Tag: journalism

Fairfield blog, Her Campus, gains international recognition

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This article was written by Monet Monterosso and was featured in The Fairfield Mirror on February 16th, 2015.

http://fairfieldmirror.com/the-vine/fairfield-blog-campus-gains-international-recognition-2/

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“On Feb. 4 in the Aloysius P. Kelley Center, Her Campus celebrated their first birthday by hosting a pink party with both Brittany Lewis (Director of Community Development & Strategic Programming) and Windsor Hanger Western (Co-founder, President & Publisher) as special guest speakers.

Her Campus is a digital media magazine that is produced by women for college-age women. The issue is put out online five days a week, and its purpose is to both inform and entertain. Her Campus Fairfield is led by Amanda McKelvey ‘15 and Danielle Tullo ‘15. Both Campus Correspondents are truly responsible for Her Campus’ successful inaugural year. A year ago, they both felt that Fairfield was missing something in the digital media field and so they brought Her Campus to Fairfield with help from Stephanie Gallo, associate director of the Career Planning Center and acting staff advisor.

“I’m here to guide them, but really these two are independent and so strong just on their own,” said Gallo on the passion of the Her Campus team.

Her Campus immediately grew into something much bigger than Fairfield. Since the Internet is such a simple tool to reach out to many people, that is exactly what it did.

McKelvey felt that “Her Campus’ success couldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for our readers. We used to get 3,300 views and now we get over 75,000 views because now friends of friends are reading it from all over the world and we have to thank them for the success we’ve achieved in this one year.”

Before the celebration of their first birthday, both Hanger Western and Lewis spoke about their own personal experience with Her Campus and their strength as a woman. The talk given by the two speakers had a big impact on the Her Campus team, both professionally and emotionally.

“I really liked how they touched on the topics of resumes and cover letters. As a freshman we don’t know a lot about it. They mentioned great tips and advice for the future,” said Adelyn Galang ‘18.

In addition to professional advice, the speakers also increased the morale of the group, leaving many members feeling empowered after listening to Lewis and Hanger Western speak.

“It’s really important for college women in this industry to hear from women who came from the ground up. Being a freshman it’s so nice to hear from such influential women,” said Caroline Metcalf-Vera ‘18.

“I enjoyed how they both focused on women empowerment. We need to be inspired,” added Katherine Duncan ‘18.

Both speakers continually praised what the progress Her Campus has made at Fairfield in just one year. Fairfield is among 13 schools internationally recognized as a Pink Chapter, which is the highest level attainable. This feat truly impressed the Her Campus representatives.

Additionally, Her Campus Fairfield has started a new program with Lord & Taylor, which allows hands-on experience in career paths that are of interest to the Her Campus team.

The Lord & Taylor program is a collaboration between Her Campus and Lord & Taylor. The point of this program is to promote Lord and Taylor for the collegiettes on campus all over. The reason why Lord & Taylor was chosen for this program is because this department store gives power to women being the first department store to ever name a woman as president.

“I was apart of the Lord & Taylor new program that we have here and it’s a great hands on program starting with a really good start with getting involved. It’s also really nice to work with a committed and well rounded team,” said Rachel Anderson ‘18.

The Her Campus team ended their celebration with a “Happy Birthday and Thank you” toast, cupcakes, a group selfie and lots of mingling. With the celebration at the back of their heads, the Her Campus Correspondents are now left with the hard decision of who to pass the torch to after graduation to continue the chapter’s success.

“I need someone that will take care of it and I want to see it grow. Her Campus is about having an outlet to give their passion to for the love of reading and writing it,” said McKelvey.

Senior Danielle Tullo agreed with McKelvey, and stressed the opportunity Her Campus gives to Fairfield women: “Through it all, [Her Campus’] goal of giving women on Fairfield’s campus the opportunity to write has been fulfilled with the success of allowing them to get into a program that is focused on the concept that ‘You make dreams happen for yourself.’”

Blogging: Coming Clean About a Dirty Word with Music Journalist Adam Bernard

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Blogger or journalist, entertainment writer Adam Bernard doesn’t care which word you use to describe him as long as you remember to put the word “great” in front of it.

Bernard informed a Fairfield University journalism class last Tuesday night that unlike many other journalists, he is not overly concerned with what his official job title is. He said that he has been introduced and described as both a journalist and a blogger before, stating that the difference in title usually has to do with the context of the situation.

When asked how he feels about the variation in his job title he said, “Most people think when you say ‘writer’ that you’re not serious anyways… It doesn’t really matter how you sugarcoat it- writer, journalist, blogger- there’s always going to be a little bit of a red line underneath it asking if that’s real.”

While many journalists today tend to shy away from the words “blog” or “blogger” due to the negative reputation they have of not earning any money, Bernard insists that blogs are one of the most effective ways that journalists can find work.

In fact, it was his blog, Adam’s World, that landed him one of his dream jobs as a columnist for the Fairfield County Weekly. After trying to get in touch with them for years, he finally got a call saying that they wanted to hire him after reading some of the stuff he’d written on his blog.

He said that this experience is a perfect example to prove that although blogs by themselves typically won’t put food on the table, the opportunities they will help you find most certainly will.

He went on to say that he believes every journalist should have a blog because they act as a great place to publish syndicated work on subjects that journalists want to write about. He said that posting on personal blogs is an easy and effective way for journalists to establish their own unique “name brand”, which is essential in the competitive world of journalism.

Adam started establishing his own brand as a music journalist shortly after he graduated from Hofstra University in 2000. This was the same year that he started his blog, which helped him gather experience and gain many opportunities as a young journalist. He has been featured in music magazines such as The Source and XXL, contributed to Substream Music Press and 101Distribution.com and is the Interviews Editor at RapReviews.com

When asked if he thinks that blogging has given him more opportunities as a journalist he said, “The blogging has definitely given me more opportunities. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s seen by more people, but more so that I have the freedom to write about what I want to write about and sometimes that connects with more people.”

Writing on the Stahl: A Review of Lesley Stahl’s Speech at Fairfield University

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Whether she was referring to presidential candidates slipping in the polls or the advice her mother gave her after a rough day early on in her career, renowned broadcast journalist Lesley Stahl expressed her firmness in the belief that no situation is a truly lost cause.

During the speech she gave at the Quick Center on Fairfield University’s campus last night, Stahl addressed a wide array of topics ranging anywhere from politics and modern journalism to her personal life and how it has coincided with her career throughout the years.

Stahl talked about how she got her start in journalism, a start that she said came later than it does for most journalists, seeing as she was 30 years old by the time she was hired for her first job.  

“I think my story should give a lot of young people who don’t know what they want to do hope,” Stahl said. “I know a lot of kids who search for a long time and there’s nothing wrong with it. You have to find it, though. And if it takes you a little longer, so what?”

When Stahl graduated from Wheaton College with honors in 1963, she went on to attend graduate school at Columbia, where she thought she would pursue a degree in zoology. It was during her mid-twenties while working on New York City Mayor John Lindsay’s speech-writing team that she realized she wanted to pursue a career as a journalist.

When talking about the moment when she discovered that journalism was her true calling she described it as, “…a thunder bolt. I just plain knew.”

She ended up getting hired by CBS around the time when affirmative action started being enforced. As a rookie reporter, she caught her first big break after being assigned what would eventually become one of the most newsworthy stories of all time, the Watergate scandal.

After establishing her reputation as an exemplary reporter, Stahl started to ascend the ranks of CBS, most recently and famously as the co-editor and host of the popular news show 60 Minutes.

Stahl has received many accolades throughout the years including several Emmy awards for her work on the CBS programs 60 Minutes and Face the Nation, the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award for Overall Excellence in Television and the esteemed Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award.

Regardless of the fact that it took Stahl a little bit longer to figure out which career was right for her, she made it clear to the audience that she made the right choice.

Just before the audience started their final applause of Lesley Stahl, her last line of the night was, “I love my job… Love it.”