[Journalists] Challenges

[Elizabeth Campbell]

Hi Cheryl!

Thanks for your great post!

Now, as for me, I've been a reporter for about 22 years at the Fort Worth 
Star-Telegram.
I'm currently a general assignment reporter covering two rapidaly growing 
counties west and south of Fort worth.

I must rely on drivers to get to my assignments, as there is no public 
transportation outside of Fort Worth.

I went to work at the Star-Telegram shortly after I graduated from college.

I got a degree and Spanish and journalism, and believe me, it is very 
helpful to know Spanish here in Texas!!

I think as a blind  person, if we can bring in an extra skill that not all 
of our colleagues have, that is a tremendous help, no matter whether you are 
going in to journalism or another  career.

Some of the chalenges I faced came in journalism school. I didn't have a 
problem signing up for the classes, but some of the professors had negative 
attitudes and doubted my ability to do the job.

I'll never forget my first day in beginning reporting and writing when our 
professor, a former Kansas City Star city hall reporter said, "I don't know 
how you will do the work in this class, and you will probably fail." Those 
words made me more determined to succeed.

I told him that there was no reason why I couldn't use a tape recorder, take 
notes in Braille and use a typewriter when writing stories.  Fortunately, we 
have computers now!!


I would say that the biggest challenge I have now is making sure there are 
several drivers that I can call on
I believe that the lack of comprehensive transportation is the biggest 
barrier we face.

I'd love to get other opinions about this.

Thanks all.

Liz


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cheryl Wade" <cwade at mdn.net>
To: "Blind Professional Journalists List" <journalists at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 5:30 PM
Subject: Re: [Journalists] Challenges


Dear Nick,

Here is my answer to your question about challenges.
I thought I would have trouble being admitted to J school or being
allowed to take J courses, but I was warmly welcomed by my academic
department. My favorite professor one day sat me down and said,
"Wade, you're a d--- good reporter," and then he proceeded to tell me
how I might end up on some rewrite desk or doing stories on the
phone. I appreciated this because I had no blind mentors and took it
as a dab of realism. He was not telling me I should scrap the idea,
only that it would be hard. He's gone now and I still appreciate his
words because he was honest.

There were some things I just had to do differently. Graphics was fun
to learn, but I had no way of laying out a page or marking up printed
copy back then, so my instructor let somebody do the physical
laying-out for me. I'm not crazy about that but ...

I had a few companies that either laughed in my face when I told them
I was looking for a job or just shaded over everything and just
passed me by. That hurt a lot! One time I thought I had done some
pretty high-level negotiating with an editor about what they wanted
and what would be nice for me, and they never even called me to say I
hadn't gotten the job - they just gave it to some about-to-graduate
college kid with whom I was rubbing elbows at the time, when I was
20-something and seasoned. That avoidance crap is probably the most
painful thing, but people are so afraid of being sued that the world
has, I think, pushed them into being evasive or suffering the
consequences.

My best experience was doing an internship at the newspaper in the
town where I was attending school. I did it after graduation so I
could work full time (and get paid zero time) to get experience. I
loved it. There were no wage-and-hour police back then, so I worked
until it was done, which often wasn't until evening.

i found the best way to talk jobs was to concentrate on a few places
where I wanted to work, rather than doing an all-out blitz with
résumés. When I was laid off from one job after four years, I
free-lanced for eight years. working in three counties and selling my
stories to two sister newspapers and some radio stations.

I've now worked in the same place for 18 years. I hadn't planned on
doing that, but there are some good things about it. One is that lots
and lots of people know me, and I know them.

Hope this helps. I'm always glad to talk to any aspiring journalist.
I want to let people know that you can, absolutely, for sure, make a
living at it.

Cheryl Wade
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