[Journalists] Questions About Sportswriting/journalism and notgiving up on career goal/dreams

[Ashley Bramlett]

Kerri,

I think you need blind role models to talk to as well as some counseling.
I've said that before though. If you are negative and depressed, you will 
project that to others. This will not get you far because people
want to get volunteers and employees who are  happy. To get anywhere you 
have to build confidence.

I'm career searching too and may pursue a career related to journalism. I 
want to go into PR or outreach.

Sports writing is visual. I don't mean to be harsh.
But you need to face some facts and either figure out how to solve these 
barriers or pick another career. Not everyone can do their dream career. You 
wrote to the nabs list maybe six months ago feeling down, and it appears you 
still feel awful.
You need to develop realistic goals and get moving! Time is marching on!

Barriers are:
1. You know the field is visual. So figure out how to get that visual 
information. Maybe talking to the announcers after a game. If you want to 
cover local sports first, smaller teams may even let you talk to the players 
or coaches.
Either you figure out how to get it or do something less visual.

2. As others said, you need a degree in journalism or at least a 
communications degree.
I don't understand how you went to college and got the surprise of your 
grades. You know how you did on assignments; professors give feedback. Also, 
its your responsibility to see professors if you need to know where you are; 
go to office hours
So you really should not be surprised when grades come around. I did 
terribly in some classes, in spite of trying. some classes were very hard. 
But I knew I was doing bad based on exam scores. So, I was not surprised my 
grades sucked there.

You need to get back to college. Get tutoring and be proactive so you can 
succeed in classes. Once grades come in, its too late.

3. Lack of experience. Volunteer to write articles to get experience.

4. Lack of confidence. Educating yourself on how to write articles should 
help with getting experience. No its not okay for your articles to look a 
lot different. I took communications classes as part of my liberal arts 
degree.
I can tell you articles follow certain formats. Your opening paragraph needs 
to answer the five w questions for example. those are who, what, when, why 
and where.

5. Constantly questioning yourself is a barrier. I don't know what to tell 
you. Remember everyone makes life mistakes. My brother, with no 
disabilities, took community college classes and dropped off. He re-enrolled 
when he was ready for school at a university.

Now as to advice. I suggest while you think about college and research which 
colleges may fit you best, do volunteer work and write, write, write.
Are there any news stations in the area? Are there local papers in the area? 
You might volunteer there. Are there nonprofits with a sports focus? You 
could write for them.
I also strongly recommend
you consider other angles of sports writing. I think writing feature stories 
is a great idea! You could
profile players by interviewing them. You could also cover sports 
entertainment. I mean things like which games were most popularas well as 
sports attire. Also, instead of the games, maybe writing about sports impact 
on society could be doable. This takes a more sociological approach and is 
something not covered enough. Writing about youth involvement in sports and 
the good or bad effects on them is a good news story. Writing about sports 
impact on colleges is also a good news story. Personally I think college 
athletes have to devote too much time to the games that they really miss out 
on academics.

I believe getting experience and some knowledge of your career field is key. 
Having a passion to do something does not always translate into doing it 
well.
I suggest job shadowing people in your field. conduct interviews to see what 
they do.
I mean anyone, not just blind people.
Educate yourself how to write sports stories. Google that. I'm sure there 
are books about writing sports as well. Check Bard and bookshare if you're a 
member.

Also, there should be journalism workshops in your community unless its 
rural.

Attend those workshops. This will help you learn to write stories.
Check your local community centers or county continuing education classes. 
You might also have a writing nonprofit giving classes.
If you look around and find none, please
let the list and myself know and I will give you some places conducting 
online classes.
I'm sure others can give you online sources too if needed.

I hope this info helps.
I have a general liberal arts degree so am struggling to find work and goals 
too.

Ashley
-----Original Message----- 
From: Kerri Kosten via Journalists
Sent: Friday, October 17, 2014 4:50 AM
To: Blind Professional Journalists List ; Blind Talk Mailing List ; National 
Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: [Journalists] Questions About Sportswriting/journalism and 
notgiving 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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