OPINION: Everyone should give journalism a try
By Maddie Snyder ‘26
Image Courtesy of The Miami Student.
“Why do you want to go into a dying career field?”
That was the first ever question my newspaper advisor asked me. You can imagine if a 40-year-tenured Oregonian columnist had concerns about my career aspirations, what others have said. I’ve had adults look apprehensive at the career aspiration, and peers straight up claim I was wasting my time on something useless.
To be fair, their concerns are not completely unfounded. The rise of social media and AI has called into question the future of journalism.
As with many humanities-focused professions, high school students might be turned away from its less-than-solid career path in comparison to STEM or finance careers. In full honesty, if you check back with me in fifteen years, I probably will not have bet it all on journalism.
But whatever field I pursue after college, I will never regret the many hours I spent interviewing, writing, and editing in high school. Journalism has truly made me who I am in a myriad of different ways, and no matter what future you imagine for yourself, the things you can learn through contributing to a newspaper will stretch far beyond it.
So, whether you are a budding doctor, lawyer, or writer, give me just a few minutes of your time to explain why journalism is absolutely worth your time.
Connection to Community
A requirement for any CatlinSpeak article is to have a connection to the school or local community, a similar trait of any good journalist.
Over my time writing for CatlinSpeak, I have gotten to interview teachers I have never taken classes with, hear students’ voices I don’t usually speak with, and synthesize their stories into articles.
An article is my favorite excuse to talk to people. It’s a direct connection that you just don’t get from just reading articles. Additionally, the stories you get to hear in pursuit of a larger angle or theme don’t always make it into the larger article.
For example, last year I interviewed CGS teachers on their high school selves, hoping to make an entertaining article that also gave some advice.
I sat down with three teachers, and all of the interviews ran longer than I thought they would. Not every story made it into the article, like the extended version of Bianca Nakayama’s school dance rebellion or Sue Phillips's wise advice on friendships and careers, but I got to hear them nonetheless.
Almost every time I write an article, I have more information than I can include.
One time this year, I was interviewing the host parents of a Winterhawks player, and they told me stories about their young son’s relationship with the players they host. It was the most heartwarming thing about them taking the kid out for slushies and letting him wear their massive helmets.
But I had combined almost an hour of interview recordings for an article that had to be two pages, so a lot got cut. Reading journalism is a great way to connect to stories, but it’s so much better to craft it yourself as you get to know everything that might not have been included.
Editing and Writing Output
The most frequent question I get asked when promoting joining CatlinSpeak is, “Do I need to be a good writer?” My answer is absolutely not.
It’s a different style of writing than anything else. Just because someone is great or terrible at essays doesn’t mean anything for journalism. It’s tricky at times, but everyone in the class is really supportive to help everyone get better.
Regardless of where you start, though, the improvement carries into other classes. Journalism is a lot about executing stylistic twists while synthesizing information.
My knowledge of writing essays didn’t help me with journalism, but I can say for certain that journalism has helped my writing everywhere else.
That same out-of-school advisor once told me I had a lot of good things to say, but that I said them in way too many words.
I find it a lot easier to start with fewer words now when writing and when speaking, too. But a lot of the improvement I’ve made happened over a long period of time; no one in CatlinSpeak expects anyone to come into the class writing New York Times-level work.
Earlier this year, a fellow student in dialogue commented on the speed at which I give edits and feedback. The only explanation I had for him was simply that I have read and edited an absurd amount of articles in my three years of Dialogue for Democracy. Journalism is like any other skill; you practice at it, and over time, you get better.
I can guarantee that no matter what field you go into, being able to engage readers while being concise will translate.
Whether that be emails, research papers, court opening statements, or quarterly reports, practicing writing and editing with some speed isn’t a waste of time.
Confidence & Life Lessons
Perhaps the thing I have learned the most from journalism is confidence. Not every email you send will get a response, not every person you interview will have a lot to say, but either way, you have to be unshaken and continue on as if everything is going to plan. It’s safe to say you learn a lot of people skills doing journalism.
Not just that, but also putting your writing through rounds and rounds of editing is nerve-wracking, but you learn to just take it on the chin and keep moving forward.
It also teaches you how to meet deadlines, even if you don’t have the time you wanted. Different from a normal writing assignment, we have a deadline to publish, and sometimes there are no extensions. You just have to buckle down, chug some caffeine, (or not) and get it done.
At the end of the day, where you choose to put your time is your decision, but I encourage you not to let any nay-sayers tell you journalism isn’t worth your time.
I’m not suggesting that everyone has to engage with journalism as much as I have or that it has to be as important to everyone as it has been for me. But I do believe that it’s worthwhile taking at least one year to see what you can learn from journalism and what CatlinSpeak can learn from you.