The 20-plus St. Cloud State graduates staffing newsrooms of the nation’s 14th largest U.S. television market drew on their education and experience to keep Minnesotans informed about the extraordinary circumstances and events that threatened lives and challenged beliefs during 2020-2021.
“COVID-19 changed everything — especially in the TV world,” said 2012 Mass Communications graduate Alicia Lewis, anchor and reporter at KARE 11 in the Twin Cities. “Trying to figure out how to get facts out to the viewers when the latest information from the experts was always changing is still a challenge,” she said. “As our station was adhering to the latest CDC guidelines, we had to re-invent the wheel when it came to storytelling.”
But while the pandemic was and remains an ongoing mega- story for all news markets, the murder of George Floyd put Minnesota in the spotlight in the center of the world stage,” Lewis said.
“And protests in the midst of the pandemic during a presidential election year was something journalists could never prepare for,” she said. “It was the perfect storm of big news stories and to say it was overwhelming would be an understatement.”
“It was quite a year,” agreed 2014 broadcast journalism graduate and KSTP reporter Ben Henry of the months following the killing of George Floyd. “We were the epicenter of the world. This past year and a half has been some of the most intense work I’ve done in the field.”
Lewis and Henry are just two of the many St. Cloud State Mass Communications graduates working in Twin Cities network television news and sports.
The unforeseen, troubling issues that surrounded the crime that shocked the world in May 2020 brought tremendous attention to Minneapolis/St. Paul, which became a microcosm of sorts for long-overdue conversations and in-depth introspection of cultural, legal and social justice issues in communities across the globe.
“I always describe it as spiritual warfare,” said 2019 Mass Communication graduate Josh Cobb, who started at KSTP and is now a news producer for KMSP. “The events that unfolded in 2020 impacted me heavily as a Black man, and I carried that with me everywhere I went. Seeing the impact it had on my family, my friends, my community that I love, and myself lit a fire in me. It was not easy by any stretch, but it fueled me to grow and cover everything with delicacy but with intentionality.
“It also showed me the importance of covering stories that are more than just stories,” Cobb said. “Whether I wanted to or not, I took work with me home and to every space I entered. I could not turn it off. I didn’t have the luxury to treat it as a story, it was my livelihood that was on the line. Covering around the clock breaking news,
then stepping out of work and advocating for my people of the African Diaspora, and then living in my Blackness was exhausting, but necessary. I’ll never take that back, and nobody can take experience from me. I learned a lot about myself, and it set the tone for my young career.”
Cobb has a message for aspiring young journalists of color: “Stay the course. We need you. Advocate for yourself, and be a voice for the voiceless. Through my time at SCSU, and so far in my career, I learn more and more every day that perspective is everything, and you have a perspective that can transform a story, newsroom, and the hearts of many.”
“As I think about changes in the media what’s still at the core is storytelling the people,” Henry said. “The destruction, and the pain expressed by community members. All the while we were continuing to show what was going on.”
“The conversations being had in newsrooms about race relations, politics, as well as our physical and mental health were at the forefront and were needed,” Lewis said. “One thing journalists are taught is to be good listeners … and simply listening to one another became one of our most important tools during these unprecedented times.”
Henry said the core values that make good journalism still apply in an industry that’s going to continue changing.
“The program was able to instill those values,” he said of his St. Cloud State education. Jennifer Austin, a 2012 graduate and reporter for KARE 11 morning news agreed that her professors gave future broadcasters a good education in ethics and honest reporting.
“Rene Kaluza to this day I think was my best professor,” she said of the longtime adjunct instructor whose day job was running the copy desk at the St. Cloud Times. “She said something I think about every
day in my work — that every day someone is trusting me with the truth.”’
With the eyes of the world on the Twin Cities and network anchors broadcasting live from her home city, Austin said she has been more aware of incorporating the issues of social justice and diversity in her work — to tell the stories about the lives and perspectives of people of color.
“We need to start going out of our way to highlight diversity,” she said. “SCSU did a great job at bringing in professors and mentors who had experience in the broadcast journalism field to speak to the students on a regular basis,” Lewis said. “Hearing directly from those who work in the field helped prepare me for the ‘real world’ … teaching me about the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of journalism.”
Henry also appreciated meeting someone from the industry when his reporting class brought in Twin Cities Reporter Reg Chapman.
Like his fellow graduates, he cites his education as the foundation for his successful career.
“Over the years I’ve met a lot of journalists, some from much bigger schools than St. Cloud State,” he said. “But what we were able to do was always a step above. We had a unique opportunity to get into the industry.”