Luckily, I sit next to Queila Omena in my Gender and Communication class. She is the author of Little Brazilian, big thoughts, and I’m really happy with my adoption of her blog. It was great to look closer into what a classmate of mine is doing. Especially since Quiela is also a professional media major, shares the same journalistic aspirations as me, and took Blogging for Journalists over a year ago but is still blogging.
Queila told me that she has been blogging, since taking Dr. Clark’s class. She said she had a blog since 2010 that she played around with, but Dr. Clark’s class gave her the direction she needed to upkeep on a regular basis. Queila writes commentary for the Vista, so she just uploads all her pieces from the student newspaper onto her blog.
Interestingly, Queila told me that the Vista really got her out of her shell opinion wise. Before being told to write commentary about some controversial issues, she said she was a typical newsy person. She was very neutral, but now she has a lot of fun showing people her thoughts about different issues.
Showing her opinion has been a double-edged sword for her though. Queila said she gets hate letters sent to her on a regular basis. One post in particular she mentioned. In it she describes the type of woman that will send a boyfriend running away. She said a lot of women wrote saying they were offended by this. I read the post, and it’s no different than some of the articles you’d see in Cosmopolitan. The controversy went on further when her editor berated her for writing such an article as a woman, but she said she began to be offended by this! Why couldn’t she write anything she wanted as a woman? I find it all kind of hilarious. I guess Queila’s post about what it really means to be a feminist may have redeemed her.
Queila is a full-time student in addition to writing for the Vista. She plans on interning at the Oklahoman for a second summer in a row. She doesn’t receive any income from her blog, but uses it only as a way to get her work, her writing, out there. She said she knows of some people who have received jobs by getting their blogs looked at by prospective employers. I think it’s very smart of her to keep her blog updated in the specific journalism/commentary niche.
I have a bit of a beef with her blog, because the description says, “International, National, and Local News Covered by a Young Journalist.” I can’t find any real news in her blog. The commentary is great, don’t get me wrong, but part the issue I have with bloggers is their lack of real content. Blogs are called an online diary for a reason. They tend to be simply personal thoughts on various things without any real backup or analysis. It’s fine, but let’s not confuse journalism with commentary.
I really liked Queila’s advice for bloggers. She said everyone is gung-ho about blogging at first, but they quickly lose motivation. I definitely find that to be the case, and I thought her advice to push yourself to post is perfect. Push yourself to post. Push yourself to do anything you know you’re supposed to be doing. It is great advice.
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