For my informational interview I interviewed Kayleen Petrovia, a third year Journalism major with a minor in Media Production & Analysis.
Interview Questions:
Maddie: Did you start as pre-journalism or were you directly admitted into the Journalism program?
Kayleen: I was directly admitted as a Journalism major. If you’re an honors student you don’t have to apply to Journalism, so I was directly in Journalism.
Maddie: Why did you choose journalism?
Kayleen: I’ve always been more of writing and literature type person as opposed to math and science, so I knew I wanted to do something with that. I didn’t really want to go into just English or didn’t want to go into English Education so I looked into majors that incorporated writing, and journalism just seem like a really good fit because I love interacting with people and its something that had a cause to the writing.
Maddie: Did you ever consider the other options in the communication school or did you just know journalism was the one?
Kayleen: I looked into them but I’ve really known I wanted to do journalism since probably like middle school so it wasn’t like a huge decision for me. I looked at Strategic Communications too just because its probably the most comparable to journalism out of everything in the communications school. So there used to be “J School” at Ohio State which is like the school of journalism but a few years ago they incorporated it into the school of communication so it used to be its whole entire school but now its apart of communications. “Strat Comm” is similar to the writing style of journalism but its more for PR and more subjective, as opposed to journalism, which is supposed to be more objective. So that’s what I liked about it, but it’s a good thing to look in to.
Maddie: Have you ever questioned your decision at all in journalism?
Kayleen: Not so much cause I knew for a long time that’s something that I wanted to do. I think the good thing about Ohio State is that a lot of schools offer like broadcast journalism or print journalism or maybe multimedia technology or something like that which may seem like kind of a disadvantage here that we just have an overarching program but I think its actually really beneficial because instead of going into a major that’s a specific specialization of journalism you use your minor as your specialization so I like that because my minor for journalism is media production and analysis (I also have Spanish but that’s not for journalism). I came here thinking I for sure wanted to go into sports broadcasting and that’s what I wanted to do I know 100% and I took a sports media class here and I was like “no I really don’t want to do that anymore”. I never necessarily questioned my decision of journalism but definitely what I wanted to do with my major so I think the major here is really nice because they want to prepare you to be someone who could go into print, who could go into broadcast, who could report general news, or you could do sports if you wanted, whatever it may be. I like that a lot because I’ll be more of a well-rounded journalist exiting Ohio state as opposed to someone who’s just really well versed in one area.
Maddie: Did you have a hard choice in deciding what minor/specialization you wanted to do?
Kayleen: I talked to my advisor about it and that was helpful. The purpose of media production and analysis is kind of to supplement our journalism program to be more like multimedia and broadcast so that seemed like a good fit for me. There are 9 specializations to choose from, and I felt this one was the best fit because it was more preparing me with different skills instead of just one category (like geography and political science).
Synthesis Questions:
- How did you find this interviewee, and why did you choose to interview this person?
Kayleen is my RA and I knew she was a Journalism major. I chose to interview her because she’s a person that not only has the major and minor that I’m declaring soon, but she’s also a person I look up to and I value her opinion.
- How has this interview influenced your major and/or career exploration?
This interview definitely solidified my decision to declare Public Affairs Journalism as my major. Kayleen gave me some great insight into what the Journalism program is like and how to get involved in the print and media publication of The Lantern. She talked so highly of the program, including her professors and peers, and I just know that it’s going to be a great fit for me.
- Did you learn anything unexpected from the interview? If so, what? If not, which ideas did the
interview reinforce?
I did not include the whole interview in the transcription above, but something I learned was that many of the professors in the Journalism school have at one time been professional journalists. Kayleen also explained to me what it’s like to work for The Lantern, and how fast paced it is. She explained that many of the professors can be hard on their students, but they’re doing it for your benefit and they’re all very helpful and care for their student’s success.
- What do you feel you still need to learn about this major/career before being able to make a
confident decision?
I’m in the process of declaring this major right now so I don’t believe I need any more information. I’m very confident in my decision.
- Which major exploration tools/activities/resources that you utilized this semester were most
helpful to you and why?
I feel my advising appointment was very helpful in making my decision because in this meeting I learned what I needed to do in order to declare the Journalism major. I also believe the test we took online that matched us up with potential careers was very helpful because I got many careers similar to Journalism, furthering my confidence in the major.