MY STORIES:

• Black artists bringing #Blackjoy to Utah
• Ignored statistics: acknowledging Black resources for domestic violence and sexual assault

MY BLOG:

Thank you. Two simple words. I almost reply, “I only did my job,” but instead I just smile.

What is my job?

A question I have pondered this semester. I am a journalist; my job is to seek the truth and report it while maintaining transparency and minimizing harm. That’s what it says on paper. Really though, was it ever that simple?

No, looking in the eyes of the community members ignored, their needs unheard and unmet by anyone, isn’t simple. Before I can even ask a question, I see their stories tumbling, spilling, pushing at the seams that hold them together. Words burst out vibrantly, telling a story I could never understand.

Yet, I maintain perfect composure, asking for more detail, for a timeline, for anything to help me grasp on to an experience so foreign to my own. Eyes that hold so much pain, also share joy in our interview, a small step closer in a direction of change.

They hand me their truth, raw and real. I hold it carefully because it has been damaged before. How can I take such a thing and share it with the masses, conveying the struggles that have been historically neglected?

I tap my pen over and over, how many other “journalists” ignored this truth. Tied it in a nice pretty package to give to the masses, because the inside is too ugly to see? I want to show it all, frustrated that these interviewees had to say thank you. I should have been the one to say thank you first. My job has never been as easy as they say it is.

I am invested in the hard truths of life and I wish I could do more than just tell it. I wish I could shout it, put it in the faces of everyone and anyone.

“Look at what you want to ignore!” But then I remember there will be many more stories, handed over to me carefully. How could I ever say no?

But I must not lose sight, their stories have found a place to rest, on the newsprint. Not the front page, like it should, but it will sit hidden in the pages, a testament to the resistance they told me I’d face. And maybe there’s hope that someone will read it and feel something. Like I did.

Because if the gift of an imperfect painful truth isn’t enough to strike the heart, nothing can be. That’s no longer my worry. But I know that I for a brief moment caught a glimpse into a truth I will never understand. It will be a lesson I carry with me, being a journalist is only momentary, but being a human is where the true reward comes from. The newsprint can sit on the stands all day long, because I’m the one that’s changed.

Thank you for telling me your truth.

ABOUT ME:

Nina Tita is a journalist in Salt Lake City. Her experience is print and broadcast journalism from her career as a student journalist at the University of Utah.

Nina served as a local leader, Miss Rocky Mountain 2020, where she created a self-started initiative titled, Justice for Journalism, in an effort to connect citizens to their local media outlets, promote creative writing and advocate for student press rights. With the support of Utah Governor Spencer Cox, Nina’s initiative has implemented creative writing programs in over eight elementary schools across the state.

Nina also has experience in public relations and marketing from her internship at the Utah Sports Hall of Fame. There she wrote biographies for new inductees and conducted interviews with current members in the hall of fame.

Nina has interned with The Wasatch Wave, a local newspaper, and copy-edited for The Daily Utah Chronicle.

In 2018 she traveled to New York to study broadcast journalism at Good Morning America.

In 2017, Nina won the Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Award for the State of Utah. She traveled to Washington, D.C., to learn from the Neuharth family and discuss the future of journalism. There she studied social media journalism.

Nina earned a degree in journalism from the University of Utah.

Filed under: African American, Blogs & Bios, Student-Journalists |