Today, I got the opportunity to attend the OU Scripps Pane. Chip Maheny, Emerging Talent Leader, led the discussion on different careers and values of The E.W. Scripps Company. To see his LinkedIn profile, and read more about him, click here. Whenever I hear the name "E.W. Scripps", my mind always goes straight to my school, The E.W. Scripps College of Journalism. So, it was interesting to be able to learn more about the networks of the actual Scripps Company. To learn more about the company and some of its opportunities, click here. There were four other employees of The E.W. Scripps Company, besides Chip, and they all were able to speak on their roles. Jake Godin, a reporter for Newsy DC, spoke about his role. His job entails looking for available content online (YouTube, etc.) and then using it to tell a story. For example, Jake mentioned that you can use sources such as Google Earth, and he used the example of being able to see where power lines lay on the road, compared to a highway, and you can use prior knowledge to track where certain things occur. The interesting thing about this tool is that it can be produced exactly where you are, without ever having to go to a different state or country, if that's where your story is set. This is along the lines of forensic detective journalism. As students in journalism, it's important for us to learn the different paths that we can take in our future endeavors. Coming into the journalism school, during my first semester, I thought journalism was just reporting. This scared me because I wasn't sure if that's what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Becca Cochran, another Scripps employee, who is also an Ohio University alum, said that she was also intimidated during these first journalism classes, for the same reasons. Carolyn Michelo, SVP Corp Communications/ Investor Relations spoke on some important points as well. In today's age, there have been some that have questioned whether journalism is a dying field or not. Carolyn said that journalism is not dead, and that it's still a way for advertisers to share content. There are many new ways that stories are shared today, including podcasts, etc. Since Carolyn is an investor, she spoke about how investors for The Scripps Company don't usually ask about the cash flow, but about what the company is currently doing. The quality of journalism will always supersede the cost of it. This panel opened my eyes to different job opportunities that students in journalism can go into. During the hour and a half panel, the five employees were able to talk about producing documentaries, investing, public relations, etc. That's the beautiful thing about journalism, we can choose so many things to go into, and tell our story in a multitude of different ways. Journalism will never get boring, and it will never die. There will always be a story to tell.
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