User:Crm644

Summary of the purpose of my writing - JOUR302 Caitlin Mills - The University of Wollongong

With every new day is the promise of a fresh and interesting news story. As Thomas Griffith is quoted, “Journalism is in fact history on the run”. There is undoubtedly always an untouched or evolving narrative to investigate and record. As a somewhat fickle person, this is ultimately what attracted me to studying the field of Journalism – the guarantee of constant change.

It is for this reason I have also decided to utilize this subject as an opportunity to create an extensive portfolio of articles. With a focus on Australian politics, I plan to submit a 500-piece article to citizen journalism site WikiNews on a weekly to fortnightly basis. I was inspired to focus my attention on Australian politics as I feel there is always something relevant to report on. A recent example would be the controversial and much-publicised Malaysian refugee swap scheme.

I have chosen to submit my writing via digital media as I am also majoring in Digital Communications and feel it would be beneficial to combine skills learnt in both specialisations to create the highest quality of work. I chose ‘WikiNews’ in particular because I know for the work to be approved, it needs to be of high quality. This factor will only encourage and ensure that I achieve my upmost writing standards.

I also feel that WikiNews also prides itself on its high ethical and legal writing practices, and having that consistent reinforcement can only be beneficial in whatever spectrum of journalism I decide to pursue.

As a result of my work in ‘Investigative Journalism’ (Autumn 2011) I have already had direct communication with WikiNews editors, including Brian McNeil. His positive feedback in articles previously submitted (“somebody get this guy an outstanding newcomer award!” (McNeil, 2011)) was ultimately very motivating; I feel continuous correspondence shall be valuable in creating a professional and independent relationship with the editors, a skill which could be utilized in ‘real-life’ practice.

According to SiteTrail.com, WikiNews has an average of 39,333 pages indexed in major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing, making stories easy to find. Numerous other news sites, from the Indian Times to Dallas News, source information from WikiNews. This international aspect of WikiNews is also a fabulous way to generate debate over stories and get my reports seen by people all over the world.