I was 16 years old when I first experienced the other side of news media, when I suddenly was not the one reading the newspaper on the breakfast table anymore but rather the one contributing to filling it the day before - no later then 8 p.m., of course, because that used to be the print deadline for my hometown's newspaper, Die Rheinpfalz. I interned there for three weeks during the summer of 2012 because my mom, a journalist herself, persuaded me to do so, to be honest. And I never left: I freelanced for that paper during my last two years in high school and then from abroad. I reported on beauty pageants and carnivals, on the circus coming into town Christmas Eve, on concerts and on high school theater, on city council meetings and on people complaining about city council members. I would lie if I said it was always interesting - but I got to experience the place I have spent all of my life at from a different perspective, in fact, from so many different perspectives. I really like that about local reporting.
On top of that, I learned a lot about how journalism works. I learned how to keep your distance to your subject, how to write a headline and a teaser, what a cliffhanger is, what the best interviewing techniques are, how to structure a feature as opposed to a news article. And most importantly: I learned how to write, how to give the people I am reporting on a voice, how to powerfully align letters and syllabi so someone else would see the imagery of what I am trying to describe in front of their inner eye. Writing can do that - when it is done well.
But how do you apply all of that to a language that you started learning in fifth grade and that you have never written even the most basic kind of article in? I have continuously been trying to figure this out since I moved to Los Angeles two years ago. I am a junior now, and I am covering the American election for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a German nationwide newspaper whose political beat I worked for over the summer. But I am covering it in German - not in English. I have not done much American journalism, besides the obligatory media center shift and a couple of unpaid "blog posts" for Huffington Post on college issues. And as a non-native speaker, let me tell you: There is a difference.
What I am hoping to get out of this class is a more diverse skill set so I can compensate for the fact that I do not have the vocabulary of a native speaker. I am majoring in print journalism but am aware of the rising influence and continuing expansion of online journalism. It is the future, so knowing how to code can put me ahead, give me that tiny advantage which, together with my international experience, might get me a job at an American news outlet one day. Is that where I see myself in 20 years? I do not know. I hate answering that question.