We're trying something new and we want you to join us

Creative Commons photo by Flickr user Etownian

By Katy Mersmann

If you're reading this, that means you've survived the first week of classes. By this point, many of us already have early assignments from our editors and for our journalism classes, and it can all be a little overwhelming, especially right at the beginning. Some students (myself included) are facing the daunting task of learning new software, others are facing their first real deadlines and stories. Some other students might be working on developing stories on their own, which will eventually be pitched to media outlets around the state and country.

No matter what you're doing in journalism, we want to provide a space for you to come together with other students and share the experience. Learning to report, edit and produce on your own can be a little daunting, and ONA Mizzou wants to help. Thursday evening at 6:00 p.m., we're hosting our first Open Newsroom in the Futures Lab (the basement of RJI). We'll be there with projects we're working on, and we'd love to see students of all ages and sequences come out and bring assignments, stories-in-progress or just questions about reporting in general. For new students, this can be a great opportunity to meet some new friends and ask older students' advice on classes and equipment. For more experienced students, it can be a chance to network with your peers and get an extra set of eyes on your work before it's due. 

We're planning to have Open Newsrooms about once a month for the rest of the semester, so if you can't make it to this one, we'd love to see you for future get-togethers. Additionally, we're planning some other new and exciting events for the rest of the semester. Up first, we have RJI Fellow Dan Archer coming to talk about his ideas for bringing graphic design into journalism. That'll be Sept. 18, and we'll have more details coming. If you're interested in getting more involved with ONA and hearing about future events, follow us on Twitter @ONAMizzou and like us on Facebook.