Jay Rosen

After reading Rosen’s article, it’s easier for me to understand what it means for new journalists to know “everything about something”. He says that it’s important for journalists who are just coming onto the scene, to be knowledgeable in a number of things, but only pick a couple niche topics to specialize in. There’s at least one person who is interested in at least one thing. So, having knowledge of a variety of niche interests makes your content that much more special. Many people who are interested in specialized topics don’t have a lot of resources for further knowledge or discovery. I think this definitely applies to my group project of creating, recording, and editing a podcast. We first needed to decide what would be an interesting topic to groups of kids who are in college at the moment. We also needed something that can be measured and looked at from an analytical point of view. So, my group and I picked coffee. More specifically, we picked the consumption of coffee and its physical, mental, economic, and social effects on college-age students. Before even reading Rosen’s article, our team split up the work and research of differing niche topics. We wanted a broad range of sources and fields of research, as there were many directions we could have gone with this project. Our project included interviews with Arcadia University students, statistics from around the country, and real life experiences of our own group members. We wanted to get opinions and experiences from a broad range of people as well. That’s why we went out of the classroom for our research, not just people we knew, but strangers as well. Having this broad range of knowledge to back up our points makes our argument that much more concrete. I think new journalists have to be cautious though. Knowing too much about too many topics may look like you don’t quite have a specialty that you’re passionate about, and that you don’t have an interest to attach yourself to as a creator. People want someone with a niche. I know as a photographer, we were made to pick our niche, a way to distinguish ourselves from the competition and people who were already established in the creative world. Knowing that I have that specialty, that one thing that I’m very passionate about, makes it easier to find work and people who want to hire me. People are always looking for their own niche interests, and if reputable, trustworthy people are showcasing that, they’re more likely to be taken seriously. In the writing world, journalists are always looking for the next big story to cover, before their competition. If they pick a field where not a lot of people specialize in, then they are more likely to be one of the few who gets to cover that story and make it their own. I think Rosen’s advice greatly helps our group get perspective on our knowledge and our research. Having little to no prior knowledge of coffee and the science behind it, I think researching many subtopics that have to do with it is the best way to get a broader understanding of the drink as a whole.