For my final project I am going to be discussing the job market in the pandemic. First I am going to be interviewing two graduates of WSU and see how the pandemic has affected their job search. The next thing I am going to do if find articles that talks about the unemployment rate and the rate of college graduates that are able to find jobs in these uncertain times. And the third thing that I am going to be doing is talk to a professional that knows about the job market and learn about what is happening now and what will happen in the future. I will also be asking them about advice they give to any new college grad. I plan to make this story centered around college graduate unemployment rate and maybe tie into the struggles with playing off student loans.

I really enjoyed this podcast. I though that this podcast is still relevant even though it is a couple years old. The reason that I think that this podcast is still relevant is because Trump is still in the white house and after the impeachment trial Watergate is a great comparison to what happened in the impeachment trial. The podcast went through many topics such as watergate and president Trump. I also learned a lot about the topic of reporting and getting the information you need to write the most accurate story you can. Specifically, when Bob was talking about sitting outside a house at 11 at night being 72 years old. That was really inspirational to me because he was willing to put the work into it that he needed in order to get his story. I can sometimes relate to this when my sources bail out on me or are hard to reach. Another thing I Found really interesting was when he talked about anonymous sources. In class we talk about how anonymous sources aren’t always the best sources to use when trying to write a story. But Bob took another approach to it, he talked about for his story specifically they were really important. Overall Bob taught me a lot about what it takes to be a ruthless reporter and what it means to work hard in the reporting field of work. I also learned about how anonymous sources can be used in the proper ways in order to help support your story.

For the profile assignment I will be interviewing my mom. She worked for Disney animation, and worked on some of the classic Disney movies. I will be focusing on how she got her job and what training she went through. I will be interviewing my dad for the secondary source. For my second secondary source depending on availability I have a few options, my brother, an old co-worker, or her parents.

I really enjoyed the podcast. It started really slow but eventually led into some really interesting thoughts and ideas about interviewing someone. One of the things I found most interesting was when they were talking about prep work. Preparing for an interview in my mind is the most important thing you can do. Whether that be for a job or for the news preparing for it will lead to the best results. Something I also found really interesting was when they talked about visual cues to tell your interviewee to wrap up what they are saying. I found this really interesting because I never thought about the time limits that some people have for specific interviews. I also thought that it was really funny when they talked about trying to remember people’s names. I find myself in that situation all the time when I can’t remember someone’s name and I tend to panic in the middle of having a conversation with that person. I was a little upset that they didn’t give any advice for trying to remember people’s names, but just talked about how to properly apologize for forgetting someone’s name. I thought when they were talking about interviewing celebrates was really interesting. They talked about trying to come up with questions that they would not normally hear. The reason I thought that was interesting was because they just give gravity to how many reporters talk with celebrities and how important it is a reporter to try and strive to get interesting information, and not just try and ask the basic questions they hear all of the time.  

The first person I interviewed was Chase Riddle. He is 30 years old, and a PHD student for political science. He is from Illinois, and his favorite holiday memory was from being in Chicago fro St. Paddy’s day.

The second person I interviewed was Bre Winkle. She is 25 years old and she works as a evidence technician. She is from Wind Creek Arizona. Her favorite Holiday memory is that she celebrated Christmas in London.

The last person I interviewed was Alise Jhonson. She is 21 years old. She is 21 years old and a business marketing and international business major. She is from Juneau Alaska and her favorite holiday memory was during the 4th of July everyone in her town takes the day off to party for the entire day.

My story is going to be about the climbing wall at the U-REC. I am going to be reporting everything the rock wall provides to the WSU community. I will talk about the courses the U-REC provides such as the belay clinic and the lead climbing clinic.  I will also be discussing future plans of the rock wall, specifically that the rock wall is going to be getting a new addition. I am going to be talking to the people running the wall along with students that are using the wall. I will ask what they like about the wall, how they could improve the wall, what are the benefits of rock climbing, and ask if they are excited about the new addition to the wall. I will ask the students running the wall how many people they have climbing every day, what is their favorite part of climbing, and what they would like to improve about the wall.

I really enjoyed the steps Eric Nalder made for conducting an interview, I not only think that this is important for the interviews we are doing in class, but I also think that these steps can be used outside the classroom. For example, when interviewing for a job I think that these tips could help get the job. The first step I found to be the most important was the research step, seems to me like to most important. Knowing who you will be interviewing or who will be interviewing you could help you find some common ground between you and the other person. This could help you try and make the conversation more casual and help you really understand the other person you are talking with. Another tip I really agreed with was to silence your ego and be prepared to just listen to the person you are interviewing. I think that this could be really helpful for me personally because I tend to control a conversation naturally, so reminding myself to really listen and understand the other person could help me obtain more of the information I need. I think both the research step and the keep it going step go hand in hand. If the door is closing doing the prior research may provide you with another conversation starter that gets the conversation going again. This is important for if you haven’t gotten all of the information that you need, and you need a couple more minutes to try and get the rest of the information that you desire. Overall the tips given by Eric Nalder will help me conduct future interview as well as give me tools that can help myself during an interview.

My story proposal is going to be about new IFC policies that are going to go into effect this upcoming semester. I will be talking with IFC council members are alumni about these new changes. After the tragedy last semester the IFC are planning to make serious changes. I plan to repost these changes so that all students understand the new changes and stay informed.

This is my COMJOUR 33 blog. This is where I will be posting all assignment for COMJOUR 333.