Girl Journalist

While mulling over my resume one day, I realized that my helpdesk background was branding me as something I could never be, and would never want to be anyway. I needed something to round out all the technical training and experience; something to prove I was different from the other geeks. Given my personality, I could never be content just working on the helpdesk.

I am a people person, someone who values people above all other things. It is important for me to listen to people, really understand and communicate their needs. When you work on the IT helpdesk it is all about quantity, not quality. The more problems you can solve, the more trouble tickets you can close… and most IT professionals are task-oriented individuals. I am better at creating relationships with end-users than I am at quickly solving technical problems.

It is my belief that technology should work for the end-user. And, I realized that I offer a unique skill set because I am able to translate and communicate technology to non-technical people.

By returning to school to complete a masters in journalism, I believe I am rounding out my skill set and improving my communication skills. I have always been interested in the news and information business. My ultimate goal is to someday become CIO for a successful media company. The good news is, the role of CIO’s is changing. According to a recent article, The changing CIO role, published on cio.com and The State of the CIO Overview 2006 (An annual report, based on a survey of more than 500 heads of Information Technology), CIO really should be CSO - Chief Stragety Officer - because strategic thinking and planning were two personal skills IT professionals reported as requirements for success.

Now, I for one, believe whole-heartedly in strategic planning. However, I have noticed that many media companies today seem to be short on strategy and long on tactics. These media companies have fallen behind the times and therefore, in an effort to play catch-up are throwing every idea they can think of at their readers/viewers. Do they ever stop to think whether their audience will really appreciate the new “feature.” Case in point, The University Daily Kansan. Granted, the Kansan experience almost a complete staff turnover ever year, but regardless, these students, if anyone in the media business, should understand that just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should. The Kansan recently redesigned its web site, kansan.com, according to editors, in an effort to draw more students to the site. But I wonder if the Kansan really knows who its audience is online? I have no hard facts, but I would bet if you took at their web site stats for the last year, you would find that most of their traffic is coming from off campus. I believe it’s the KU alumni who are visiting kansan.com, not the students on the Lawrence campus. Recent focus groups conducted by graduate classes in the J-School found that KU students preferred the print editions of the Kansan because it was portable. They could take the paper to class, do the crossword puzzle and read it in-between classes. Until more students carry wireless devices, and more professors allow laptops, cell phones and PDAs in class, kansan.com will probably never be as popular as the Kansan newspaper with KU students. What the Kansan should be doing is looking at the audience they do have on kansan.com and tailoring news and information features toward them. I also think this could lead to national advertising contracts… It’s a strategy worth thinking about. Perhaps what the Kansan really needs is a CSO?