MY STORIES:

• Chinatown Market: haven and home for Asian American communities in Salt Lake City
• Mother-daughter team run a pho restaurant: soup for the soul 

MY BLOG:

Throughout this semester, this class has given me the opportunity to have many different experiences, both positive and negative. In all learning situations nonetheless, I was able to gain new insight and perspective on news writing overall. Personally, in terms of disappointments, I’d say I was more so disappointed in how some people value journalism. In the process of getting interviews and involvement from outside sources, it was hard to get engagement with people if you didn’t have a direct phone number. The correspondence took longer than normal, which is to be expected with different people’s schedules, but some responses were a little discouraging. 

On the successful side, I feel like I have learned a lot more about what it means to be a good writer, but also a good news writer. I find the information on the writing process to be very valuable, along with the experience we had as college students to get a feel for what it’s like to work on bigger stories for publication. I think it’s also a success that so many amazing writers also decided to take the class, so there is always feedback when needed. I think collaboration is so important, so taking Voices of Utah was extremely beneficial for my group and individual growth as a writer. 

I’ve learned that if I’m going to partake in the journalism industry, the writing topics have to be more tailored to my interests or things I want to learn more about. Writing within the news industry doesn’t allow for as much freedom and creativity as I’d like for a future career. Writing is and always will be a passion of mine, but when it comes to reporting or going out for investigative journalism, I don’t think those careers work long term for me. 

Opinion editorial writing is more my style and I really enjoy the writing process when it comes to reviews. Other areas of the news industry like design layout also really interest me for the future, so either way at some point after school I’ll be able to try different jobs. 

I fully plan on continuing to explore more Asian American communities here in Salt Lake City. Along with supporting businesses in the area, I want to continue staying up to date on social issues surrounding Asian Americans and be more conscious of community gatherings. The important thing for me is to support local and minority groups as opposed to places that don’t need my business. I won’t just be supporting the businesses covered in my articles, but as many as I can.

Especially now that as a class we’ve gone through so much on the topic, I can only imagine the rest of the history and interesting stories that can be done. I’m not certain if I’ll follow the beat as closely as before, but I will be keeping myself updated. 

ABOUT ME:

India Bown is pursuing her Bachelor of Science in Communication at the University of Utah. Since she was a kid, India has always enjoyed writing, and joining a journalism elective in high school sparked her passion for it. For extracurriculars, India is a staff writer for the arts desk at the Daily Utah Chronicle and the communications director for Fashion in Business, an organization through the Eccles Business School.

India continues exploring her interests outside of school, like fashion, arts, and being outdoors. In her free time, India loves making photoshoot sets, styling outfits, and designing graphics/layouts. India plans on meshing her two passions, fashion and journalism, after college and has dreams of one day having her own brand. 

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