Trying to keep up

I've had a somewhat slow start to my project. It didn't take me long to figure out a topic, I bounced between something involving social media and its effects on journalism and the recent SOPA bill. I chose to focus on the SOPA bill and its potential effect on the Internet.

The hardest part of this project thus far has been narrowing my topic, as there are many different angles I could take with a topic such as Internet reform. I've closed the story's focus quite a bit since I first chose my topic but still have a little work to do in that regard.

My main focus will be on what parts of the SOPA bill, if there were any in particular, that caused so much controversy across the country and even within Washington, D.C. From there I want to see how much Internet reform is necessary and more importantly how much Internet reform, if any, the public would be content with.

I've had one interview with an informal source, a music connoisseur who DJ's seriously, who I met through one of my roommates who he was good friends with. The interview went a lot better than I expected from an informal source as I wanted to originally interview my History of Mass Communications professor Michael Krysko for my feature story.

I still plan on interviewing professor Krysko and have tentatively arranged an interview after spring break to talk about past reforms in mass mediums, the processes that led to these reforms and how they compare to the situation that the Internet is in around the world.

My hope and goal over spring break is to arrange an interview with either a senator, representative or someone in politics that is familiar with the issue and the tight rope that politicians will have to walk to pass an Internet reform bill. If this cannot be arranged, I plan on interviewing a political science professor within the university either way.

That's where I'm at right now and I'm ready to really start diving into this project now that basketball season is coming to a close and my role at the Collegian will be smaller, giving me more time to focus on school.