Journalism student plans venture into online world

Sorry for the delay in posting. I got my left hand slammed in a door a few weeks ago and have only just recently regained the ability to type with some semblance of speed. Sigh. I was able to do one final interview, but the student I spoke with was so busy wrapping up her school year, I was only able to conduct an email interview with her-- which still gave me some useful information.

Heather Fullenkamp, a bubbly 2009 Ball State graduate with a degree in Journalism Graphics, just completed her first year at the University's Journalism Graduate School, where she is studying basic Journalism. While she was an undergraduate at Ball State, she studied "a little of everything" under the Journalism Graphics umbrella, including graphic design, advertising, writing, marketing, web design and multimedia. Unfortunately, when Heather enrolled in the graduate school, she found her choices were much more limited.

"The only options for the Journalism Graduate School are basic Journalism, PR, and Literary Journalism...so I went with basic Journalism with the hopes of taking more graphics-based classes. Which I haven’t yet- but still plan to," she wrote in her email.

Like other young people who may be wary of going into the print journalism world post-graduation, Heather plans on using the skills she has learned to pursue a career in web design. She appreciates what studying journalism has taught her, she said. "I know that the skills I learned because of journalism...the skills to communicate clearly and efficiently, will go with me no matter where I end up."

Heather is certainly aware of the state of print journalism today, but like the other women I have interviewed over the course of this study, she is optimisic about the future of journalism in general. She wrote, "In our electronic world, many print items are being left to the collectors, but the fundamentals of those fields like English or journalism, will remain. It will always be important to know how to convey a message to a large audience."

In the current economic crisis, Heather is lucky-- she has also been able to use her skills to secure a job at WIPB-TV and Indiana Public Radio, where she has been doing web design and occasionall print design for two years. Her advice for recent grads like herself looking for work? Make yourself marketable! "The fundamental writing or print design skills will always be helpful, but it’s also important to step outside the box and familiarize yourself with as many different skills and capabilities as possible," she wrote.

In the changing world of journalism, it is clear that someone interested in the field must be dynamic and able to work with many different aspects of journalism. It may seem daunting, but as younger people Heather has found, it will pay off.