Our Hometown establishes partnership with St. Lawrence College Journalism program

Our Hometown has partnered with the St. Lawrence College Journalism program. In the coming weeks we will be introducing to you some of the students from the Journalism program at St. Lawrence College. They have wide-ranging interests, and come from extremely varied backgrounds.

PHOTO CREDIT - StLawrenceCollege.ca

Cornwall - Oct. 31, 2011 - Students pursuing a career in Journalism in the new millenium's second decade have an interesting, and at times difficult road ahead of them. They have chosen a career that, to the casual observer, involves work that anyone could do (and in many cases, do better.) The attitude is that if you give someone a keyboard and a cell phone camera, you have created a Journalist.

In Journalism, however, as in any occupation, there are varying degrees of ability: bad, adequate, good, better, best. It can also be broken down into two groups, the first being those who have studied, received training and strive for a level of excellence that is achieved by combining ability with accepted standards that have been developed over time. The second group consists of those have a natural curiosity combined with an interest in telling stories, all mixed together with a better-than-average ability to communicate. (There is, of course a third group, who have nothing from group one, and little from group two. That is a subject for a different day.)

In the coming weeks we will be introducing to you some of the students from the Journalism program at St. Lawrence College. They have wide-ranging interests, and come from extremely varied backgrounds. The one thing that they have in common is that they are chasing a career in the time-honoured tradition of storytelling.

They are learning how best to tell a story, using words, sounds and video. They are also learning the importance of "getting it right", taking the time to verify information and check details. They are starting to understand how important it is for you, the audience, to be able to believe what they have to say.

We hope you will take the time to read what they have to say!