Applying to be a part of the Chrony was a very spontaneous and not-well-thought-out decision. I saw an interesting position that offered a scholarship during a time when I wasn’t sure where I was going with my college career. I had recently switched majors after feeling unfulfilled and having no clear ambitions for what I wanted to get out of being a student. Journalism, especially, was an option that I had never considered. I had very few friends growing up, much less those that I knew in college, and even less that had heard about the Chrony, but I decided to give it a try for no reason other than wanting to try something new and get out of my comfort zone.
As many other staff have said in their farewells, and many other talented and hard-working writers and editors would say in the future, the Chrony has been a rich and stimulating place of growth and networking where students are given access to amazing opportunities to write about and speak to important figures and events. We got to experience first-hand the vital role that journalism plays in society and contribute to one of the most essential pillars of a democracy. It gave me something to work towards and a community to get involved with, teaching me many lessons both professionally and personally from working in a team to understanding people better.
Instead of expounding further on those points, I’d like to dedicate this farewell to a deeper piece of personal growth realized partially from my time in the Chrony as a news writer. After a decent number of stories about topics from legislation to individual features to volunteer events to theme parks, a thought slowly formed. There was a nagging fatigue setting in outside of the usual “senioritis” as I wrote these stories. It was the feeling of not being fulfilled in reporting on the causes and communities that I was speaking to. I was listening to inspiring stories, insightful quotes and amazing initiatives and then going home to write it down in my laptop to be posted on a website later. I felt like I wanted to do more, not just reporting on stories but being a part of them, to create and do things that a writer like me would want to report and for people to read about. My journalism at the Chrony became a gateway into developing my drive to pursue activism and helping bring to life the stories and impressions that audiences would get from reading our newspaper.
In a digital information environment where narratives and information are increasingly manipulative and personal independence in consuming headline after headline gets eroded by desensitization and algorithmic radicalization, I no longer believe the simple act of sharing information is enough to make a difference. As I see more and more cases everyday of people misinterpreting a headline, or purposefully ignoring and twisting a statistic or misplacing their anger due to the frustratingly isolating nature of social media, the following concerns comes to me: information is only as effective as the way it’s framed. How do you support keeping democracy alive through informing the masses if information becomes difficult to responsibly consume? How do you maintain ethical journalism if people are more likely called to be influenced by unethical sources? How do you see the good in the stories around you and share that good only to have someone else see the same story and want to tear it down?
With the incredible credit to the reporting by the writers and editors and the Chrony and other amazing news sites, I cannot shake off this qualm that’s been growing with everyday. I recognize the understandable ego that may come off from sharing this, but I’d like to urge this from students, readers and maybe even other journalists: show up, stay informed, and report is a necessary duty but may not be enough anymore as the world becomes increasingly unsure in the context of the political landscape this is being written in. The systemic issues that breed wars, bigotry and apathy to environmental genocide cannot be upturned by simply telling people about it. We must take a step further from this essential base and support the causes we read and write about. There’s a huge difference between seeing something online and experiencing it, and I think if we started by getting out into our local communities we can create more of the stories we want to see.
