Announcing the 2024-25 editor-in-chief

President Robert Kelly has appointed Kimberly Cortez Beacon editor-in chief for the next academic year. Read more about it here.

Touring the Wall Street Journal

This experience was full of firsts. It was my first time ever visiting New York City, my first time attending the College Media Association (CMA) Conference, and it was my first time ever seeing a professional newsroom. I could not believe that my name was among the list of others that were chosen to tour the Wall Street Journal. As we made our way into the News Corp. Building, and up the elevator to the floor the newsroom was located in, I was feeling all kinds of nerves. I knew touring this newsroom was a once in a lifetime opportunity. 

Our tour guide, a staffer at the WSJ, took our tour group and seated us in a conference room. As we got comfortable in our seats, he informed us that it was the very room the editors (yes, even the Editor-in-Chief) met in to discuss stories and other important logistics. I suddenly forgot every single question I had prepared and just looked around in complete awe.

We were then taken to one of the most amazing sights of the newsroom was the wall of Pulitzer’s. It was rows and rows of awards with various names of reporters and the stories they wrote. It reminded me of our own wall of awards in our newsroom in St. Mary’s. So many talented students join our staff every single semester, I wonder whose name would be next on that wall of Pulizter’s.

Seeing the newsroom in action had me feeling stunned. It was a Friday, meaning many staffers wouldn’t be in the office. Yet, the newsroom was lively. CNN played on the TVs overhead, several staffers typed away at their desks, and I even saw someone working on the layout for the print issue. I like to think I looked at what my future could look like someday and I can’t want to fulfill my aspirations.  

My reality-check was seeing the “Free Evan” tributes. Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the WSJ, was taken prisoner by Russia for suspicions of being a foreign spy. He was simply doing his duty as a reporter, and yet he faced dire consequences. It has now been a year since his imprisonment. These tributes served as a reminder that the work journalists do is far from easy; there are risks that you must be willing to take. I think this demonstrates that all  journalists deserve more respect and acknowledgement for their work. 

Tiffany Marquez Escobar is a reporter for The Beacon. She can be reached at marqueze25@up.edu. 

Lessons on Diversity from Fashion Journalism

As I stepped into my first session (Threading the Needle: Bringing Equity into Fashion Journalism) of the conference, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Based on the name, I knew I would be listening to reporters working in the fashion industry. What I didn’t know is that I would be listening to an editor from Teen Vogue. 

Aiyana Ishmael, Associate Editor at Teen Vogue, was an inspiration. She shared her story, how she went from community college, to attending an HBCU in Southern Florida, to then making her way to NYC and climbing the ladder to her current position at Teen Vogue. Just like me, Ishmael is a woman of color and shared her own share of struggles in the industry. Seeing a successful BIPOC woman who is committed to making fashion journalism more diverse gave me so much confidence as a future journalist. 

The biggest lesson Ishmael could have offered was how to best promote diversity in a newsroom. She offered 3 main points:

1. We each hold responsibility as individuals so there’s no reason to be a bystander.
2. We should be willing to be wrong and even more willing to learn.
3. Stop saying that you want to “give voice to the voiceless.”

My focus as a staffer on The Beacon has been on DEI issues, but I realized that I never once stopped to ask myself how I could be doing this better. Her talk really stuck to me and changed the way I view and approach stories on campus. 

Tiffany Marquez Escobar is a reporter for The Beacon. She can be reached at marqueze25@up.edu. 

The CMA conference in New York: the view from the copy desk

Like many Beaconites before me, I attended the College Media Association’s (CMA) conference in New York and came back feeling a bit like a new person. Thing is, I’m still the same person — except with renewed motivation and many new ideas, both for myself and for The Beacon. 

Motivation comes unexpectedly sometimes. It was by chance (my name was effectively pulled from a hat) that Beacon reporter Tiffany Marquez and I got to visit the Wall Street Journal Newsroom. Standing before the News Corp. tower — and boy, does it tower — I knew I was in for a cool experience. I didn’t know I’d leave the building with as much energy and excitement as I did. 

That said, the WSJ tour was also a reality check. I asked our guide — a publicist — what the average editor’s educational background is. His response: an Ivy-League degree, graduate school and more years of experience than I’ve probably been alive. 

That’s intimidating. But even still, that alone gave me an idea of what the top rungs of the media ladder look like, and by extension, what I can do to remain competitive in spite of what I now lack. For example, being open to new opportunities, networking (I prefer the phrase “talking to people”) and doing quality work are all within my power — and those are things that could guide me into a successful career in media. 

Beyond the tour, I followed my instinct around the conference, attending sessions I thought were both practical and interesting. My first (and by far my favorite) was a session on news design led by Yuri Victor, an editor for The Atlantic. Victor gave an honest, enthusiastic talk on how easily overlooked design features — like font combinations, colors, white space and grids — can either hinder or enhance  the reader’s experience with a publication. Less than an hour into the session, I thought, “We need this at The Beacon.” I immediately began sketching design ideas onto a slip of paper. My goal: to make positive changes to The Beacon website before I graduate next spring. 

I also went to a session on freelancing, which to me has been a term synonymous with “broke” and “unstable.” No doubt it is for some. But this particular speaker reframed the idea of freelancing for me, getting me to see it as a business, not just a side hustle. I won’t get into the details (there were many), but suffice it to say that I’m far less daunted by freelancing now than I used to be. Same goes for creating my portfolio. A session on e-portfolios took something that was once  intimidating to me and made it fun and interesting. Since then, I’ve been playing around with different platforms to create my own website, which I hope to include on resumes and in job applications. 

One of the hardest things for writers is when you run into something you can’t totally capture with words. I’ll do my best: The whole experience — from the newsroom tour, to the sessions, to simply walking about the city — was like being at the center of a whirling snowglobe. Everywhere, there was something to learn, to apply to your professional and academic life and to benefit from. My wish is that the Beacon staffers who want this experience can have it. And I hope it will be as invaluable to them as it was for me. 

Riley Martinez is Copy Editor for The Beacon. He can be reached at martinri24@up.edu. 

Lose the fear: some thoughts on Priya Krishna’s keynote interview

New York Times food reporter and cookbook author Priya Krishna, though she doesn’t know me, has made me a much less fearful person. My natural skepticism has made me a good judge of character and a strong student, but it often backfires when it comes to estimating my abilities. I get scared that my ideas are no good, or worse, embarrassing. 

Krishna emphasized “cold emails,” a way of making connections — and for me, a way of sparking ideas. Cold emailing might be the scariest thing next to cold calling (even though I’m a student journalist and I’ve made my share of cold calls). But after Krishna’s session, I realized that not seeing your ideas through is a lot scarier than contacting someone on the fly. 

It’s inspiring to think that a journalist can do something as creative — and successful — as authoring a cookbook. It goes to show that the work we do in the world doesn’t have to be so compartmentalized. In other words, there’s no good reason why a journalist can’t flex their creative muscles and still excel at what they do in the office. 

Since that talk, I’ve been “following my nose,” as I call it: seeking story ideas in unfamiliar places, writing about topics I’ve never written about and cold calling (and, yes, emailing) people for ideas and information. And following your nose is all about losing the fear that holds you back. It’s important to remember that fear developed out of a need to respond to danger and keep ourselves safe; cold calling or emailing won’t kill you, and neither will following through on your ideas. 

Krishna’s talk is something I’ll take with me beyond college — because it’s really advice that extends beyond the four years of undergrad. I’ll remember its essence as I move into the beginnings of my career and start my professional life. 

Riley Martinez is Copy Editor for The Beacon. He can be reached at martinri24@up.edu. 

How a Keynote Presentation about Food Journalism Helped Me Feel Comfortable as a Photographer

In my time at The Beacon, I’ve learned to be comfortable in the role of a photographer. While not diminishing my role as an artist and professional in my own right, I’ve grown to shoot for the purpose of journalism and consider myself a journalist as well as a photographer. However, while sitting and listening to the first keynote speaker of the conference, Priya Krishna, there was a point where I caught my mind wandering when I should have been paying attention to the incredible journalists on stage. This is nothing new for me, my mind wanders all the time. But as I look around the room to find something to focus on, oh boy do I find it. As I look at the student journalists around me, I know there are reporters and editors alike, but I also notice photographers, more than I expected to be at the conference. I notice them shooting the speaker while they sit in their seats. I appreciate the dedication, being in New York is heaven for a photographer, and I respect the ability to find frames in a stuffy conference hall. But as I sit there and watch them take their shots, I find myself becoming self-conscious. Should I be shooting this? I took some photos with my phone, but I have my camera in my bag too. Maybe I should get it out? But my camera is loud and will be very disruptive. Then what is my purpose here? If I can’t fulfill my role as a photographer, then what is my place in this journalism session?

And as I sit there, overthinking and questioning myself, I slow down and take a breath. I tune back into what the speakers are saying. At this point, Krishna is talking about paving her own way in journalism and how, especially in food, people of color aren’t as respected or trusted as they should be. This gets me thinking about how I can pave my own way as a photojournalist. 

Recently I have been considering the difference between the titles “Photographer” and “Photojournalist.” How does a photographer contribute to the industry of journalism without writing articles? How does a photographer turn into a photojournalist and what does that entail? While considering these things, I’ve applied a new mindset to how I shoot. “Observe like a reporter, shoot like a photographer.” Looking for stories and shooting for picture frames is what I have found to be the most important concept for a photographer to be a journalist. This is how I can pave my own way as a journalist, weirdly inspired by a food journalist’s words. Krishna’s “Food For Thought” keynote, while not geared toward photographers in the slightest, actually helped me get into the right mindset for the rest of the conference.

Natalie Gordon is a photographer for The Beacon. She can be reached at gordonn26@up.edu

How to Shoot for Ethical Journalism – From the Perspective of a Photojournalist

With the conference ending on Saturday, it was bold to assume I could go to many sessions that morning. The one session I did manage to get to was one of the most important for me to attend throughout the entire conference as a photographer. Taught by Dylan Wilson, Photojournalism Ethics was essentially a 101 course on how not to violate the NPPA’s Code of Ethics and how to navigate situations that could turn questionable. 

The majority of the presentation was going through five types of ethical violations we may run into during our time as a journalist. The five ethical violations he listed were as follows; staging, photo manipulation, misrepresentation, physically altering the scene, and for lack of a better term “to shoot or not to shoot.” 

Staging – Staging is the act of setting up a photo in any way as you might for a portrait. This is simply not journalism, and unless very clearly stated and edited as a photo illustration, is a blatant ethical violation. 

(Example of a staged photo – Julianna and Kimberly are specifically positioned for me to take a picture)

Photo Manipulation – Photo Manipulation is any editing post-shoot that changes the image in any meaningful way. This includes taking things out of the foreground or background, using the coning or eraser tools, and moving objects throughout the image. 

Misrepresentation – Misrepresentation includes any photo that seemingly misrepresents what the story is about. For example, if the story you’re shooting for is about how crowded the beach is this summer but you go to the beach and there aren’t many people, using a high compression telephoto lens to ‘stack’ people in order make it look more crowded, that is misrepresenting the story and the facts. In the same sense as reporters, photographers must capture the reality of the story even if it doesn’t match what is being stated. 

Physically Altering the Scene – Physically altering the scene is similar to Staging in the sense that it is creating an illustration, while not being technically journalism. This includes moving rocks in/out of frame, flipping a poster around so you can see it, or adding a sign to the image. 

To Shoot or Not to Shoot – This is a less hard and fast violation than it is an invitation to discussion. When do we as photographers decide to shoot an image and where is the ethical line (not the legal line) of what to shoot? For example, should you shoot an image of a mother mourning her child in the street? What is the ethics behind taking or not taking that picture? 

When shooting as a journalist, if these lines are crossed or forgotten it may result in termination and/or inability to be hired in the future. Not only does it threaten the job of the photographer, but it also calls into question their personal ethical lines, which is why the NPPA has a very clear Code of Ethics for photographers to follow.

This session had me thinking about my mindset when shooting for stories in the future. How informative it was to have a professional photojournalist teach us what he considers when submitting photos and when/how he decides not to run them. 

Natalie Gordon is a photographer for The Beacon. She can be reached at gordonn26@up.edu

Editor-in-Grief: Navigating leadership and the newsroom

One of the most insightful sessions I attended during my time at the College Media Association (CMA) Conference was titled “Editor-in-Grief.” As a second year editor, approaching my third, something I have struggled finding my footing in is being an effective leader. Being a woman in this position makes this even more difficult. I often find myself tip-toeing around what I really need out of my co-workers at The Beacon or feel guilty for being “too mean” — if I was a man, none of this would be happening to me

This idea was echoed throughout many of the sessions I attended on women in media, but this session was especially helpful because it gave me tangible and effective strategies for leading the newsroom. It taught me how to have uncomfortable conversations with reporters when they aren’t making deadlines, when they are slacking and how to (politely) light a fire under them to motivate them. 

One strategy I really resonated with was having allies to help you through these situations. Having another editor or advisor sit it on these conversations or help you navigate them can be incredibly helpful with an unruly or unmotivated staff. The session wasn’t relying on mean tactics, it was focused on ways you can empower staff through very simple changes to improve the overall work environment. 

Let’s just say, I am going to become a lot tougher next year 🙂 

Kimberly Cortez is the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Editor for The Beacon. They can be reached at cortez25@up.edu.

My experience touring The New York Times newsroom

This year at the College Media Association (CMA) Conference, I got the opportunity to visit The New York Times newsroom. I feel so lucky, grateful and fortunate to have gotten this opportunity during my time in New York. I reached out to my mentors in the New York TImes Corps program to see if I could get a tour and they were happy to show me around.

It’s so difficult to comprehend all the moving parts that make up such a big publication like the Times. Each floor played a different role and within the layout of the building, journalists and their other beat reporters inhabited their own corner — making up all these moving parts. It’s easy to forget that behind each headline, story, photo, graphic, audio piece, and design there is a human carefully looking over all the details. I was able to see so many sections at work like the Metro desk, the politics corner, the book reviewers, the audio team. It was incredible to see all the moving parts come together as one — something incredibly inspiring when I think of my role at The Beacon. 

There were so many moments where I just couldn’t believe what I was looking at, it felt so surreal. The Pultizer wall, the libraries uniquely filled with only books authored by the Times’ journalists and a wall filled with autographs of world leaders is just a small glimpse into the glory of the Times newsroom. 

I took a second to let it all in on the walk back. I was walking back to the hotel with two current Times journalists apart of the Corps program and I was telling them how this opportunity provided me with a unique insight into the journalism industry. One year ago, I was dreaming of being in that building the first time I went to New York with The Beacon. Now, I was in it — that much closer to achieving my goal…

Kimberly Cortez is the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Editor for The Beacon. They can be reached at cortez25@up.edu.

The Impact of the Censorship Movement on Student Publications

Between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31, 2023, there were 531 attempts to censor books—531 attempts to silence viewpoints that differ from the predominant “accepted” discourse in a given area. States like Iowa and Florida are actively seeking to limit, restrict or outright prohibit access to books in schools and public libraries labeled as too “divisive,” often targeting those discussing sexuality, race and gender.

Although the book censorship movement may initially appear disconnected from the rights of student journalists, the two concepts are intricately intertwined.

In her talk “Censorship in America: How Banning Books is Only Part of the Picture,” Andrea Frantz addressed the broader impacts of the censorship movement on student journalism. Frantz argued that book censorship is just the tip of the iceberg, warning that politicians and legislators may soon target student journalists who cover potentially “divisive” topics like diversity, equity and inclusion.

This poses a significant challenge for student journalists’ movement towards making DEI a central part of publications. Censorship predominantly affects marginalized viewpoints and experiences, and thus the restriction of publications that promote DEI will only allow prevailing discourses to be shared with the general public. As Frantz mentioned in her presentation, this will limit the public’s ability to learn about cultures, ideas and discourse that differs from their own.

As a reporter and editor for The Beacon, I firmly believe that it is my responsibility to cover all current events and information, even if I don’t personally agree with the viewpoint being expressed. I think that a functioning democracy must have a way for people of diverse viewpoints discuss and read about why others hold differing beliefs or opinions, even if disagreement persists, in order for all perspectives to be heard.

Frantz’s proposal to incorporate a law and ethics beat into every student news publication was very interesting, especially given my interest in the law and the current political climate. I believe that adding a law and ethics beat would greatly benefit both the university community and The Beacon staff, enhancing our understanding of our rights and the potential political challenges we may face in the future.

Overall, this session was incredibly intriguing and informative. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn more about my rights as a journalist. It has been a great experience!

Julianna Pedone is the Sports Section Editor for The Beacon. She can be reached at pedone25@up.edu