Being a Journalist for a Semester

Date: 2024-12-01

Despite majoring in Integrated Studies in Computer Science and Information Systems & Technology, I am spending my last academic year as a journalist working at the UVU Review. This student newspaper has been one of the most fun groups on campus that I have been part of.

I originally applied to the UVU Review for a position to run the website. But when that opportunity didn't pan out, they encouraged me to be a volunteer reporter instead. At the time, this was discouraging. But life has a way of surprising us with better paths.

Despite the setback, I slowly built enthusiasm for being a journalist. I was particularly inspired by Stieg Larssen, Cory Doctrow, and journalism as a tool for social change.

Once the semester began, I paired up with Jared Wilkerson on the STEM and Environment beat. As an English major, Jared has been incredibly supportive, and has helped me improve my writing skills.

Jared and I are the ones wearing blue in the top left. Photo by UVU Marketing.

More recently, we attended this press conference for an article about UVU's research supporting the idea that AI generated deepfakes can mislead voters.

We have learned that we work together better when one of us leads the story. And even though one of us does the bulk of the work, we will still usually work together to find topics and help research if needed.

Our first story involved writing about the AI climate on campus. ChatGPT was popularized months prior and we wanted to write about UVU's response this paradigm shift.

We jumped into the deep end by writing an article AND working with the broadcast team to make a video. I mostly wrote the article and Jared interviewed professors teaching philosophy and collision technology. (Two people from very different fields that have similar views on AI in higher ed!)

Logan Topham helped us film this interview in the Review's studio! He also edited the video and put it up on the organization's YouTube.

This article also made it into our print newspaper!

But unfortunately, it was cut down a little bit to make it fit with all the other articles in the print edition.

The article I am most proud of is my work on a nonprofit called OUR Rescue. This is a story I have been following for years. My article summarized the misadventures of Tim Ballard and his mission to end sex trafficking. During this time, he generated a lot of negative press leading to Ballard leaving the nonprofit.

Since then, OUR Rescue has almost completely rebuilt itself and is working hard to regain it's reputation. My most recent article was an attempt to help. I outlined the nonprofit's history and shared a short but optimistic update on their path forward.

I'm now in contact with multiple board members and it looks like I might have a chance to thoroughly investigate the current operations of the nonprofit. As long as the nonprofit is headed in a positive direction, I would love to advocate for them.

This post/essay is one of the requirements for getting internship credit working at The Review. Here are the goals I set at the beginning of this internship:

1. Find and research topics applicable to students around campus.
2. Work with Jared to find facts, angles, and perspectives for a story.
3. Have finished stories ready for publication. This can be in print, web, podcast and/or broadcast.

And here is how I accomplished each goal:

1. Asked around for stories. My most interesting find was learning the existence of an unsanctioned fight club rand by students.
2. Once we found a story, Jared and I would work together finding facts about half of the time. In one case, we worked together to learn in UVU's composting efforts and 4 million worms.
3. This semester, I wrote 6 stories. With Jared and I combined, we wrote 10 stories for the STEM and Environment beat.

Overall, the 196 hours I have spent being a journalist has been really fun and a great learning opportunity.