This article is about to get really meta. I've been making content for Odyssey for a year now. They are not the first media source I have written for, and the variety of topics I've written on have changed greatly over the years. Every news source has its upsides and downsides both fir the readers and the reporters, but Odyssey has been one of my favorites. But, these articles are still clickbait.

There are many pros to writing for Odyssey When I worked for The UW Daily, I wrote for only certain parts of the paper, mainly the opinions section. Given this category, our section head pitched relevant political and cultural topics for us to pick up and write our opinion on. However, at Odyssey, I don't even have to pitch my ideas, let alone choose between ones someone else pre-picked out for the week. Instead, I get to write about whatever topic I want without running it by someone else first for approval. This means I can write about topics I care about, from goth culture and best black lipsticks to not actually allergy-free foods.

However, there are still some drawbacks. One of the clear drawbacks to the site is that it relies heavily on its content creators to advertise their articles through things such as clickbait titles, lots of photos, and articles that are short and fast to keep the readers attention. Success is measured for those in charge by the number of creators on their team, and success for the writers themselves is gauged by page views. This is all fine and dandy for some people, but others it makes getting their work out there difficult because it is very reliant on their individual advertisement of it on their personal social media accounts.

I still think Odyssey is one of the better news organizations I've written for, but I find a lot of the content is more in line with blog posts than structured articles with interviews. The site is one large opinions section of a newspaper. For me, this is ideal, because that gives me freedom in writing. Also, that's one of the only sections of news I still read.

Odyssey could be great for you if you are an English major who wants a resume buff, or just someone who wants exposure and to say they have been published. Just make sure to meet your weekly deadlines, and don't be surprised if your headline gets changed to something more catchy.