Some of the challenges that first semester journalism students are facing so far?

New beginnings, New challenges. First-semester journalism students at Seneca Polytechnic expressed some challenges they faced during the first week of classes. Starting a new program within an entirely new school is an extremely difficult and daunting first-hand feeling and experience.

The Journalism program at Seneca is a program with a lot of information in terms of the technicalities of what the program has to offer to be able to perform successfully on-air. The program has provided first-semester journalism students with several different challenges like editing, interviewing, and slowly constructing multi-media stories.

First-semester journalism student Andrew Wood expressed some of the challenges that he has faced in the journalism program so far. Andrew described how fast-paced the program has been thus far, he believes that some of the skills that he is trying to grasp have been challenging but rewarding because of the dedication and time towards understanding the journalism concepts.

Facing the fear of on-camera performance is something that first-semester journalism student Eric Shakespeare finds difficulty in. Eric explained how nervous he gets when the camera is rolling during a standup or interview. The faze of on-camera performance is something new to Eric as he starts his journalism journey. The technicality in terms of operating the camera and setting it up is something that Eric has found difficult thus far.

Jules Stewart has found it difficult to understand the specific concepts of journalism so far. Understanding some of the shots that are necessary to tell a story visually is something that Jules hasn’t understood fully because visual storytelling is something that he has just been introduced to as he begins his studies in the journalism program. Jules is willing to understand these concepts, but he feels like it is a process that is going to take time and practice in terms of understanding the journalism concepts.

Ishwar Siewdyal is a journalism student who has found it difficult in his first few weeks to be able to cope with finding his new classes while meeting new people and professors. For Ishwar this is not his first time taking a program, so he has found the technical side of things very challenging in the first few weeks in the journalism program. Ishwar is confident that with experience and dedication will be able to land a job in the journalism industry. The challenges of the program are some of the things that Ishwar is willing to overcome even though he comes from a background in numbers and data management.

Throughout the first few weeks of the journalism program first-semester journalism students have presented different challenges from a mental and physical standpoint for these students. These students have taken the information that they have learned so far and seem ready for any challenges that they are expected to face for the rest of this semester and the rest of their academic careers as journalism students.

An important part about the growth as a journalism student is to always ask questions and get as much information out of professors as possible. First-semester journalism students haven't hesitated to ask critical questions when it comes to understanding the concepts of journalism.