Name: Tom Rowan
Job: Writer/Reporter for The Temple News, Temple University’s Student Newspaper (Philadelphia).
What are your responsibilities? I write for the opinion, news, living and sports sections of the student organized college newspaper of Temple University. Typically, I submit ideas to mainly one or two editors of the respective sections, and have the articles written by the following week; writing one or two articles per week. I have to adjust my writing style according to the section, follow a specific word count and check my AP Style, grammar, and research. My main job is write stories that college kids want to read. It’s hard enough getting people to pick up a newspaper these days, let alone one constructed entirely by fellow students. I like to find interesting angles as well as people, events, or aspects of life whose stories wouldn’t normally be told. My responsibility is to write interesting articles, get them in on time, and make them semi-perfect; all this without skipping class or losing my mind.
What’s a typical workday? For TTN, the editors are usually the only ones who occupy the newsroom, so I do most of my work on my iPhone. You got to love technology; I hold the future of journalism in the palm of my hand. Anyway, my time is made up mostly of the actual reporting itself. If I’m writing for two sections that week, I try to get all my research done first, and then speak with those who can fill in the gaps with specifics and quotes. I have to manage my time appropriately in order to speak with as many people as I can for each article, and I usually leave the writing aspect until the night before, hammer it out and send it in. If I take too long to write, it usually doesn’t work out; I’d rather have all my information first before I put my fingers to the keys. After phone calls to a ton of people, e-mails to countless others, and gathering tons of information and sorting through what’s necessary and what’s not, I try and find a way to tell a universal story that people of all backgrounds, ages, and heritage can appreciate.
What do you like/dislike about your job? First, I have a distinct love for the written word. There is something so timeless and beautiful about a collection of verbs, adjectives, and nouns that collaborate to form an idea, which millions of people, home and abroad, not only comprehend but celebrate. I love journalism, mostly because of the challenge of saying so much with so little, in a stressful environment of deadlines and performance pressures, which upon completion, supplies a natural high. I love the business, but what I could do without is the lack of opportunities. The business has always been a challenge, but more recently, the declining economy coupled with the growth of the internet has compromised the ability of some great writers to do their work. However, in the face of great adversity, I feel as though there will always be a need for information, and seeing as all educational facilities around the world learn by reading, there will always be a need for well-written words. The future is on the internet; but more specifically the wifi connections of cell phones and PDA’s. The unlimited space of web pages makes that idea very appealing to most writers. Journalism and more specifically the actual journalists themselves may become the most important aspect of media services online. In NASCAR, organizations first buy their drivers before they buy the car. Hopefully, media outlets will pay for the reporters before putting out a news service-wait and hope.
Background: I have loved words for as long as I can remember; carrying comic books around with me everywhere I went when I was just a pup, to collecting volumes of the Goosebumps books in my grade school days. I had a conflict of interest coming out of high school, not knowing exactly what I wanted to do with my life and not wanting to go into debt for thousands upon thousands of dollars, wasting time not knowing exactly which aspect of education I wanted to pursue. I earned my associates degree in Communications at Bucks County Community College in two years, in 2008. There, I found my love for journalism working for their small student newspaper, The Centurion. Writing mostly news and sports, I was nominated by the College’s Student Services Department as “Outstanding New Member” of a Club or Organization. At Bucks, I completed an internship with the Bucks County Courier Times, for which I still work as a freelancer. There, I was taken under the wing of the first woman ever hired to write for the Courier’s sports section, and it was in the live newsroom where I learned what journalism is all about.
