5 Students, 1 Quest: Entertainment Journalism Through Blogging

As Media Studies majors, we all have taken an interest in all that is media related—specifically entertainment media in this case. We each have our forte when it comes to the topic of entertainment, so we are using our specific expertise in order to break the very broad topic of entertainment down into sub-genres within the industry.

Rachel will start the week of posting news pertaining to music on Mondays. Justin, our fashion-guru, will be posting on Tuesdays about all that is fashion and style. Mackenzie will be posting about art on Wednesdays. Katie, the bookworm, will be posting about different books and issues that come up within these books on Thursdays. Lindsay will be finishing the week off on Fridays with the topic of television.

Our hope is to collect first hand information by using our own contacts that we have established throughout our various internships and reporting on any other leads we may uncover. We want to attempt to report news that has not previously been reported on by various newspapers and websites.

-Katie

Is blogging a form of journalism? Does it have the right characteristics and qualities? As a part of our media studies senior seminar class, Issues and Investigations, the five of us are going to try to answer this question by attempting to maintain a “journalistic” blog. We will each post on issues that regard and are affecting students, faculty and staff members academically and socially at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa.

To give you a glimpse into our lives, and why this particular subject interests us, here is a brief biography on each of us:

- I’m Mackenzie, a senior Media Studies major and English minor. I have been involved in the campus radio station as well as a section editor for our campus newspaper, The Tack. I have also completed an editorial internship with Moment Magazine in Washington, DC.

- I’m Justin and I am a senior media studies major and English minor. I have been active on the campus paper The Tack where I write a column entitled Life in Plastic. I have also participated in editorial and fashion internships at Jane and W magazines.

- I’m Katie and I am a senior journalism and media studies major with a minor in English. I have been involved with the school paper, The Tack, as an editor for a couple years and I have worked for The Cabinet Press in Milford, NH.

- I am Rachel, and I am a junior media studies major and an English minor. I have been the News Editor for my campus newspaper for two years. I have also completed an internship at the Nebraska City News-Press.

- I’m Lindsay, a senior media studies major and English minor. I have been involved with the campus newspaper, The Tack for three years, and currently serve as Co-Editor-in-Chief. I am also the Assistant News Editor of the campus radio station, KBVU “The Edge”. I have completed editorial internships at Cityview, Des Moines, Iowa’s alternative weekly, and The Storm Lake Times.