Over the summer, senior Logan Forcier drove down to our nation’s capital and participated in the Washington Journalism and Media Conference hosted by George Mason University. Students from all over America came over two periods of six days to learn from professionals in the field of journalism and media.
The Knight’s Banner adviser, TJ Bird Matarazzo, praised Forcier’s commitment to journalism: “She cares about journalism as a profession and as an editor is always working to make sure our student writing meets high standards. While she has a great sense of humor, she’s serious about the quality of our work.”
How did you learn about this conference?
I was invited. Mr. Matarazzo nominated me to go,and I asked him about it, and he just said, “You should do it. It’s gonna be really valuable and really fun.”… And I just, I saw this opportunity. And sure, part of me was like, “Oh, it’ll look good on my college applications”, but the other part is like, “I wonder what I’ll learn about there?” It also gave me a chance to actually get into the industry and see if this is something that I wanted to do.
What interests you about journalism?
I like writing, reading and English. It’s always been one of my favorite subjects. But also I really enjoyed teaching people things; I’m always the one to go to if you have a question on a test, I’ll always be there to explain it to you. I didn’t want to go into teaching and journalism was a good way to do it, and I can tell people what’s going on and keep them informed. And also, it gives me opportunities to stay informed myself, because I know I wouldn’t be reading the news if I didn’t have to.
What was the most important thing that you learned?
A lot of the speakers that we had focused on two main things: networking and bias. So they taught me a lot about how to look for bias and avoid bias in my own work, which was stuff I was already taught at Rice. But it was nice to hear it from professionals who actually had to think about this on their day-to-day. And networking was a huge thing. It boiled down to keep all your connections, meet people, talk to people, just get your name out there. They had a mixer where I was able to introduce myself to some faculty at George Mason, which was the university that hosted, who focused on journalism through a government lens or media lens. And that was really, really helpful for me to just meet people for myself and to know they, in theory, know my name. They might recognize my name from this conference, so that could be helpful in any future applications.
Who is the most interesting person you heard from?
We had a Taylor Swift reporter that came in, Brian West. I believe he was hired by USA Today to be the official Taylor Swift reporter, which is really interesting, even if I’m not that obsessed with Taylor Swift. It was nice to see someone who was in like a media lens, and also see the impact that it had on just people there. A lot of people were Swifties there, and a lot of people were very, very excited to see him. We also heard from a journalist named Sasha Ingber who focused on counterintelligence; specifically, she worked with the government, and now she has a podcast with the National Spy Museum in DC. I think it’s called SpyCast. And she talked about investigative journalism in other countries and how it’s dangerous for her to go places. She was talking about how she can’t go to China because she exposed one of their police stations in New York City above a ramen shop. And it was just so interesting to see the real-world impact that she had, and also the impact that this career could have on your own safety if it goes very badly.
What was the most surprising part of the event?
It wasn’t planned, but we did see Queer Eye at the National Mall. We were there to look at the Lincoln monument, and there was a camera crew and security people, and there was a group of people in fancy clothes, and no one could see them. And then someone said, “Wait, is that Queer Eye?” and it was. We were able to watch their shoot… Seeing them was also interesting on another level. This is how they film their intro sequences. This is how people in the industry work. One of my friends in that group talked to some of the people and was able to network, which is really fun.
