JRN 200 @ MSU is fun!: Job Shadows: What You Saw, Part 2

Here's a sampling of some of the various job shadows done by you all (this will be updated as job shadow reports are turned in, so please check back frequently). Take a look and see what you can learn from everyone's visits. There's a lot of good stuff here to help you decide what you want to do with your lives; what you need to be doing to get there; and what to expect when you do get there.

Please give each one of these a quick read, will you?

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While exploring job shadows opportunities, it was very confusing to decide what I wanted to do with this job shadow experience — I’ve already worked at a newspaper and at a radio station, so broadcast was the only one I haven’t explored. Omar happened to call me to his office one day at work and offered me to do a job shadow with freelancer Steve Friess.

I’m not going to lie; when Omar first told me about him I agreed because I thought it was going to be a challenge find a job shadow on my day off at work. Besides that, I had no idea who Steve Friess was, so my journalistic sense started to look on Google who was Steve Friess and what his work consisted. Steve Friess’ work has appeared in Politico, New York Times, USA Today, The Daily Beast and most recently in Al Jazeera America. Friess worked in Beijing as a correspondent too.

Friess picked me up at MSU on Sep. 18. We went to the Michigan State Capitol where we met with state Rep. Joseph Haveman of Holland, Michigan and the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. He is a Republican who is sponsoring legislation that might help alleviate the expenses of the prison system by finding ways to release elderly prisoners. Friess told me he was an interesting source for his in-depth story about America’s problem retaining older people in prison.

It was very interesting to go to the MI Capitol for the first time and see the dynamic between a real, famous journalist and a state representative. Friess was very straightforward with his questions and would not mind at all to ask follow-ups. He would analyze and listen to Haveman; he would then ask questions. Friess was not afraid either of asking for help — he asked the representative to help him go into one of the prisons with the highest population of elderly people in Michigan.

After the meeting with Rep. Haveman, we met with some groups of advocates for elderly people in prison. They were very helpful and they told us about their day lobbying in the Capitol. There, I had the opportunity to see Friess interact with some of the advocates and he even let me record one of the interviews. He would constantly ask me questions about the interviews, like asking me for feedback. He was really helpful and genuinely cared about my learning experience with him.

After the interviews, we talked about his journalism career and tips to become a better journalist. He told me he graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He told me the best thing I can do, as a journalist, is to ask questions and then, ask more questions. It was an amazing opportunity and I’m extremely grateful to have the opportunity to job shadow Steve Friess.

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On Saturday October 11 the Detroit Red Wings played the Anaheim ducks at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. While the teams were getting dressed in their respective locker rooms I was climbing the back stairs up to the uncharacteristically small press box with Helene St. James.

Helene is the Red Wings beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. She’s been working for the paper since 1996.

After emailing back and forth for about a month we finally settled on the Anaheim game for me to shadow her. For me even walking in the media entrance and picking up my media pass was amazing. I then got to walk in the bottom of the Joe past the Zamboni entrance, past the visitor’s locker room and met Helene in the media dining room. I was excited and nervous. I know that I want to be in the press box for hockey games as a career but I had never been in one until that game. It lived up to all my expectations.

While the teams below were warming up and fans were pouring into their general admission seats Helene and I talked about the career she’s had and exactly what she does for each game.

Every game morning she attends the morning skate and after writes a summary of what to expect that night. During the game she writes a detailed outline of what exactly happens during the game. She details penalties, goals, and assists. Also during the game she writes her story. During the game she also gets an idea who she wants to interview after the game and what questions she wants to ask them.

During the game I just sat beside Helene and watched her and the other journalists work. Helene seemed to know everyone in the box. At one point Kris Draper, who had been in an adjoining room with Mickey Redmond and Ken Daniels broadcasting for Fox Sports Detroit, walked by and stopped to say hello to Helene. As he was walking away he said hello to me as well. I grew up watching Draper play for the Red Wings and so for him to see me and say hello to me was pretty amazing. I wasn’t really doing anything during the game but it was still a great experience just to be in that atmosphere and get a feel for what I would be doing in the future.

One tip she gave me was that as a reporter you technically cannot root for one team or another but you root for the game to end in regulation. If the game goes into overtime and/or a shootout it messes with the 10:25pm deadline. That night all the reporters were big Ryan Getzlaf of Anaheim fans as he scored the game’s winning goal with about 20 seconds left in regulation.

My favorite part of the whole night was when we basically ran to the locker room after the game for the post-game comments from the players and coach. Luke Glendening, Niklas Kronwall, Gustav Nyquist, Henrik Zetterberg and Coach Mike Babcock all came out to speak to the reporters in the locker room. Helene was the most vocal one, asking most of the questions. I was surprised to see how few reporters were actually in the room. There were only about seven of them. I was the youngest person in the room by about five years and aside from Helene the only woman in the room. After Coach Babcock was done speaking, Helene went back to the media dining room to add the quotes into her story and add the finishing touches before sending it in.

When she went to finish her story I left her to write and walked back to meet my dad who was waiting for me outside. As I passed the visitor’s locker room on my way out, Anaheim’s Ryan Kesler walked right in front of me. I realized I could be in this profession when I didn’t try to talk to him or ask him for a picture. It may sound like a small, obvious thing but for me not to ask for anything from one of the game’s stars, or even cheer when the Red Wings scored that night, was a big accomplishment for me and I knew I could handle the professionalism that has to come with the job.