Five lessons Michelle Garcia taught students on her return to SUNY Oswego
In 2005, the inaugural Media Summit took place in the Sheldon Hall Ballroom.
Moderated by 1963 SUNY Oswego graduate and best-selling author Ken Auletta, the panel included Ben Bradlee, former Washington Post executive editor, National Public Radio’s David Folkenflik, the Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley A. Strassel and Columbia University’s Tom Rosenstiel.
Sitting in the audience was Michelle Garcia, then a senior at SUNY Oswego and the editor-in-chief of The Oswegonian.
On Wednesday, Garcia, now the Identities Editor for Mic.com, was on the stage in Sheldon Hall Ballroom. She was in one of the seats once held by the giants of journalism who she looked upon in awe. At the age of 30, Garcia was invited back to campus to be panelist at now the 11th annual Media Summit, dedicated to Dr. Lewis B. O’Donnell since she graduated.
It was Garcia’s turn to educate SUNY Oswego students based on her time in the field.
Here are five things Garcia taught students on Wednesday at her breakout session in the morning and the main event in the afternoon.
- Niche journalism communities have informed the greater population about their issues
Garcia works for an online news organization that covers a range of topics such as issues relating to race, feminism, social classes and the LGBTQ community. She told her morning breakout session that the emergence of niche journalism websites has given these groups a platform to pressure the mainstream media to cover them and their issues. During the main event, she went into more detail about what exactly Mic.com is.
2. Even with today’s fast-paced, user-driven news cycle, fact checking and copy editing are still crucial
Mic.com has copy editors, and Garcia feels fortunate for that as so many media organizations today lack copy editors. All of the stories that are posted to her section are fact checked and copy edited by herself and a copy editor. Despite moving to online journalism where copy editing is believed to be held as less importance, Garcia admitted in her breakout session that the importance of copy editing she learned as a journalist in college and right after graduation sticks with her.
3. Internships at smaller publications serve as great ways for journalists in college to hone their skills
While a student at SUNY Oswego, Garcia had three internships at smaller publications. Looking back, she is grateful for those opportunities because there was less pressure with lower readership. If she made minor mistakes, the backlash wasn’t so great. She learned lessons and improved her craft moving forward.
4. Discussing identity and being proud of one’s background is important
One of the main points Garcia made during the panel was she believes families who live by the saying that they “don’t see color” are doing a disservice to their children. She talked about how important it is for people to be proud of who they are and where they come from. A person’s race, ethnicity and sexual orientation are nothing to disassociate with.
On top of that, Garcia, who mentioned her pride in being queer, stressed that the LGBTQ community is a group with defined subgroups. It is not just one big group.
5. Anyone in the newsroom can stand up for what he/she believes she should be covered
Sometimes, diverse topics are not high up on the story budget of editors or directors, but that doesn’t mean any reporter in the meeting can’t speak up if he/she thinks a story is important to cover. Speaking out for a story a reporter thinks matters shouldn’t need a second thought, open discussions should be welcomed.
