Taking a Break from Journalism

Victoria Mba-Jonas
Nov 4 · 1 min read

This week, I decided not to be a journalist. Instead, I decided to be a participant in the community I’m serving. Some may feel this an unethical practice. But, my main goal was to build trust.

For context, the community I’m serving is the cannabis community. The cannabis industry is a group that faces mistrust in many aspects, like laws and social equity. As I learn to build trust, I kept these three points from the class presentation in mind:

  1. Understand mistrust (know what people think of journalists)
  2. Address misassumptions
  3. Tell a better story (find the value)

My Plan of Action

To build trust in the cannabis industry, I found a community-related event to attend. For this case, I went to a CBD yoga event.

  1. I went to the event with no notepad, no pen, and no intentions for a story
  2. Interacted with great conversations
  3. LISTENED!
  4. Built genuine connections

My Results

I attended the event and learned the medical benefits of combining yoga and CBD. I got to ask questions and listen for responses. Each time I engaged in conversations, I was transparent on who am I and what I do. But, I made it clear that I wasn’t looking for a story. In the end, I made connections to people in the cannabis industry. Naturally, people gave me ideas and topics for future potential stories. Most importantly, I left with new connections that could lead to business relationships/access. Taking a break from being a journalist helped me gain credibility and comfortability with the cannabis community.

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