when he was performing with a woman named Rita Greene in Chicago. A blizzard hit the city and he volunteered to help a friend, who was a reporter for the Chicago Herald-Examiner, cover the blizzard. When he returned to New York later on he began writing for the Vaudeville News, despite a warning from its editor that newspapermen are the poorest paid professional people in the world. He spent a couple years there before he was hired by the New York Evening Graphic, a tabloid comprised mostly of human-interest stories, in 1924. His column that he wrote for this successful tabloid, "Your Broadway and Mine," attracted the attention of the top performers, politicians, and gangsters of New York during that era. During this time "he broke the taboo against writing about marriages, babies, divorces, and other secrets."(Ritchie). Essentially, Winchell was the inventor of the modern gossip column.
In 1929, he was lured away from the Graphic to another tabloid, the New York Mirror, by William Randolph Hearst. Through his many connections, Hearst got Winchell's column published in over 2,000 newspapers across the country. However, because of the nature of his writing, he was often in trouble with celebrities as well as the law. He was never careful of his facts and was once sued for libel, and lost.
He transitioned from newspaper to radio in 1930 when he debuted on CBS's Saks on Broadway, a 15-minute show devoted to business news. However, despite his later involvement in another radio show, "The Jergens Journal, a 15-minute show that mixed entertainment news with matters of national importance"(Walter), he still wrote columns for the Mirror. During World War II he was known for attacking the Nazi's and Adolf Hitler in his columns. After the war, Winchell turned reactionary, and associated himself with anti-communist senator Joseph McCarthy. This put Winchell out of favor with the public and contributed to his downfall. Also contributing to this was the advent of television, which overshadowed radio, and because his looks were not "TV quality," he began to lose his audience. In the end though, Walter Winchell went down as one of the most influential and successful gossip journalists and radio hosts of all time, even being inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2004.

Works Cited:
Ritchie, Donald A. American Journalists: Getting the Story. Oxford University Press. New York. 1997

Walter Winchell. Radio Hall of Fame Home Page. Accessed on 21 October 2013.
www.radiohof.org/news/walterwinchell.html

H.L. Mencken

H.L. Mencken, short for Henry Louis Mencken, was considered one of the most famous newspaper writers of the Roaring Twenties.

Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, H.L. Mencken always knew he wanted to be a journalist. After graduating from a Baltimore private school, Mencken hoped to write for a newspaper, but was told by his father that he would have to go to college, or work for the family cigar business. After graduating as valedictorian of his class, he made his way to the Baltimore Morning Herald, where he was turned down for a job.

Mencken lingered around the Baltimore Morning Herald offices long enough to be given an assignment. He became the youngest reporter for the publication, at age 18.  He would write stories about crimes and politics.

After making his way from writer, to city editor, then managing editor, Mencken lost interest in the pressures that came with daily newspapers in 1904. A fire had destroyed a large portion of downtown Baltimore. Mencken covered the story for 72 hours straight. It was at that point he turned his career to commentary and criticism.

Mencken was probably one of the most influential critics in the 1920s. He wrote columns that criticized literature, politics, music, religion, and society as a whole.

After the Herald closed down, Mencken started working at the Baltimore Evening Sun. He wrote a column for this publication, titled “The Free Lance.” In this column, he published his opinions on certain topics, with little desire of whether his readers agreed with him or not. These opinion pieces are what made him the famous writer he is.

Mencken made another change in his career when he turned to writing books and editing satirical magazines such as The Smart Set and the American Mercury. Coedited with George Jean Nathan, the American Mercury was famous for Mencken’s cynical style. The magazine included commentary pieces about politics, the arts, and sciences.

The harsh commentary that entertained readers of the 20s did the exact opposite in the 30s during the depression. He left the journalism industry because his opinions were too bold for the public. Readers started to believe that Mencken was associated with the Nazi Party of Germany because he had such strong Pro-German views.

Aside from his reputation declining once he left the journalism field, people didn’t care for him or his works because he was eventually charged as a racist and anti-Semite. Years after his death in 1948, his diaries were released that held entries containing racial and ethnic slurs.

Even though his later life didn’t reflect him as a good person, H.L. Mencken remains an influential commentary writer of the 1920s who always spoke his mind regardless of what others thought of him.

Sources:

Ritchie, Donald A. American Journalists: Getting the Story. New York: Oxford UP, 1997. Print.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/374714/HL-Mencken