kamryn:                               01:17                    

Hi, welcome talking to the adulting today. I'm talking with Peter. All my sources from today's episode will be linked in the description of this episode and the transcript from today's episode will also be on my website. Hi Peter. Hi kamryn. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for joining. I want you to introduce yourself so you can go ahead and do that.

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peter:                                   01:40                    

Hi, I'm Peter. I'm a student journalist. I had been working as an editor for my community. College's newspaper, the Roundup, and now I've transferred and I'm working as a special projects editor for my university's newspaper, the daily 49, and just kind of learning how to pursue this career as I, I was let go figuring it out all along the way.

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kamryn:                               02:23                    

Okay. Thank you. Nice meeting you. Well, nice meeting you from the audience. So in today's episode, we're going to be discussing what journalism is journalism's impact on society, including the documentation of history and social awareness and the future of excuse me, and the future of journalism and Peter's personal experience documenting the protests of the black lives matter movement. Okay. So I'm going to start off with some warm up questions. So these are just random questions that I made up at three o'clock in the morning. And you can either answer them with like an explanation or a tangent or whatever, or you can just say yes or no. Okay. So is water wet?

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peter:                                   03:10                    

Okay. So let's unpack this, I have seen a post, like analyzing this from like the science side of the internet. And they were talking about how the concept of wetness is the, is like a feeling of like something solid going through, like the molecules of something, like what Mmm. And how that, and how like, water can like occupy that. But it also can't because it's like a thing on its own and you're not like breaking up the water molecules as you're moving your hand through water or anything. So there, is that feeling there, right? Yes. In short, I don't know.

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kamryn:                               04:01                    

Hey, so the next question, do you wear socks while you're sleeping?

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peter:                                   04:05                    

I don't, because every time I do, they always fall off and I'm like looking for my socks inside the, the covers.

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kamryn:                               04:14                    

Okay. And then my third question describe who you are in three words, and you can explain why those three words.

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peter:                                   04:21                    

Oh, okay. First word, I'm going to go with resilient. Just cause I feel like I always forget to like Pat myself on the back for like getting to where I am now. Mmm. So that'd be, that'd be the first word. Second word is chaotic just cause I make a lot of bad decisions and, but I, I still standing, so hence the resilience and then the third word I'm going to go with funky because why not?

Okay.

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kamryn:                               05:01                   

  And then the last question I have is before we get into that episode, what is journalism mean to you and why do you actively pursued journalism or the journalist mind? I guess.

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peter:                                   05:14                    

Yeah. so to me the most important thing about journalism is seeking out the truth and telling it to as many people as possible. Because there's so much power in truth. It can, you know, root out corruption and can help take down people who are in power, who maybe don't deserve to be in power.

kamryn:                               05:39                    

And

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peter:                                   05:41                    

On like a very base level, I can just share stories and shine, light on people's lives. Mmm. And so that's why I pursued journalism because I want to tell the truth.

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kamryn:                               05:53           

Was there any like personal experience that made you want to do journalism? Like for example, I really like journalism because I get to ask people questions and just get just me nosy and I love it. I'm asking questions. Yeah. So was there anything personal that really made you want to be a journalist?

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peter:                                   06:12                    

Mmm, I had always enjoyed writing and I'd always been writing since I was a kid, but I obviously never pursued journalism as a child. But the thing that made me want to pursue journalism was the type of writing that it is. I like that it's not made up that you actually base it on, you know, facts. Yeah. Facts and what, like your own research.

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kamryn:                               06:44                   

I like that too. Okay. So let's get into the first topic, whatever. So before this, I usually, I'm gonna, I'm going to just talk, like, read off what I'm going to say so we can get into like, okay, so now what is your awesome, according to the American press Institute, journalism is activity of gathering, assessing, creating, and presenting information, including the product after the process. So I would include like the newspaper, like the production of the newspaper and then the actual newspaper, the difference between journalism and other forms of communication as the code that journalism pertains to from the American press, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah I'm. Instead of inserting a video of this guy that talks about the five principles, it's simple and very straight forward. So I'm gonna insert that here. So Peter, I didn't meet you through the school newspaper. So I want to ask you, what did you learn from being a part of the Roundup?

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peter:                                   07:40                    

Oh man, that's a very long answer. Well on like well from like a school standpoint, I learned how to do interviews, how to write in AP style, how to, you know, make an article coherent and concise. But on like a personal soul searching kind of way I learned Mmm. How to be a good journalist through like understanding, I guess what the truth is at its core. Cause you learn like if someone tells you something and you're kind of doubtful of it, the next thing you do is talk to as many people as possible to find out what the truth actually is. And then I learned how to work with a team like professionally cause you do so many group projects in college, but being on the is so different because you're all working towards a specific goal and you're all kind of passionate about it and you all care about the end product.

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peter:                                   08:56                    

Whereas like in a group project, like you're all just trying to get an a and sometimes, you know, one person does the entire group's work. But I also just learned how to, how to listen. Mmm. Like when I'm interviewing someone I'm not, or I'm trying to do less of like that normal conversation thing where you're listening to someone, but only because you want to know what you're going to say next. So this, so then I learned how to like actively listen and take in what someone says and build something out of it. And you kind of just, I also learn how to like make something out of nothing, basically.

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kamryn:                               09:41                    

That's exactly another point why I liked journalism, like just the whole, like all the little sectors of journalism. Okay. So next question. Do you have a favorite part of the publishing process?

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peter:                                   09:55                    

Mmm, yeah. I really like editing. Cause it's like I guess I'm kind of just nerdy in that way and I like looking at words and figuring out which is the best one to use. But it's cool to be in like the mind of a reader and just being like, okay, how do I make this make sense? Even when you get like a bad article, it's still kind of fun to look through it and yeah, yeah, take it apart and put it back together. Cause then it's nice after you've finished all of it to be like, Oh, well look at this great thing I helped make.

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kamryn:                               10:40                    

I guess my favorite part of the publishing process was the stuff I couldn't do. So I really want to be able to edit like the paper paper, like when you guys were doing an in design. I really, it makes me so happy. Like looking at people do that. I don't know why, so I couldn't really do that part. So it kind of made me bummed out that all I could do is read and copy edit. So yeah, I think one of the classes I'm taking

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kamryn:                               11:06                    

This fall, yeah. The month is one of those like classes where it's like public relations or something like that. So I can get into that part of journalism and see if I like that because I've noticed that I like, I liked the newspaper, but I really want to be on my own. Like I want to do, I want to do it myself, which is kind of bad, but I really, I don't know, but that's my thing. But I learned from, but what I learned from the newspaper is that I like how you guys are so like family, you guys are like buddy, buddy. And I think that's why I liked it. Cause I used to be part of like a lot of sports teams. I was a sports person in high school. So just being a part of you guys and being able to like Here, you guys have your own and it's happening. It just made me really happy.

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peter:                                   11:56                    

Yeah. I think we lucked out also in having a newsroom that was like that because I'm pretty sure like work environments. Aren't always as I'd love Dovie as ours are. But I think we also just lucked out on having like very compassionate advisors who create that environment for us instead of just having teachers who are like, all right,

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kamryn:                               12:15                    

Exactly. That's why I really love the teachers. Okay. Is actively trying to seek out the truth, which is the base of journalism. Somewhat tiresome.

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peter:                                   12:30                    

Yeah. I mean, I think with any job it can get tiring at some point, but because Mmm. Like the article is so important, there's kind of a lot of pressure to talk to the right people and do everything correctly. Cause sometimes you do all the, all the interviews and then you sit down to write something and you're like, Oh gosh, like this is a lot of information. And sometimes like, people don't want to talk to you.

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peter:                                   13:01                     So that makes it difficult. Also.

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kamryn:                               13:03                    

Are you ever scared that in the future you're going to be writing like a article and someone tells you information that rude really like hurt maybe even hurt the community more than help them. Do you ever think about that?

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peter:                                   13:18                    

Yeah, I think about like sometimes people's intentions when they talk to me. And I worry too about if like my work is ever going to hurt anyone. Like if something I publish is going to have some very big negative effect on people.

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kamryn:                               13:39                    

Mmm. Yeah. Yeah. I think about that a lot. That's what I wanted to ask because I guess that's one, I'm more of an anxiety person. So whenever, when I wanted to do journalism, I've noticed that a lot of stuff in my community, it should have been shared. Like people should know about this stuff that's going on and just my little block, but then I think about it, I'm like, but how will that help my actual community? And then it just makes me anxiety and it makes me feel anxious about becoming an actual journalist. But I guess I gotta get over that. The fourth question I have is despite being a part of a school publication, do you think newspapers slash broadcasting in the professional world? Well, or is making a comeback during these times of coven, the protesting?

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peter:                                   14:28                    

What do you mean making a comeback?

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kamryn:                               14:30                    

Like for example, I looked up the sin called civilian pro, like civilian journalism journalists where it's, everyone is posting about information newspapers, like on our Instagram stories, a bunch of people are posting information and all this stuff. It's technically journalism on Instagram. So I'm saying, do you think those people are helping the, I guess journalism community? Like, are they promoting that idea that journalists have like a lot of power and will that power be like, are people gonna want to be a journalist in the future or like kids right now? Like, Oh, I want to be a journalist like, wow. COVID and wow, these people are taking pictures of these protests. Like that's what I do think it's going to be that in the future.

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peter:                                   15:18                   

I think so. I think civilian journalism is a tricky topic because I feel like it can go either way where it either helps or hurts people. Cause story, you can shoot a video and post it and have like a really big impact and, you know, shed light on a lot of things that are happening. But sometimes, you know, a picture or a video doesn't tell the entire story and you can get into like hot water when you don't do your own research into what's happening, you know? Cause you can film someone doing something, but that's not the same as asking them what they're doing, having a conversation with them and figuring out their real intentions and you know, how it affected whoever they were talking to or interacting with. Mmm. But as far as people wanting to be journalists, I think the news is always going to be important, whether or not people enjoy taking it in. There's a lot of distrust with the media and I don't know if that's ever really going to go away.

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