Born and raised in the small town of Banks, Oregon, opportunities are extremely limited. With one traffic light and a population of under 2,000 people, I knew I had to get out to work on myself and my career path.
After graduating high school in 2021, I attended Portland Community College, where I studied business science, as there is a wide variety of career paths I could pursue with the degree. During my time at community college, I took multiple accounting classes and quickly realized it was not the career path for me.
When it came time to register for my final term of classes, I had a conversation with my mom about my plan after completing my final three classes and graduating from community college. There, I told her about my dreams, goals, and aspirations to become a sports journalist.
My mom informed me about the sports journalism program at Arizona State University, which she learned about from watching an Oregon Ducks vs. Arizona State softball game because the announcers were Cronkite students.
I have always had a deep passion for sports, and writing has always been my favorite subject in school, but my driving factor for becoming a sports journalist is the UFC. I fell in love with the UFC in early 2020, right before the pandemic hit. The first fight I watched live was Sean O’Malley vs. Jose Quiñonez, and I was immediately hooked on the sport.
By watching the UFC pre- and post-fight media sessions and reading articles, I found that some media members do a poor job of covering the sport. The questions either come off as lazy or repeat those already asked by other members of the media.
Coming to Cronkite with little to no journalism experience was scary, but through many fantastic professors, I have been able to pick up on some of the basic journalistic principles and learned about the different styles of writing.
Despite learning about the different article formats, most of my classes have required students to use the inverted pyramid format and to remain neutral. While I understand the importance and value of a neutral tone, it can be difficult at times to truly let your voice shine through.
My academic advisor recommended I take this class because it aligns with my interest in sportsband allows me to experiment with a different style of journalism, I have not had experience with.
Commentary is important for many factors, but one of the most important reasons is that everyone has an opinion. Whether you and another person agree or disagree, commentary within journalism allows for discussion and dialogue between everyone who reads the article.
In this class, I hope to articulate my opinions on various topics in a professional manner, supported by statistics and evidence. I would also like to truly find my voice in journalism.
I believe the major challenge facing this industry is the use of artificial intelligence to write, or help write, articles. When a consumer sees a journalist use A.I. in their articles, it can discredit everyone else in the field, as many may believe all articles are unoriginal.
