TAMPA, Fla. — Excited, idealistic, and not jaded. Those are a few words ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska would use to describe the USF journalism students he interviewed for News Literacy Week.
Paluska spent the day at USF, first sitting down with Wendy Whitt, Senior Instructor and Associate Director of the Zimmerman School of Advertising and Mass Communications.
"Transparency is the thread that runs throughout the course," Whitt said. "And so I teach them that public records are one way we can be transparent."
"Do they trust the media?" Paluska asked.
"So… I would say yes," Whitt said.
"Some skeptical?" Paluska asked.
"They are skeptical. They know that they need to verify their sources. They know that a lot of news outlets have an agenda these days. They do recognize that," Whitt said. "Like many Americans, they trust local news. Congress is the only institution that's rated lower right now."
According to a recentGallup poll, Americans' trust in media remains low.
Paluska listened to the dreams and aspirations of eight of her current and former students, many of whom had lofty goals to be the best journalists they could be in their community.
"I want to be a broadcast news anchor or entertainment television host," Jamal Saint Louis said.
"I want to be a field reporter for the NFL," Carisma Brisco said.
"I want to be on Good Morning America. I want to be the head anchor just for Morning America," Skylar Mickey said.
"I want to be a reporter or a producer," Tatyana Purifoy said.
"I want to be a field reporter, radio broadcast, or anything," Lily Belcher said.
"That is the dream ESPN, the dream ESPN," Gabe Ohlson said.
"I was born blind; optic nerve hypoplasia is my eye condition," Trent Ferguson said. "I don't let it stop me."
"So you want to be a sports radio reporter?" Paudka asked.
"I do, but I'll do anything in this business because the classes at USF have really opened my eyes, so to speak," Ferguson said.
Whitt is a former senior newspaper editor who worked at various publications in Florida, most recently at The Tampa Tribune from October 2002 to May 2012.
Her students now fuel her passion for journalism.
"One of the questions I ask them on the first day every semester is, who or what inspires you to do this? And then I tell them, the thing that inspires me is my students because my students are the ones who will shape the world that we live in in the future and shape journalism," Whitt said. "And, I do think that this generation of young journalists can figure it out. Mine didn't figure it out, and I tell them that every day, I'm like, we failed miserably. So my money's on you."
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