Update 7/21/12: Fall Boot Camp for The Mesquite will be held 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Aug. 18 at the Brooks City Base Campus. Guest speakers include Rhiannon Meyers of the Corpus Christi Caller Times.
By Melody Mendoza
All good professionals need to be trained. Whether it’s going off to boot camp to prepare for the army or simply taking a course to learn what’s required of a job position, to become excellent at something, a person needs experience.
To get a head start, The Mesquite is hosting a journalism boot camp 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Jan. 14 for incoming spring reporters. The eight-session camp will prepare students for the fast-paced, hands-on working environment that is experienced through the reporting sequence offered in the communications program.
All sessions will be in Rooms 204 and 207 of Main Campus Building at One University Way near loop 410 and S. Zarzamora.
Incoming reporters are required to register for the boot camp between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. Jan 14. A meet and greet and breakfast will follow until the first session at 9:30 a.m. The boot camp is open to Mesquite reporters and specially invited contributors from other academic programs who expressed an interest in working with the newspaper staff.
The Mesquite, the Texas A&M-San Antonio almost year-old online publication, requires communication majors to enroll in COMM 3301, Reporting, and earn advanced credit in COMM 4306, Reporting II. This spring will be the first semester in which the communications program is offering an evening reporting class at 5:30 p.m. taught by Vianna Davila, adjunct faculty member and San Antonio Express-News transportation reporter. The program also welcomes adjunct faculty member Tricia Buchhorn who will teach COMJ 4306, Photojournalism, on Friday mornings. Buchhorn’s course filled within a week of opening. She will teach two courses in the fall.
As a student enrolled in one of the reporting classes, students gain hands-on experience in the rigor of breaking journalism. In addition to attending classes, students are expected but to go outside the classroom to interview students, faculty and members of the community to deliver at least 12 stories throughout the semester.
After mastering the basic but important tactics of interviewing and reporting on campus events, advanced reporters can expand their knowledge in broadcast journalism through video. Also, for the first time ever, the staff is beginning a weekly podcast where advanced reporters will interview students, employees, administrators and community members about local news.
Boot camp schedule
• 9:30 a.m.: Diego Aparacio from Univisión will begin the first session, digital storytelling.
• 10:30 a.m.: Dee Dixon, journalism sophomore at San Antonio College, will present “A voice of action, presenting yourself to authority figures,” to help beginning reporters gain confidence when interacting with faculty and administrators.
• 11:30 a.m.: Charlotte Ann Lucas of NOWCast will facilitate the third session on interviewing.
• 12:30 p.m.: During lunch students can choose between two sessions — “A market approach, connecting to your audience” with Tricia Schwennesen or “Fronteras (reporting on the border)”, with Hernan Rozemberg from Texas Public Radio’s Changing America Desk.
• 1:30 p.m.: Two sessions will be offered. Mesquite editors will attend a session in Room 205 on data analytics presented by John Donley of Dawnsinger, LLC where students will learn the importance of using analytic tools to analyze and boost site traffic. In Room 204, Melissa Rentería of Conexion will present a session on networking with sources.
• 2:30 p.m.: Mireya Villerreal of WOAI TV offers a session on investigating reporting, where students will learn the importance of asking tough questions and gathering information from multiple sources.
• 3:30 p.m.: The final session includes a session on event planning by Mary Anthony, assistant director of community relations and special events in the Office of University Communications at Trinity University.
Following the sessions, incoming reporters will meet from 4:20 p.m.-5 p.m. for the first Mesquite staff meeting. This will allow incoming and returning reporters to leave boot camp with essential background and staff policies for when the semester begins Jan. 17.
