The root of my passion for journalism stems from an attachment to storytelling. From Milton’s Paradise Lost to the oeuvre of Elena Ferrante, I remain fascinated by how the narrative form of storytelling informs my perspective of and empathy toward others. This summer, I had a chance to wield the power of words during an internship at Futuro Media.
When I heard Maria Hinojosa ’84, Barnard’s Distinguished Journalist-in-Residence and my former English professor, talk about the media’s role in welcoming immigrants instead of warding them off — in her course Latinx and the ICE/Prison Industrial Complex: Access and Strategies for News Coverage — I felt released from the “objectivity” that typically surrounds the topic. During my interview with her in March, Hinojosa mentioned that a goal of hers as a professor to students at Barnard is to tear down “the walls of myth and disinformation.” This is a goal that I aligned closely with as an intern at her multimedia company this summer.
Assisting the production and marketing departments at Futuro — as well as two of its media properties, Latino USA and Futuro Studios — I pitched ideas for the astrology podcast Stars and Stars with Isa, edited scripts and uploaded podcast episodes, and drafted social media posts. As someone without any prior experience in audio journalism, working with a small but robust team of sound engineers enabled me to feel comfortable using software like Descript and ProTools. I learned how important it is to be asked simple questions like, Which parts of a script should be cut? I truly have felt my editorial voice grow and develop because of how included I have felt in the production process.
Recently, I attended the Latin Alternative Music Conference in Times Square with Isa Nakazawa, host of Stars and Stars, and with senior producer Jeanne Montalvo. I assisted in recording on-site interviews with musicians such as J Noa and Gia Fu.
When I was not working with the production team, I planned social media copy for podcast promotions and posted it for the more than 120K followers of Futuro Studios’s Instagram and X accounts as well as Latino USA’s Instagram and X accounts. One especially timely post was for the Studios’s latest release, My Divo — a podcast following the life of queer Mexican singer-songwriter Juan Gabriel. During weekly development meetings, I met with the marketing team to discuss the performance levels of the promotions that were pushed out, which opened up the floor to constructive discussions on strategies to secure high engagement rates.
First Steps to Telling Stories
For me, journalism is most powerful when a story reflects the truth and accuracy of events, all while wrapped in a layer of storytelling that is intended to capture an audience. Even as a student-journalist for Barnard Magazine and for the College’s Communications Department, I still find myself dancing between retaining journalistic neutrality and the ability to tell a story. While journalistic reporting seems to tease uncompromising objectivity as an end goal, I am stumped as to why apathy is rarely interrogated by it — leading me to ask: Why do reporters write about that with which they know they cannot empathize?
Studying as an English major and political science minor at Barnard has offered me the opportunity to dissect narratives that exist behind a deeply rooted pedagogy of oppression. In the course Against Colonialism, Against Fascism, taught by Ken Chen, assistant professor of English and associate director of creative writing, I delved into literature authored by survivors of political and social oppression worldwide. These writers served as vocal critics against the authoritative narratives that solidify historical accounts. Much of the course required me to “unlearn” as much as it did to learn.
I am reminded of these narratives when I read about how immigration is covered in mainstream media. Certain articles seem to follow a familiar formula with language, using words like “crisis,” “floods,” “the masses,” “crime,” and “alien.” I felt the weight of such rhetoric growing up as the daughter of two immigrants. My dad is from Montelepre — a small, rural Sicilian town — while my mom grew up in cosmopolitan Istanbul. Even though my parents are not the typical “targets of interest” for U.S. journalists reporting on immigration, I have seen how their distinct backgrounds have been used to categorize my parents as either “foreigners,” because of their accents, appearances, and attributes, or — even worse — as “good” or “token” immigrants.
Writing as Revolution
My internship with Hinojosa’s company would not have been possible without funding from Beyond Barnard; I was one of three recipients of the inaugural Reinhart Richards Journalism grant. Not only does the grant provide funding and subsidized housing for students in New York City, but it also connects recipients with the grant’s journalist-in-residence, Rikki Novetsky ’15 — a producer for the New York Times news podcast, The Daily. In my talks with Novetsky, I have been comforted to learn how her career journey evolved from being at Barnard to joining the Times.
At Futuro, I felt empowered working with a team led by women, a team composed of individuals who empathize with the American immigrant experience and who are aware of the power of uplifting the stories that are discussed within the context of apathy or malignancy.
I am grateful to be part of Futuro’s larger mission to challenge agendas that dehumanize or erase the diversity of people who make up this country — all without sacrificing entertainment, joy, and more than a few laughs.
