The student newspaper of Bucks County Community College

The Centurion

The student newspaper of Bucks County Community College

The Centurion

The student newspaper of Bucks County Community College

The Centurion

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Centurion has experienced journalists speak to students

Centurion+has+experienced+journalists+speak+to+students

Tom Sofield got the scoop before anyone else did. The other reporters stood right across from the victims but did not dare to approach them. They relied on the police to do their work. But Sofield walked right up to the victims and got the story. They told him the details of the shooting. An innocent dog was shot.
On Tuesday April 19 the Bucks Journalism Department held a forum with professional Journalists where Sofield advised aspiring journalists.
Four successful writers and reports from around the region came to Bucks to talk about their personal experiences in the journalism field and answer questions from prospective students.
Sofield has made a name for himself in the region for his work as the co-founder of Levittownnow.com, covering news in and around Levittown and the rest of the Lower Bucks area. The site includes “everything you need to know, [from] breaking news, education, county news,” Sofield says. “We reach about 100,000 people,” he adds.
The forum also included Matt Flowers, a former BCCC journalism student and Temple graduate. He now works in the South Jersey area as a reporter and online digital producer at New Jersey’s Courier-Post.
Freda Savana lent her wisdom to the students as well, speaking from her 30 years of journalism experience. Her story on the first child to contract the H1N1 virus won her second place in the Keystone Press Awards in 2011. She is currently a reporter with the Intelligencer.
Also present for the event was Marion Callahan, a reporter for the Bucks County Courier Times and the Intelligencer in Doylestown. She has previously worked at the Miami Herald as a police and municipal reporter, as well as at the Morning Call.
The journalists shared anecdotes from throughout their career, which included some good stories, some bad, some frightening, and some just flat out gross. This gave students a glimpse into what they can expect if they plan on going into the reporting field.
Tom Sofield experienced a nightmare scenario for all journalists. “I did have one [story] where I had to testify in court.” [The felon] harassed me for weeks. He said he was going to kill me.”
Callahan spoke of her time as a war correspondent overseas during the Albania-Serbia conflict in the Kosovo War. “It drove home the graveness and atrocity of war,” she says.
Flowers recollected an animal advocacy story he covered. A local puppy store had protestors in front of their store who were angry about bad commercial breeders. Flowers attempted to get the store’s side of the story, but they refused and later got angry about the article.
There are also many opportunities for follow up stories. In this case, the protester and owner were suddenly best friends a few weeks later. Flowers thought this was curious. He took his curiosity and put it into follow up articles.
“Journalism begins in curiosity, having a curious nature,” said Savana.
Journalism also requires a callous nature. People will get angry at you. Your editors might tear your story apart. You have to be able to take constructive criticism.
“You have to have a thick skin but be sensitive, you go into the industry because you care,” advised Savana.
To get started in Journalism Flowers said to brand yourself. Start a blog. Start getting into it now. Sofield did this when he was a rookie, he posted his articles on blogger and people were reading them so he made a Facebook page. Someone got interested in his work and contacted him.
Savana said that concentrating on a niche is good and is often easier than going for a broad role in a news outlet. If you have a specific passion like entertainment news, concentrate on it.
Connections are crucially important. Journalism is all about people and you have to get to know them. Sofield told students, “A huge skill is not just working, but working well with your sources, networking. I’m always talking to people, getting the next thing.”
Internships are good for making connections, but don’t work for free for too long. Flowers knew a girl worked for free for two years after she graduated college. He believes it is wrong to suck up someone’s time and resources like that without paying them. “You don’t have to pigeonhole yourself into an internship,” said Sofield.
In this connected age people demand news to be faster and faster. “You’ll have to be able to multitask in a way you may have never had to before,” said Savana. It helps to file stuff away and keep organized. Even with this tips the panelists agreed that the pace can hurt the quality of work. They warned students to be fast, but cautious.
Journalists have a duty to get their facts right. False information published in a newspaper can hurt the business’ integrity. Bad information can happen but you have to limit it. If something seems wrong trust your gut and double check facts.
Savana gave an example of facts gone wrong, “Once we published the picture of a wrong house for a murder case. It was supposed to be the murderer’s house but the cameraman took a picture of the house next door. He got fired the next day.” She said it’s better to be right than be first.
An emphasis was put on technology, and how the journalistic world has adjusted to the ever-changing times.  The online news world also demands for Journalists to have technical skills. Video editing is in especially high demand. News video experience is a good thing to have in your tool kit.
Matt Flowers gave advice on how to handle the numerous amounts of content management systems. “Worry about mastering one or two that you gravitate to. Focus on one and build off of that,” Flowers notes.
They talked about how contemporary video recording apps, as well as Periscope, have made reporting a lot simpler. “Video is a huge thing now. It has leveled the playing field,” says Sofield.
For those who are more interested in the classic newspaper Sofield said, “I think print will become more of a premium product…people who say print is dead are over exaggerating.”