The importance of student media: Colorado State student Sydney Paul shares why hands-on experience in crucial in journalism
Sydney Paul, a student journalist at Colorado State University sat down with the Social Media team for ‘Beyond the Oval’ and reporter Will Jones to discuss the ins- and outs and student media on campus as well as in the world beyond. Paul works for the student run TV station at CSU called CTV, she also works as Media Relations for Rams Athletics and has worked as an intern for the Denver Broncos. Her extensive experience in the world of journalism came from a lot of hard work in and outside the classroom.
Jones: Okay so one more time who are you?
Paul: I’m Sydney Paul and I’m a junior here at Colorado State and I’m studying journalism.
Someone: So as an upperclassmen have you gotten any real world experience in journalism?
Paul: I have actually. So I have taken advantage of the opportunity of joining student media here at CSU and our program is really great we’ve won a lot of rewards and everything and so student media you can join TV, radio, a newspaper there is something for everyone. And so I’m very natural at writing and so I chose CTV on purpose to make myself branch out and it was very uncomfortable at first. I had no idea how to run a camera or edit video or anything at all. So I just kinda learned like on the fly.
Joining student media has been the best decision I’ve made at CSU. I’ve been able to network a ton with people. With local area journalists, with people from Denver you know CSU alums and I’ve also gotten so many real-world skills. Like my interviewing has gotten way better. My video editing skills, storytelling all of that is so important and I don’t think there is really any way to completely learn it in the classroom. So being able to get out and get that experience is really helpful. And I’ll have something for my reel moving forward.
Also on the other side, I tried to diversify so I kinda went on a more Media Relations type path on the other side. So I got a job with CSU Athletics and so I do sports media relations for them. I do their stats. I also get to do journalistic things like I interview and I write game stories and stuff like that. So it’s nice to be able to tie it in. Since I am on the media relations side working for the university I get more access. Because not everyone trusts the media, which I think is unfortunate but it’s the truth of the time we live in right now. And so it’s nice to have that access.
Jones: So when you were on the way and kind of building those steps to get to CTV and then to Athletics did you ever have an opportunity in class to learn some of those prerequisite skills and how to that help you move into the external skills.
Paul: Yes, so I took Sarah Pollers broadcast news class. And like I said before I had no like experience. I had taken like (the class JTC) 211 which is like video and like photoshop and stuff like that. So that was my first experience. So I took Sarah’s class because I had her for PR (public relations) and I knew that she was a good professor. And so I took Broadcast News. And I learned what a reader is what a VO/SOT is you know all these different TV terms. And her class is really unique because the whole second half of the class you break into teams and you become your own newsroom.
So you get to be an anchor, a reporter, producer stuff like that. And you get some like actual real-world experience in there. And like we get to use the studio and record a broadcast and everything. And some people, if they don’t join student media, that’s the only real-world experience that they get.
So it’s a really valuable class because it does give you hands-on experience. And I think that’s what’s so great about the journalism department.
Jones: So one of the classes on campus runs an online publication called ‘Beyond the Oval’ and similar to Sarah’s class it sounds like it’s totally student-run and it gives the opportunity to build those resume items. How important is it and why should people be reading that publication?
Paul: It’s so crucial because a real-world experience is everything. Real world and networking. Like in the grand scheme of things getting an ‘A’ in a class is not going to get you a job. That experience is what really matters. And I think it’s so unique with ‘Beyond the Oval’ because it’s all student-run same with student media and with a lot of other things on campus. It gives students the opportunity to get into leadership roles. And to try out different things. To learn what they what to do before graduation. And I think opportunities like that are crucial for success, especially in a field like journalism.
For more information about Paul as well as her work at CTV and more click here: https://medium.com/@eng825/student-work-matters-9d3cadb81e74
To find out more about CTV and the Rocky Mountain Student Media Corp. click here: https://collegian.com/ctvvideo/
Learn more about ‘Beyond the Oval’ and stories happening around Fort Collins by going to https://medium.com/beyond-the-oval or check them out on Twitter @beyondtheovalfc.