ANITA MCBRIDE knows that the position of First Lady is “probably the most important and most demanding unpaid job in the world.” McBride was the White House Chief of Staff for the first lady from 2005-09 through 3 administrations: Reagan, Bush and Bush. She appeared on C-Span last week to talk to college students, including George Mason University’s.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was the definer of the modern First Lady, says McBride, which means being an activist by using their voice and their platform for the significant social issues of the day.

Traditionally, the First Lady was seen as a homemaker and caretaker; McBride says that “the role of social hostess in our nation is very important; it’s important how we convey the use of the White House, not only to the Americans, but to our international visitors.” Even so, the role of First Lady has become more activist. The First Lady herself decides what social issues she takes on and how much she is involved in them, McBride says. “We expect First Ladies to be deeply engaged in the issues that they care about and issues that the nation cares about.”

The First Lady also humanizes the president in interviews by discussing the hardships her husband goes through and portraying the family side of him.

The job of First Lady is 24/7 but, as mentioned earlier, is not paid. Her staff, however, is paid because they are considered “staff of the office of the president of the United States assigned to the office of the First Lady.”

MANDY JENKINS, SOCIAL MEDIA PRODUCER FOR TBD (a local news site), visited my Communications 361 class (Online Journalism) today to share her experiences in her field. I appreciate what she had to share with us and attained some useful advice. In College Jenkins said that “reaching out and connecting with people individually” helped her land jobs early and I plan to emulate her actions. She showed her interest in other peoples’ careers by asking questions, sharing her own work with them, and therefore making connections. Jenkins has worked for TBD for 6 months now, where her duties include keeping track of news tips on Twitter and writing some news pieces. Starting a Twitter account in 2007 (although without much of a grasp of it yet) before it was popular, Jenkins had a hunch that social media was going somewhere for her as a journalist- in fact she created her own position as “Social Media Producer” at TBD. What I found impressive about TBD was that there are 200 + bloggers affiliated with TBD but there are only 15 professional journalists working there; it really says a lot about the changing landscape of journalism. Blogs are making their mark in journalism history, and what would traditionally be considered competition is now a resource. Jenkins herself said that today “social media can really, really help you as students,” and I can’t help but agree; what better way to profile your journalistic skills than to demonstrate your abilities and knowledge of social media in a blog?

Thanks for sharing, Mandy!