Synopsis
This class has taught me a lot this semester, from data gathering to coding a website. I learn to tell a story ethically, utilize artificial intelligence, pivot when facing adversities and create and code a website using WordPress. In addition, I also learn to research more efficiently through search engines such as Google and social media platforms such as TikTok. Furthermore, I learned the importance of using newsletters and infographics to promote and present content. Lastly, I have the opportunity to improve my LinkedIn profile with all the new skills I learned.
Developing the Project
I practiced situational ethics with the story I worked on. Due to the current situation with international students’ statuses, my story has become a sensitive topic. Hence, I had to be careful when names were involved for the international students I interviewed. I only used their first name when I published my story.
My biggest challenge while working on this story is getting interviews. Since news broke out that international students were being deported and some had their visas revoked, I was unsuccessful in scheduling an interview with either San Diego State University or the SDSU International Student Center. The only interviews I got were brief conversations with some international students during an event weeks prior, whom I was also unsuccessful in scheduling follow-up interviews.
Despite the challenges, this story provided me with the opportunity to learn how to adapt. Although the current situation did not allow me to include up-to-date interviews that could provide more in-depth opinions from international students, I learned to gain access to statistics and data to make up for the lack of personal opinions. I was able to pull information internationally and locally to enhance the story.
Digital Media Experience
This experience of picking my own story, researching data and building a website from scratch has deepened and enriched my knowledge about digital journalism. I now have a much better understanding of the rights of intellectual property and how to utilize search engine optimization to promote my content. I think these two things are particularly important to me because if my content were plagiarized or not being read, they would not serve anyone right.
Before this class, I had always been using only Canva or Adobe Express to create graphics for my stories. The introduction of Google Sheets has completely changed my preference and it is now my new favorite tool to use to present data. I have used it to create the pie chart in my story and the bar chart in my infographic. There are still a lot of functions that I have yet to explore when it comes to creating a chart using Google Sheets and it is something that I look forward to trying out if I develop my story deeper.
Although I have experience in using WordPress but building this website has brought it to another level. I only knew the basic knowledge of uploading written stories and cover photos for The Daily Aztec and my previous community college’s publication. Learning about coding HTML and CSS elevated my knowledge on how to customize a website in WordPress.
I think the most enjoyable moments of working on this website were every time I finished an assignment as part of the website. It was a mini accomplishment every time I completed a part. It felt like putting together pieces of a puzzle throughout the semester. The process of seeing everything coming together to complete the bigger picture is most satisfying.