Business Journalism- Angie Lau

Hello SPJ-ers,

If you missed the past week in SPJ you missed two great events! First, on Tuesday award-winning journalist and fellow SPJ-er, Angie Lau, spoke to SPJ about business journalism. Lau gave students great advice. She said the key to coming up with stories is to ask the uncommon question and then answer it. "A lot of opportunities in this industry you will create yourself," Lau said. This has proved true for Lau who eventually worked her way up to work as an anchor and producer for the business news company, Bloomberg.

According to Inc Volume 11, "Bloomberg is located in more than 135 locations around the world and employs more than 10,000 people." Scripps is one of nine lucky schools in the world to receive a Bloomberg terminal. We, as students, should take advantage of this resource because as Lau said, "that terminal is used by financial professionals who pay up to $2000 per month to use it." For the many of students who don't know, the terminal is located in Scripps' Lasher Learning Center and has nearly unlimited pages of business and finance information.

Saturday SPJ and Ed2010 collaborated to host our first annual Battle of the Bands, a fundraiser that brought four music journalists into Athens to judge the bands and provide valuable information to students interested in music journalism. During the 2 hour panel the judges discussed their experiences in the field and answered any type of question thrown their way. From "how to write a compelling review" to "what was the biggest problem you had after writing a negative review" and many more in between. We learned not to put an artist down in a negative review and the extreme benefits of freelancing- hopefully landing a job-as it is proof that you can write interesting articles on time.

"You don't stop being a student once you graduate" - Angie Lau

Thanks!

OU SPJ's New Year, New Agenda

Hi everyone,

Welcome back from break! OU SPJ has a lot of exciting new ideas and plans to benefit all of you! First of all, we will now have our blog updated about twice a week with profiles, meeting information, interviews and any other interesting journalism information we can find! Our twitter and fan group will be reminding you of our meetings to come and keep you up-to-date with our national chapter. Our goal is to supplement your journalism education in any way we can to give you a leg up in such a competitive field.

Our first meeting of the quarter will be Tuesday January 12th at 5:00 p.m. We will be securing a computer lab for an iMovie Workshop with Taylor Mirfendereski, a J-school student, former NBC intern and OU SPJ's Vice President! Check out her website to see more of Taylor's credentials. This will be a great opportunity to branch out and get some interactive media experience- a must for today's journalists, who are expected to have knowledge in many areas of media. Check our twitter roll soon for the exact location!

In the meantime look forward to our agenda for the rest of the quarter. Things such as a Women in Communications meeting, an interview with a sports journalist, an anchoring workshop with RTNDA and our February Battle of the Bands! A collaborative event with ed2010 we will have 3 journalism judges, great bands and a lot of fun!

Stay in touch with this blog for more updates, news and valuable information to keep you current and in the know.