A couple of months ago, if someone had asked me whether a video script and a creative brief were necessary, I probably would have said, "Can't you just figure it out as you go?" You have a camera; you have an idea. How hard can it be?
I've been thinking a lot lately about why we do what we do. We go to school to gain knowledge. We work to take care of ourselves and our families. But if I'm being honest with myself, I want my life — including my career — to mean something more than just a résumé and a paycheck. I want everything I do to have an eternal purpose.
For the first time in her life, Danette Slusher sat in a college classroom. She was not 18. She was a mother of four, a dance instructor, a cancer survivor's mom, and a woman who had spent decades lovingly pouring herself into her family — and now, at last, it was her turn.
President Russell M. Nelson, 17th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said, "How we treat each other really matters! How we speak to and about others at home, at church, at work, and online really matters. I am asking us to interact with others in a higher, holier way. Please listen carefully: 'If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy' that we can say about another person — whether to his face or behind her back — that should be our standard of communication."
Honesty is something I was taught long before I ever thought about becoming a writer. It was something I was taught by my parents, teachers, and mentors. So, when I started studying writing, it felt natural to carry that value into my writing. To me, ethics in writing starts with one simple commitment: tell the truth and don’t forget the people behind it.
News writing is not really my world. I don't follow the news closely, and it's not something I'd ever thought much about. So when I got the chance to look at it up close, I came in with almost no frame of reference — which, as it turns out, made everything more interesting to notice.
Some days, by the time work is done, I am just tired. The kind of tired that settles into your patience, your words, your tone. And on those days, I don't always speak with love. I know better. But knowing and living aren't always the same thing, are they?
There's a saying that floats around newsrooms like a ghost: Be first or be forgotten. It's been repeated so often that it started to sound like wisdom. It isn't. It's a trap — and the journalism industry has been falling into it for years.
By Nicole Rodriguez
By Nicole Rodriguez
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