Room 225

Britt Bowersox, Opinion Assistant Editor

Media is everywhere. Social media, print media, broadcast media, etc. You name it, there’s a type of media for it. We are living in a time where news about sports, politics and current events are delivered almost instantly to our phones and devices, what more could we want? But, like all good things, there is a catch. With the rise of easily accessible internet, comes the rise of fake news and opinions regarded as facts to be believed and referenced.

In my opinion, Beginning Journalism is one of the mostimportant classes offered at Xavier for multiple reasons. The firstreason is because of the historical knowledge gained from a press perspective. Before taking the class sophomore year, I had no idea how important and unique our freedoms of speech and the press are. Imagine where our country would be if Woodward and Bernstein had not caught Nixon during the Watergate scandal, or if the Washington Post and New York Times had been denied the right to publish the Pentagon Papers. The newspapers and magazines we read have the ability to shape entire cultures and set new precedents for the future.

By taking Beginning Journalism, your writing and design abilities will improve immensely. At this point in the school year, most likely everyone has written a paper (or six) for English class. By taking a journalism course, you are studying sentence structure, how a good article or piece of writing reads and editing other classmates’ pieces. I know without a doubt that these skills I gained as a sophomore save me time everyday when editing my own English assignments. Not only does Beginning Journalism improve technical writing skills, but interviewing athletes and putting together quotes completely changed my perspective of fellow classmates who are involved in activities.

Regarding design, Beginning Journalism students receive an opportunity to work on platforms like InDesign and Photoshop on the JLAB computers and learn about color schemes and creating effective designs. I mean, who wouldn’t have fun making cut outs of their friends surfing, riding a skateboard or basically anything imaginable. Graphic design is a great career to consider and you never know what you could be good at until you try it out.

Finally, everyone should take Beginning Journalism because everyone should join The Xpress, help design the yearbook or both! Newspaper is easily one of my favorite classes and seeing the other staff members is something I always look forward to on B days. The community of newspaper writers, photographers and editors is something I will surely miss when my time at Xavier is done. Even if you do not like writing articles, there are so many opportunities within The Xpress and Yearbook to be a part of the staff, like media broadcasting, designing and taking photographs at school events.

So, to all freshmen, sophomores and juniors not signed up for a class in room 225 next year, go down to guidance, switch a few classes and make a decision that will impact how you view news and media for the rest of your life.