Coming into college, I didn’t know what I wanted to do for sure. I knew I loved sports and I had a pretty good knack for writing, but I wasn’t exactly sure how to combine those two things. I learned more about potential majors, ultimately deciding that a communication degree would be the best fit for my strengths.
I chose to attend Cabrini University in hopes to obtain a bachelors degree in Digital Communication and Social Media. My freshman year I was a pretty shy student who really just kept to myself. I had a few really good friends that I would hang out with and that was about it.
Entering my sophomore year, I made a promise to myself to change that. I wanted to break out of my shell and make a name for myself on campus. Being a digital communication major, I chose to take journalism classes to help better my strength in writing. Little did I know, I would excel to my highest potential in journalism, landing me where I am today.
I had a small journalism background from being a staff writer for a few different Philadelphia sports blogs, but nothing of the magnitude of The Loquitur. I learned how to write AP style, diversify my story choices, and, most importantly, how to be a leader.
After a full year of hard work writing for The Loquitur, I was chosen to be the next editor-in-chief. At first, I was somewhat in a state of disbelief. I never really would have envisioned myself to be in this position during my freshman year, but here I am.
But it’s not all fun and games being a student journalist. In a world where the media is hated more than ever, being a student journalist is somewhat intimidating. With media outlets being blasted as “fake news,” and journalists losing credibility each day, the industry is in question more than ever.
Watching the president of your own country constantly bashing the media is not always encouraging for what you may want to after college, but it motivates you to be better. There are plenty of good journalists and plenty of bad ones. But of course the bad ones always outweigh the good in the eye of the general public.
Being a student journalist gives those like myself an opportunity to advance our craft early and prepare ourselves for the current climate of the world. As much as some may want it to die, journalism will never die. It is a necessity. The biggest thing in question about the future of journalism is how people will consume it.
For a hopeful sports journalist like myself, the future is foggy. The sports media industry is rapidly changing and no one really can tell you what it will look like 20 years from now, let alone two years. Whether it be through physical written pieces, social media posts or varying forms of multimedia, people will always demand some kind of content.
This doesn’t just go for the sports journalism industry. People need to get news in some manner. How each person consumes news will most likely always be different, but the nose for news will always be there. Whether people like it or not, journalism is here to stay. There is no way to just kill it off.
Although the industry may be rapidly changing, journalism will still exist in one form or another.
