The author, center and right, sits with her classmates following their first semester in a graduate journalism program. Photo provided by Katrina L. Spencer
by Katrina L. Spencer
Many of you know I left Charlottesville in 2023 to pursue a master’s of journalism and media degree in Austin, Texas. I want to highlight some of what I learned in the program and whether I’d recommend the experience to other aspiring writers. Here’s a brief list of thoughts that come to mind as I review the new ideas I encountered in my program.
Newsworthiness
Something I learned early in the program was that “newsworthiness” is subjective and contextual. That is, what stories are deemed as having enough value to appear in the news depends on what happened, where, when, to whom, with whom, how, why and who’s interested. “Mary Kicked Her Neighbor, Bobby” might inspire a piece for a neighborhood newsletter, but will not make headlines beyond a single block, but “Missiles Hit Insurgent Camp On Bordertown” often will.
While both stories speak to conflict and aggression, the first has little impact beyond a sole two families; the latter, however, likely implies repercussions for hundreds, if not thousands and tens of thousands, and ensuing measures of international diplomacy.
Journalists are trained to seek out and have their stories correspond to certain values of newsworthiness. Here are some fictional examples to parse through:
Timeliness: “Election Results Just In: Tisha Campbell Is Voted In As New Head of Actors’ Guild”
Proximity: “I-64 in Charlottesville Blocked Due To Citrus Fruit Spill”
Prominence: “UVA President Leads Tour at Monticello”
Conflict/Controversy/Dispute: “Richmond Residents Sue Traffic Patrol Claiming Excess of Citations”
Human Interest: “Charlottesville Houses 2,000 Refugees Following Famine”
Novelty/Oddity: “Wegman’s To Host Uber Brief Turkey Trot On Aisles 3 & 4”
Currency: “Gas Prices Expected To Drop Following Peace Agreement”
News deserts
I’d heard of a food desert before coming to Texas. It’s an area for various reasons, including want of infrastructure, that is largely deprived of fresh foods and dependent on fast food, convenience stores with canned goods and shelf stable items and liquor stores, but few edibles with roots and leaves attached. So when I first heard the term “news desert,” my ears perked up. I knew that it indicated lack, but I hadn’t thought deeply about how.
News deserts describe an area that is lacking reliable news coverage. That is, many communities, frequently with relatively low populations and in rural areas across the United States, no longer have local journalists reporting on activities. Just as food deserts make people more susceptible to diets lacking good nutrition, news deserts can make the public susceptible to misinformation. Some institutions like Report for America, which hires hundreds of journalists, assigning them to newsrooms spread far and wide, are designed to meet underserved information needs, reducing the negative impact of news deserts.
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
In addition to crafting texts for journalism, we students also created images to accompany our stories. A photographer, I learned, brings her taste, energy and creativity to the camera she holds. What she sees, chooses to cover and to feature will be a reflection of her culture, her past and her curiosity. I took a lot of pride in featuring the beauty of Black people in a variety of settings. I found I’m pretty good at profiles and that my eye seeks the celebration of vibrant colors. Another photographer might be best at capturing people interacting or perhaps working in black and white. A photographer’s personality will be reflected in their images. If we want to see more faces like our own in the news, the recruitment, representation and retention of Black reporters is fundamental.
A series of images showcase Black subjects living in Austin, Texas: a graduate student, a carnival attendee, a deejay and a party hypeman. Photos by Katrina L. Spencer
“Said”
Not “exclaimed”. Not “commiserated”. Not “admitted”. “Said.” One of my primary journalism instructors taught students that when you quote a source, the term used to report remarks, replies and speeches is “said.” This is because using another term like exclaimed, commiserated or admitted can impose a journalist’s interpretation on a source’s words. There’s a difference between
- “Funding has been cut across all statewide prisons, and that’s reflected in the resources available to inmates,” the warden said.
- “Funding has been cut across all statewide prisons, and that’s reflected in the resources available to inmates,” the warden confessed.
- “Funding has been cut across all statewide prisons, and that’s reflected in the resources available to inmates,” the warden complained.
The first is plain in its reporting. The second is framed as an admission of guilt. The third suggests the speaker is dissatisfied with the new conditions. Where we can, we try to use objective language. However, not every news outlet behaves in the same manner. CNN’s March 24, 2026 coverage of the LaGuardia collision, for example, uses “instructed,” “responded,” “recalled” and “added” in recounting speech in relation to the accident. So, ultimately, it’s best to know your publication’s style and your editor’s preferences.
Myopia
Myopia describes a vision condition in which a person can only clearly view what is directly in front of them. It limits one’s sight. Where you look for news can and will determine what you see. It will be no surprise that local news outlets will cover what is happening in your community, neighborhood and city. Only looking at local news outlets has the potential to impair one’s understanding of global trends. A good example of this was that when I was reporting on generational trends in Austin happening within 20 miles of me, I was not paying attention to larger stories like the Venezuelan migrant crisis. My eyes were not on that region of South America, despite the large scale of human displacement and its impacts on migration discourse. I was largely oblivious until someone greeted me in Spanish in Austin and told me his story. The news had arrived on my doorstep. I had effectively been filtering out what didn’t pertain to my reporting. When I realized what was underway, I felt not only ignorant but also neglectful. While challenging to do as we are creatures of habit, varying one’s news sources expands one’s scope of vision. To access more world news, consider accessing Al Jazeera, Associated Press, Reuters and/or Rest of the World.
“To be or not to be”
Would I recommend graduate study in the field of journalism? A better question perhaps is to whom would I recommend graduate study in the field of journalism? If the following conditions are met, I’d say go for it.
You have located a program that is free of cost because you have earned a scholarship, fellowship or other financial aid of some sort.
You love learning. You’re naturally curious and are constantly seeking ways to grow.
You regularly demonstrate initiative and follow-through with projects and find speaking to strangers to be an easy task.
You have a reliable car that allows you to access a broad geography of reporting sites.
You have already dabbled in journalism and have a pre-existing network of colleagues who can put in a good word for you when it comes to securing internships.
Today’s news landscape is not the same as the one people aged 40 and up grew up with. It’s hardly even tactile. There’s a lot of new ground to pioneer. Any terrain will benefit from reporters who know what news consumers are looking for, understand the reach or lack thereof of their work, seek accuracy, inform themselves broadly and underscore a wide representation of voices and faces in the media across multiple platforms. My program has trained me to aspirationally pursue all of the above.