journalism spotlights

Meet Jordyn Siemens

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Jan 2016 22:16:10 +0000

Meet Jordyn Siemens Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 01/22/2016 - 15:16

Class of 2017 • Co-Editor-in-Chief of CU Independent

Jordyn Siemens sat nervously on an old, green couch in a crowded newsroom. Only three days earlier, she had moved from her family’s home in Fort Collins into her freshman dorm.

At a friend’s insistence, she had agreed to attend the first staff meeting of the semester for the CU Independent (CUI)—a 24/7 student-run news site.

Journalism wasn’t new to Siemens. She had learned to edit video in high school and had come to CU-��«��Ƶ to study broadcast news. But she had never written for a news publication. If she was going to be a journalist that needed to change, she decided.

Her first article wasn’t published.

“My very first assignment was a cross-country meet and my story didn’t get put up because it was so bad,” she remembers with a laugh. With coaching from her editors, her fourth story—a profile of a cross-country runner—went up on the site. “I was really impressed with all the older kids who took me under their wing and showed me what to do,’’ she says.

Now, Siemens leads staff meetings from the front of that newsroom.

As CUI’s co-editor-in-chief she heads a staff of writers, photographers, audiovisual producers and programmers who publish an award-winning news site. Siemens and the other editors encourage staff members to pick assignments and media formats that interest them. Students from the campus sports show produce a podcast, a student from the business school sells ads, and computer science students maintain the website.

“The resources are endless. I can try any and every idea that pops into my head.”
- Jordyn Siemens

In her CMCI classes, Siemens focuses on broadcast news, gaining hands-on experience with video editing, studio production and field videography. She also develops public exhibits for the library and writes online content for the athletics department. In each of these experiences, Siemens sees potential journalism careers. “That’s how this journalism department is set up,” she notes. “You may major in one area, but you dabble in everything.”

As Siemens continues to explore her future, the CUI offers a chance to build her leadership skills, to add to her professional portfolio and—as it has for many previous students—ultimately pave her way into the media industry. And as co-editor-in-chief, she aims to ensure that other students have the same opportunities. “Students here take on projects. When they leave, they can say ‘I started this column, this video series, this podcast,’ ’’ she explains. “It’s an entrepreneurial experience.”

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Meet Paul Voakes

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Jan 2016 22:11:59 +0000

Meet Paul Voakes Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 01/22/2016 - 15:11

Former Chair, Department of Journalism • Amateur Jazz Musician

When Mardi Gras rolls around, Paul Voakes grabs his tenor saxophone and joins a party band. His horn brings a New Orleans vibe to the music. Musical performance is a new experience for him. He’s a longtime fan of the saxophone—especially in jazz—but just started lessons two years ago. “It’s a struggle,” he admits, “but I need to be a student of something all the time in my life.”

Just as learning and improvisation are key to Voakes’ jazz, they are key to his journalism. As a reporter and editor for the San Jose Mercury News in the 1980s, he often followed new information in different directions in his stories. Like jazz, it was a bit of a performance, with tight deadlines and an audience of hundreds of thousands.

As a child, Voakes loved being the first person to learn something new and tell others about it. As a college freshman, he planned to become an actor, but his curiosity and knack for writing drew him to journalism.

“Journalism is like jazz—improvisation and performance.”
- Paul Voakes

Next, as a professor, he remained a student, eagerly adopting the industry’s new tools while applying journalism fundamentals such as accuracy and ethics to new media platforms.

In a recent ethics class, for instance, he explained the rules of publishing people’s pictures. His students brought up the case of a college football player who sued a video game manufacturer for using his image without permission. The students’ debate over whether athletes should be paid when their images are used was Voakes’ favorite discussion of the semester.

“The great thing about teaching is that I get to work with intelligent, young, media-savvy people,” he says. “I’m never sure what direction any class will take us. Quite often my students end up teaching me as much as I teach them.”

Paul Voakes retired in December 2017.

Emeritus professor, former journalist and amateur jazz musician — “Journalism is like jazz: improvisation and performance.”

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Meet John Branch

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Jan 2016 22:10:25 +0000

Meet John Branch Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 01/22/2016 - 15:10

(Bus’89, MJour’96) • Sportswriter • Pulitzer Prize Winner

John Branch isn’t your average sports writer. He’s written front page stories for The New York Times that reveal how groundskeepers for Major League Baseball stadiums mow different patterns into the grass, examine the lives and deaths of pioneering BASE jumpers and trace the origins of the field-sized flags that fly at major sporting events.

In 2013, Branch won a Pulitzer Prize—the most prestigious award in journalism—for his article “Snowfall,” a pioneering effort in multimedia journalism, which tells the story of a deadly avalanche in the backcountry of a Washington ski resort. “Every day I’m amazed that I get paid to do what I do,” he says of his job.

Branch has accomplished a great deal in sports writing, especially for someone who began his career as a business reporter. Two years into his first job at The Colorado Springs Gazette, one of the paper’s sportswriters died suddenly… ‘yeah, I’ll go try that.’ ‘’

“I have license and liberty to go where most people aren’t welcome.”
-John Branch

Even now, being open to unexpected ideas is key, as Branch seeks story ideas in unusual places. “Sometimes I just step back away from the press box and ask, ‘why is this happening this way?’’’ He even gets some story ideas from questions his kids ask. Whatever story he pursues, he focuses on the human element—a tactic that led him to refine “Snowfall” from a broad article on avalanches into a detailed story about a single slide and the group of skiers it swallowed.

Branch believes such flexibility and focus are crucial in journalism, especially for young journalists. “We have no idea what this journalism world will look like in 10 years, so you need to be open-minded,” he explains. The role of CMCI’s journalism department “is to open as many doors as possible. And it’s the student’s role to walk through those doors.”

A graduate of the journalism program who won the Pulitzer Prize for his sportswriting — “I have license and liberty to go where most people aren’t welcome.”

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