About the Author
Hi, my name is Kalea and welcome to my blog page! I was born in Hawaii and am currently a freshman at UNLV majoring in Journalism. I found my love for writing through my hobbies which would include journaling in my free-time, reading, playing my guitar, and traveling to new places. To further practice the art of writing, I decided to start a blog dedicated to reading books and writing reviews. Having a blog has helped me get out there by not being afraid to speak my own mind and meeting new people with alike interests.
Now, reading did not always come easy to me. I used to read a book and put it down so quickly because of my attention span. That was until last year in February I decided to pick up a book just from the looks of it. I had no idea Just Kids by Patti Smith was going to be such an impactful read to me! The memoir she has written made me fall in love with literature and bringing my own words and perspectives on the world to light. Just Kids is a memoir reminescing on Smith’s life, her meeting an alike artist named Robert Mapplethorpe, and exploring New York in the 60s to late 80s through trials and tribulations. After finishing this read in just a couple days, I knew I wanted to do something just like that. I felt such inspiration and as time went on, I read more and more books to fulfill my love for reading.
In my class for journalism, I am hoping to learn more about the structure of how to write in a more “journalism-style” you could say. I am used to writing more opinion-based reviews and journalism, depending on what way you decide to go with it, is more unbiased and factual. I am also excited to learn the way a journalist views things. An example of this to go more into detail would be their values, some being humility, accuracy of their information and how they use what they have learned in their pieces, and being truthful. I would also love to learn about the effect of technology in journalism. Has it become true that physical newspapers are not a way of learning news of this world now? We are in a digital age; everything is not the way it used to be anymore, especially with the way we find out information. I want to delve deeper into this topic in the class, finding out why the newspaper industry is dying and if there is any way of fixing this.
This may come as contradictory, but I love and dislike social media. To me, it has ruined the way we view news and heavy topics. With so much false and dramatized articles, sometimes it just seems too fake. It makes it hard to decipher what is true and what is false. Though, just this alone is making me even more thrilled to be apart of this class. I am so excited to make differences in my writing style and learning to see news and information in the eyes of a journalist.
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April 29th, 2024:
Being apart of this Journalism class has given me much more knowledge than what I started off with. The modules and lessons were able to answer all my questions. To be a journalist, I learned you need to have bias, though when you write you have to make sure you are not leading towards a specific side. Giving news to the public is keeping a balance of information. I have also learned how much technology and social media is taking over the newspaper/journalism industry. It is exciting to see where this is going to go from here.
Through discussion posts and watching documentaries, I have a better perspective on what journalists’ truly value when it comes to their work. It is all about keeping your connections close and always getting out there. It is a career where it feels non-stop. There is news coming out every single day, every single hour. In that case, I learned you always have to be on it. I have decided through this that I am not majoring in communications with a minor in journalism. It has been such a pleasure being apart of such a wonderful class!
