Miah Thirion Portfolio 2020

PORTFOLIO MIAH THIRION

SEMESTER ONE 2020

This year was one of the most demanding and exhausting years I have ever experienced.

The challenges that we were faced with were unexpected and drastically different from anything we have encountered before. This was seen in many aspects of my life, including the newspaper.

When it comes to necessary production skills, I think this year contained a much different view of production, which meant I had to adapt to the work I had to complete. Adaptation to doing everything online meant that we had to relearn how to do complete interviews without seeing people in person, communicating with staff over the phone, and continuing to strive for a paper that was up to par. The skills I learned as far as design and communication are skills that I can use in future jobs if unexpected events come up like they did this year. Also, the production skill of communicating with my peers over the phone and still completing our work taught me how to be more flexible and adapt to any situation. This is an excellent skill to have since life can, many times, throw unpredictable challenges at us.

Deadlines are something that I have always recognized the absolute importance of.

However, this semester that was proven to be even more essential. Deadlines keep the paper running and successful, ensuring that the paper is at the highest quality it could be.

When deadlines are not met, it creates a ripple effect of inefficiency and stress for the rest of the production time. The editors do not have enough time to design a page to the best of their ability, and the paper is then printed with errors. With the paper being online most of this semester, deadlines became drastically more critical due to the timeliness of the stories that we were publishing. If the stories were published late due to not making a deadline, they began to lose their importance, and they were no longer news. In the future, I will continue

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to work hard and ahead to ensure that on my end, my work is completed promptly and before the deadline- as this is one of the most important aspects of a successful paper.

Teamwork was another aspect of the paper that was immensely different this year. Collaboration became a lot more challenging and more critical with not communicating with fellow staff members in the usual way. This semester, being an editor and communicating with staff members called for my utmost attention and dedication. I had to ensure that I was consistently reaching out to and checking on the staff members writing for my page. If I did not complete this task, the articles and pictures for my section of the paper were not completed or done with accuracy. It was also important for writers to continually ask questions and reach out to editors. Next semester, I would like to focus more on communicating with the other editors I am taking pictures for. While taking pictures, I felt a lack of communication as to what they were looking for. A few times, I went out and took a picture, and it was not what the individual editor wanted. So, I would put even more effort into keeping in touch with fellow editors to work as a successful team in the future.

Ethics is another aspect of the production of the paper that is incredibly important. This year, with so many significant events, including civil unrest, an election, and a pandemic, the importance of reporting from an unbiased and fact based stance became drastically more critical. Many people look to the media reporting for information. So, as journalists, we have the utmost important task of reporting unbiased news and backing it up with facts.

This year, many media outlets reported false or biased information, leading to wrong things be spread about what was going on. So, as I walk into the second semester, I understand now more than ever how vital my task as a CS Press journalist is.

SELF REFLECTION CONTI SELF REFLECTION Dedication is also an essential aspect of a successful paper. This semester, commitment looked a lot different than in past years. While in quarantine, it became necessary for us to stay motivated and determined to publish as much content as possible. This semester, I believe I was an asset to the paper because of the extent of my efforts. In quarantine, I continually checked on the staff members writing for my page, completed extra pictures, and did as much as I could to continue to produce content. After returning to in-person school, my role became a lot more demanding. With so many new editors that had no idea how to complete the task at hand, staff that didn’t know how to take pictures or write due to never being taught, and the chaos of not having a teacher with us in person- I had to step up and do a lot more than I expected. Doing this meant taking a ton more pictures than I had expected, checking in with photographers, trying to teach photography to new staff members, staying after class to edit pictures, and keep track of all the photos that needed to be done. Although this role was more demanding than I thought it would be, I have enjoyed every step of the chaos and feel that it has grown me in so many new ways.

Because the semester brought so many unexpected challenges, I faced many hardships. I would honestly say a tremendous hardship was maintaining motivation. With the world already feeling drastically more overwhelming, doing the small things felt impossible. Staying motivated to continue to put all of my effort and time into producing my aspect of the paper was challenging. However, I stepped up to the occasion and remained invested. To deal with the challenge of being unmotivated, I reminded myself daily about why I stayed in this class from the beginning. Remembering that it was something I loved helped push me forward and continue, even amid the lack of motivation and mental fog I felt. To face this if it ever comes up in the future, or to face it next semester- I will continue to remind myself that the paper is something I am passionate about and deeply care about.

My most significant weakness publication related is probably remaining unbiased. As a person who has opinions on the world around me, remaining impartial and reporting from an objective stance can be challenging. To continue working on this in the future, I will learn even more about how I can write from an objective perspective.

Even amid all this semester brought, I feel insanely blessed to have the opportunity to be in this class. During the chaos, this community of people and the work I complete for this class became an escape and comfort space. I wouldn’t have changed anything about this year, as I have grown more than I ever have before in all areas of my life- and I feel ready to take on whatever it is next semester has for me.

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MOST SIGNIFICAN MOST GIRLS GOLF PICTURES

NT PIECE T SIGNIFICANT PIECE This semester, my main focus was on pictures since I am the photography editor. With many staff members not knowing how to take quality pictures properly, I had to step it up and take most of the photographs needed. Amid the wide variety of photos I took, I think my most significant piece this semester was the golf pictures that I took for both the online paper and print version. Taking the girls’ golf pictures pushed me out of my comfort zone in many new ways and required my utmost dedication. To take the photos, I had to email a coach and get as much information as possible when and where they played. This was particularly challenging, as interviewing and meeting new people for pictures or stories has always been something that makes me slightly uncomfortable. However, after receiving this information, I went to one of the team’s practices and followed them around for two hours to get the best results and capture what they did as a team. While following them, I experimented with all types of angles and types of pictures, as I was striving to get results that illustrated who the individual players were and how the team got along with each other.

Besides being out of my comfort zone because I had to stay with them on the course, it also required me to mess around with camera settings since they were moving a lot. This is one of the aspects of sports photography that has always challenged me. Since sports are so quick paced, it can be hard to get the perfect shot. Many times, athletes only do a movement for a short amount of time, and the most important moments can only happen one time. So, after experimenting with settings while there, I finally had found the result I was looking for. After taking them, I had to put in even more effort to find out all the girls’ names in the pictures and then edit them with photoshop. I particularly like the colors in the final results and how it demonstrates the determination of the individual girls, and the closeness of the team as a whole—ensuring that the newspaper’s pictures tell a story just as much as the actual stories is what I think is one of the most crucial parts of the paper. By taking a picture that illustrates what is happening and making it interesting, we draw the reader in, leading them to want to continue reading the surrounding stories. I think that the golf pictures painted a picture of what the team is actually like, and accomplished the task of drawing the reader into what is on the rest of the page.

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I chose this picture because of it’s creativity. When Gianna came into class for the picture with layered clothes, I started to think of ways that I could show what she was wearing without just posing her facing right at the camera. With some editing, the final result turned out amazing and super creative as opposed to a normal picture of her just standing.

I chose this picture bec the picture, I went to Ta to think of a creative w around her was. I think draws people’

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cause I loved the final result. For arget with a friend and really tried way to show how festive the store k the final result is intriguing and ’s attention to the page.

I chose this picture from the back to school photo essay because I like the way it illustrates what was actually going on. After returning back to school, many things were different. In-person school contained a lot of changes and new rules, and many of them felt daunting to the student body. This photo essay demonstrated the changes, from wearing masks to sneeze guards to closed bathrooms.

THE TASK AT HAND THE TASK AT HAND This year included many new challenges as an editor. One of the main things that were affected by COVID-19 was doing an online version of the paper vs doing paper version. Adjusting to doing the online paper during quarantine was challenging.

The things that already challenged me before, such as consistently keeping up with staff members became a lot more difficult. As an editor, we very quickly learned that we had to learn new ways of keeping up with staff members. However, when we are doing the paper issue, it is a lot easier to keep up with staff members, since we can hold them accountable in person.

I think one of the greatest challenges of working with peers in a leadership role is accountability and confrontation. Since the staff members are our age, it can be hard to take each other seriously, and for them to listen when we give directions. For example, if something isn’t done and an editor checks in and asks the staff member why the work isn’t complete, it often results in an excuse. This then leads to the staff member never actually completing what needed to be done. It can be hard to step and confront the staff members since they are also our peers, however, I have become better with confrontation throughout the years. However, in my four years of newspaper I have come to learn that being respected is much more important than being popular. This class is more demanding than any other class, and that means that we have a big responsibility to complete the paper at the best of our ability. If editors always strive for popularity instead of respect, we will not have a paper that is complete since there will be a lack of accountability.

I have always liked being a leader, and I value the many leadership positions that I have in my life. Growing up as an older sister, and having to step into many responsibilities from a very young age meant that I was forced to grow up quicker than many other people my age. However, my love for leadership rooted from my original leadership role as an older sister. I love being a leader because I love the ways that it allows me to both encourage others, and push them to be the best version of themselves. This semester that was displayed in sitting with a photographer and explaining the camera before sending them out to take pictures. Then, when they came back the next day, I was able to encourage them in the work that they did, but also teach them what they can do to improve their skills next time. I think this encouragement is extremely important as a leader. If people are not both encouraged and pushed forward in the task at hand, they will very quickly lose motivation as the work that they are completing will feel like it is in vain. Along with this also comes many challenges. I think the greatest challenge of being a leader is motivating staff members that don’t want to complete their work, or procrastinate their work till the last minute. This often leaves me in a stressed out position since the deadlines are so important.

In the analogy of the wolf, I believe that the leader of the pack is in the back because they are responsible for the other wolves in front of them. This is seen in this class as the editors are responsible to be the ones that are pushing the staff members forward, and motivating them to do all things with the best of their ability.