[Journalists] Questions About Sportswriting/journalism and not giving up on career goal/dreams

Fri Oct 17 18:03:51 UTC 2014

Kerri, 
I know that a journalism degree is important, but writing the stories is
more important.  
While you are waiting to get back into school, my advice would be to keep
writing, writing, writing -- about that which is your passion, sports.  
Now, writing about the thing you love need not be reporting on the games and
the stats and such.  I'm not saying a blind person can't do that because I
think you can, but another idea occurs to me.
Have you thought about feature writing or profiles?  
Let's say, for example, that you write stories about your favorite coaches
or  players.  
You contact the person you want to write about, set up the interview, write
a story that makes that person come alive for the reader.  Into it, you can
weave all those stats you are so good at remembering and other intricacies
of the game.  
No visual help required -- unless, of course, you might want to get an
assistant to describe the person visually, but it really isn't necessary.  
Just a thought.  
Otherwise, I would say to you, we all get kicked down and out sometimes.
It's not just the nature of journalism.  It's the nature of life and wanting
to be in it rather than on the sidelines.  
You know this before anyone tells you:  You can't give up!
And keep the rest of us posted as your make progress.  Because you will.
And we care.  
Go Kerri!  Yeah, I'm funny...

Deborah

-----Original Message-----
From: Journalists [mailto:journalists-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Elizabeth Campbell via Journalists
Sent: Friday, October 17, 2014 11:50 AM
To: Kerri Kosten; Blind Professional Journalists List
Subject: Re: [Journalists] Questions About Sportswriting/journalism and not
giving up on career goal/dreams

Hi Kerri,
I am not in sports writing, but I am a full-time reporter at the
Star-Telegram newspaper in Fort Worth.
I've covered everything from courts to city/county governments.
I agree that there are visual aspects to journalism, but there are many
aspects of our profession that are not visual in my opinion.
One thing I would suggest is to find out what you need to do to improve so
that you are not failing your journalism classes. In order to get a job
these days, you need a journalism degree and an internship is also a must in
my opinion.
Since many aspects of sports are visual, why not hire an assistant to make
sure that you are getting the visual details from a game. Also, ask the
coaches and players to explain a particular play or decision, and I'm sure
they  would do so. Also, teams have their own media people, if you will, and
I would use them as resources.
I know that as federationists independence is first and foremost, but part
of being independent involves finding out what resources are available and
learning to use them to your advantage.
In my case, I work with several drivers because there is no public
transportation so that I can get to and from my interviews as I cover a
pretty broad area. Besides driving, I've told these folks that I will need
help from time to time tracking people down at a council meeting or catching
up with someone who is trying to leave a meeting quickly which often happens
when there is something controversial going on.

Also, become an expert at using social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and
Google Plus. Social media is how more and more readers are getting their
news.
Of course, they will access our web sites, mobile apps and tablet products,
but we are finding more and more readers who access our content on Facebook.
Finally, become an expert in how to use our blindness techniques and
technology. Media outlets are not going to have a clue how we use VoiceOver
or JAWS. Also, it is imperative to keep up with developments in
accessibility to platforms such as Google apps.
We are using Google docs for things such as signing up for training, keeping
our editors apprised of what we are working on and collaborating with other
reporters on stories.
Fortunately, access has improved to the point where we can edit documents,
but it takes some work. I won't go in to all of the details here.
In short, don't give up on what it is that you would like to do, but you
also must talk to the J school dean and others on what you need to do to
improve your journalism skills.

Finally, I am not a legal expert, but I don't think it's wise to use content
including quotes from other sources without attributing the information to
them.
Hope this helps.

Liz

Elizabeth Campbell
general assignments reporter
(O 817-390-7696
(c) 817-247-6862
liz at star-telegram.com
Twitter @fwstliz

-----Original Message-----
From: Journalists [mailto:journalists-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kerri
Kosten via Journalists
Sent: Friday, October 17, 2014 3:51 AM
To: Blind Professional Journalists List; Blind Talk Mailing List; National
Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: [Journalists] Questions About Sportswriting/journalism and not
giving up on career goal/dreams

Hi Everyone:

For those of you who are either journalists or are wanting to pursue a
career that is visual/not blindness related how do you stay motivated and
keep from giving up when things get hard or don't go your way?
Since I was 15 years old, I have wanted to do something in sports
media/sports journalism.
Nobody has actually told me I can not do it, I even am lucky and have a page
on a local stations website where I can write about sports (I'll post the
link at the end of this message.) But, I listen to a ton of sports talk
radio. I understand the hosts are sighted, and it's a sighted world, but I
am beginning to realize how visual sports journalism may be.
I am noticing that when I listen to sports talk radio and they talk about
say watching parts of a game I can't see, or they say to go and watch a
press conference and watch how the coach looks around or something like that
I become really depressed and feel I can't do sportswriting or something in
sports media as a career and that really upsets me.
I also notice that a lot of times radio stations will sort of groom certain
interns and such so when they graduate from college they get a job. I notice
I get really jealous and upset when this happens and it makes me so upset I
give up.
I am trying to be better at writing less details, so it's a long story but I
tried going back to school last semester as a journalism major and I thought
I did pretty well and thought I had tried hard and then when my grades came
back I failed out for the second time and can't go back to this school for a
year. It really really hurt myself-esteem and still hurts today.
Again, another long story, but about six years ago (before I joined the NFB
or went to training) I was doing a bunch of writing for the radio station
and got to answer the phones for an hour-long popular sports talk show here.
There were a bunch of problems that came up though and I gave up and just
stopped going in.
I have since made amends and went to training and still have a page on the
website to write sports on, but I still am really upset about my mistakes
and even today it is really hard and almost impossible for me to listen to
that talk show knowing I used to answer the phones and be connected to it
and now I am basically nobody.
I was even in school back then as well, and I got to meet a bunch of the
journalism professors and one time there was a sports journalism week and I
got to go up and meet all the speakers. Now, I have failed out of school
twice and the professor that really liked me, invited me to all the things
unfortunately passed away. Even at the journalism school now I am nobody.
The dean is still there, but the professors wouldn't know me if I walked in
and used my cane perfectly.
When you have made so many mistakes in your past, and failed so many times,
how do you go on and not give up? How do you listen to something and not
think about your mistakes?
I have another question that often brings me down and makes me question
myself.
I do not have any media credentials or passes or anything like that.
Before I begin to write a story I often look at a couple of stories already
written to sort of use as a guide to get either the stats from the games or
quotes the coaches ssay at their post-game press conferences since I don't
have any actual media credentials amd am not actually there.
With the internet being what it is today, is this okay?
There have never been any problems and my stories are worded completely
differently (I never copy and paste, just get information) but deep down I
feel guilty.
I write something, and I want so much to be proud of it but I feel I can't
be and that brings me down and makes me want to give up.
I guess I just feel frustrated because when I say I don't know what I want
to do with my life, everyone always asks me "What is your passion?" I could
lie, but my passion is sports. I know it well, I have a sort of photographic
memory where I can read a stat or something and memorize it, there is
nothing else I know better.
Everyone has always agreed sports writing/media is a great fit for me, but I
just constantly question myself, am unsure, constantly worry I won't be able
to get a job, I want to feel good about my writing but deep down I feel
guilty, and I often question with sports being such a visual thing whether
it is really possible. As I said previously, I also struggle with jealousy
when I see others being groomed for jobs and getting paid and I'm not. I
also feel sad and can't even listen to this talk show because I feel so sad
about my past mistakes and my failing out of school twice and now I am
nobody where I was so connected before.
But, at the same time, when people ask me what my passion is, or I think
about it, there is no question: it is sports. I don't know what to say.
It makes me angry that I constantly question myself so much but yet a
sighted person who loves sports can decide in high school they want to go
into sports journalism, and they attend college, get good grades and don't
fail out, make the right connections along the way, meet the right people,
get a couple of good internships in, and then when they graduate often land
jobs.
How do you all keep from constantly questioning yourselves and giving up?
What do you use to stay motivated?
How do you keep from feeling sad about your past mistakes when you are
reminded of them by listening to local radio?
How do you keep from totally feeling defeated and giving up when you listen
to a sports talk radio show and they talk about a particular game or story
so visually?
Here is the link to my sports page.
http://www.wajr.com/common/page.php?pt=sports_news&id=96
Thanks,
Kerri

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