As a journalist, my goal is to change the world. Stories hold a power that can not only impact the people found within the text, video, audio, or images of a story, but also those who consume the stories of real people, doing real things, and overcoming real challenges. This is how I view journalism, but is this how the rest of the world views it? Today our world sees journalists as instigators who are trying to create division and further their own agendas. As a young journalist, I know this isn’t true of all journalists. I’ve talked with peers who share this passion for storytelling and professors who want to give students the tools to succeed in this passion.  

Regardless, this ‘evil’ side of journalism does have a presence, even if it may not be the majority. So, what do we do? How do we combat the problem of what journalism may be turning into? An attempt to change this appears in deliberative journalism, explored in Colorado State University’s journalism department through Michael Humphrey’s new class. The class begins with defining what the problem is and what the goal is. The problem is that journalism is changing, especially as local media gets consumed by larger corporations who change the dynamic of a company. These larger corporations often want to further their own agendas and don’t put as much thought into the community and its needs. This problem highlights how important local journalism is to truly serve the community. 

The class has explored a variety of problems in journalism, from journalist bias impacting stories, to larger companies changing local journalism, to the values of quality journalism. Through multiple discussions on what journalism currently is and what we believe journalism can be, we have come to realizations that local, community-based journalism can be influential, the dynamics of bias need to be better understood, true listening and establishing rapport with sources is essential, and the people’s voice needs to be heard.  

Through this class we have not only discussed these values but have worked to put them into practice. Through working with the honors blog, we have attempted to teach incoming CSU students about the journalistic style by showing them how to write journalistically, and what quality journalism should look like. The underheard voices team has worked to share the stories of underheard communities. This semester we have focused on the elderly of Estes Park but have created flyers and resources to extend the project to communities who feel that they are underrepresented and would like to be heard. 

The semester has held a lot of implementations, change of directions, trying new techniques, and motivation to impact the community. Plans have changed, lessons have been learned, and stories have continued to be pursued. One thing remains the same. I believe every student in this class shares a passion to impact the community and work to share the stories around us. We’re trying to create positive journalism today, but watch us change the world tomorrow with our passion. This class is only the beginning, as we go out into the workforce, we will carry these values and techniques of deliberative journalism with us.