I am going to be frank; before the project began, I despised writing or even talking about the economy. To me, I found no interest nor have I found any reason for myself to converse in the state of our economy.
I had my troubles and my successes, and in many points in time, I wanted to pull my hair out and wanted to throw my computer against a wall. However, once I saw the proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel” for this project, I have learned a great deal in not only my writing style, but in my knowledge of the economy and its effect on today’s service members.
Writing about the economy, for me, is tough. A topic like this cannot be discussed so vaguely, mainly because the economy itself has multiple sub-topics to itself. Therefore, my writing had to reach a certain audience, and to me it seemed fitting to reach the military audience.To me, I feel that the economy has a tremendous effect on the less than one percent that is our American fighting force. In 2011, the US government was close to “shutting down” after disagreements between congress. If this shutdown occurred, then federal workers, including military personnel, would see a freeze in their pay. Even with this freeze in their pay, they would still have to report for duty and still carry out their tasks.
I also learned that the economy and the military work side by side with each other in terms of recruitment. After listening to an episode on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” it is said by expert economists, like Beth Asch from the RAND Corps, that “"When the economy worsens, as it has in recent years, we certainly see a surge in the number of young people who are highly qualified, who want to join the military.” In a new society where we have fewer jobs and more qualified people, the military seems like the last and best option for those looking to have a career.
This project also made me personally learn about the subject I was writing on. I will be honest, about 20 percent of my reason to join for the military was that the money would help me get through college. It was partly from this reasoning, along with looking at a top ten list compiled by Military.com’s Marco O'Brien on why people want to join the military that started my curiosity on whether people who were in the military had the same idea as me.
This project was more of an adventure for me; it was something that I never thought I would get done, let alone with multimedia aspects to it. As much as I wanted to rip my own hair out, I still came out of this enlightened and proud. It is the same feeling I get when I receive a 100 percent on a math exam, or overcoming my fear of heights. With this new enlightenment, I am now worried about the coming Sequester that is threating the budget of not just the military, but to millions of other federal sectors. This could lead to many calamities such as food shortages and cuts to education.
In the end I have come out as, for a lack of a better term, a new man. With this new me, after weeks of research and writing, have concluded that my writing is progressing forward into somewhat of a sense of professionalism. I am not claiming that it is the best piece ever written, but I would like to call it a personal victory for myself.
Wow, Alex, I loved reading this post, both for its honesty and to get a sense of how far you have travelled as a journalist and writer in the past seven weeks. (And yes, it only FEELS like seven months!)
ReplyDeleteI was very impressed by how you pushed through to get some good interviews, and I hope you'll keep pushing yourself to do better work, and build on the kind of muscular revising and reporting that you did on this news package.
That's why we're here as journalists!