Choosing the right portfolio site for you

Photo by The City College First-Year Writing Program

By Maria Davison

So you want to build a personal portfolio site, but you're not sure where to begin? Picking the right platform to best showcase your work can seem like a daunting task, if only slightly less daunting than coding it yourself. But an outstanding online portfolio will help you out when it comes to applying for everything from your first internship to your dream job. The key is picking one that showcases your work at its best and makes it shine.

I asked a few ONA Mizzou Exec members and some other friends of ONA Mizzou to share the pros and cons of several common portfolio sites. Here's what they had to say:

An insider's look at ONA15

Photo of Online Journalism Awards
by Katy Mersmann

By Katy Mersmann

Did you miss me? I'm back from the ONA conference and back posting on this blog for a day. I was on the ONA Student Newsroom, reporting in L.A. on the conference, which gave me a really different perspective on the conference. With our current executive board sharing their take on ONA from afar, I figured those of us in student newsroom could add a little bit about our take on the conference from inside the newsroom.

Welcome to our new board!

By Katy Mersmann

This is my last post as the president of ONA Mizzou and I'm sad that my time is at an end. I've had a great time with our events and Open Newsrooms. I'm thrilled to introduce our new executive board (they should look pretty familiar), and I'm so excited to see what they do!

Sarah Darby, President:

@_SCDarby

Hello, my name is Sarah Darby, and I am excited to be the new president of ONA Mizzou! I am currently a junior convergence journalism major and entrepreneurship minor, and I am originally from the Kansas side of Kansas City. My love for digital media began when I helped launch my high school newspaper's first website. I saw how engaging online content could reach audiences in new ways, and I pursued a number of digital news internships in college as a result. I have worked at news startups in the Midwest and in Buenos Aires. I have also worked as a social media coordinator for ONA Mizzou and Mizzou's Women in Engineering Center. This summer I hope to further develop these skills and interests as a digital news intern at the Kansas City Star.

Elections are coming!

By Katy Mersmann

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Ian Aberle

As the school year is (slowly) winding to an end, it's once again time to elect a new ONA Mizzou executive board. As president, I have loved the experience and the opportunities ONA has given me. I've gotten to meet and work with some really awesome journalists and people, and gotten to know everyone on the board better. And let me tell you, they are some pretty great people.

To emojis, mobile and beyond

From Flickr user

Marco Paköeningrat

By Katy Mersmann

Just last week, BuzzFeed announced the addition of emojis to its content management system. The news about BuzzFeed's move to include emojis in stories and headlines got a decent amount of traction; it's a fun, albeit unusual move by a company known for trying new things. Along with emojis in the CMS, BuzzFeed also added them to its style guide, giving their use a more real, journalistic feel:

Journalism on your wrist

Courtesy of Flickr User Mark Johnson

By Katy Mersmann

A few weeks ago, Apple announced its newest products: two new iPhones and the Apple Watch. The iPhones really caught the most attention and now that they've been released to the public, coverage of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus has been significant, especially with the advent of "Bendgate."

But recently, a classmate shared a blog post with me addressing the question of how the Apple Watch, and other wearable technology, will impact journalism. Mario García runs a tech blog called García Media, that looks at the intersection of journalism and technology, and he raises some interesting questions about whether wearable technology will push journalism even further into the world of "at a glance."

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.

Welcome back, Journalism Tigers!

By Katy Mersmann

Creative Commons photo from Wikipedia user AdamProcter

Hi and welcome back to Mizzou! We’re so excited for a new year of Online News Association and we are looking forward to getting started. We’re planning a variety of events to help students grow and develop their skills as news writers and editors, as well as provide a place to network with each other and media professionals.

Understanding technology for journalism competence

Creative Commons photo from Flickr user BRAYDAWG

By Katy Mersmann

When I was in Washington this semester, I was fortunate enough to attend the National Press Foundation awards dinner with my fellow Mizzou journalism students. Wolf Blitzer was honored at the ceremony for a lifetime of dedication to journalism. During his remarks, he told an anecdote about learning to type with both hands at the same time while he was working for Reuters. My entire table of students was aghast. Blitzer was hired by a big, successful news agency without even basic typing skills. Today, that's pretty hard to imagine. 

I share this anecdote as an example of the rapid changes in journalism technology. I was reading Poynter's newly released, updated Pyramid of Journalism Competence. The pyramid was originally created in 1998 for a forum Poynter hosted for the Committee for Concerned Journalists and offered guidance to journalists about what they needed to know.

Meet the 2014-2015 ONA Mizzou student leaders

President: Katy Mersmann

I'm Katy Mersmann and I'm a current junior and international convergence journalism major. My first love is the written word (I came to Mizzou to be a print reporter) but quickly discovered the flexibility and excitement of working with different platforms to get the story out. I'm passionate about the potential for social media crowdsourcing to provide richer narratives and different perspectives on the news we see everyday.

I'm originally from Olathe, Kan. (although I've never liked the Jayhawks!), and I just spent a semester in Washington, D.C., interning in the medical unit at CNN. After graduation, I dream of taking my skills on the road as a "backpack reporter" and covering stories that don't get much traction.

Outside of the j-school, I like to eat, run, watch Mizzou football and talk about Harry Potter with anyone who will listen.