Student Blog: Drama, Double-Majoring in Journalism

On my first real day of my Journalism class this year, after syllabus day, my teacher sent us outdoors with an assignment: observe your surroundings, write down potential story ideas, and come back in 40 minutes, and we'll talk about what you saw. I wasn't sure what I expected to find on my walk, but after doing my 40 minute walk through the village and a bit of Soho, I had over a page of story ideas.

I realized that I had done a very similar exercise for my acting class during my freshman year of college. I was sent outside to observe my surroundings, find stories, and come back and share them. Every time that I have done this exercise, I have been struck by how many stories surround me, living in a city as vibrant and alive as New York City. In the more recent case, I was also struck by how many more people were outside, and how much nicer and happier the vibes were than they were during the earlier stages of the pandemic.

New York City has so many stories to tell, whether it be by acting or by writing. That's a main reason why I think that journalism is a great pairing for a drama major; both teach you to be a storyteller. Journalists and actors tell stories in different ways much of the time, but all forms of storytelling require a lot of creativity. The skills you use to tell stories as an actor help you to tell stories as a writer, and vice versa!

When I first started with my journalism major, I didn't think I would have nearly as much creative freedom as I did as an actor, but I was wrong. There is much creativity to be found in journalism - it's just a different kind of creativity. Oftentimes when writing a news story, there are parameters that you must find ways to be creative within, which is still similar to acting. There can also be a lot of investigating involved in both drama and journalism. Journalism can also help with clarity and specificity in your storytelling.

I chose journalism because I love to write. My original plan was to double major in creative writing, but NYU does not offer a creative writing major. However, there is a creative writing track within the English major, which is what I started during my sophomore year. I learned, though, that most of the courses in the track were English courses with very few creative writing classes. Although I very much enjoyed my first English class and got to read some great books, I realized after one semester that it wasn't the right double major for me. I wanted to write! I weighed my options and decided that journalism made the most sense. It also worked with my graduation plan because the journalism major at NYU does not have too many classes! Because journalism majors at NYU are required to double major, many of the required classes are offered at many different times to accommodate the various other majors of the students!

Although I haven't taken many classes in the journalism major yet, I've been finding the subject matter interesting, and it's been really nice to do more writing. This semester my journalism classes are "Journalistic Inquiry" and "Women in the Media," and I am excited for both. I think that here and now in NYC is a great time to learn to be a journalist! Like we talked about in class, now more than ever, there are stories all around us just waiting to be told!