MY STORY:

• The world’s greatest snow is melting, and it might not come back

MY BLOG:

My enterprise story’s main focus on climate change in Utah stemmed from my passion for environmentalism and being a citizen of Utah. The pollution found in the Salt Lake Valley is so prevalent and constant that most everyone living here is aware of its harmful effects, so finding sources was easy. I connected with friends and family to see if they knew anyone directly affected by climate change who would be willing to talk about their experience. I think my sources benefitted my story because I was able to get three different perspectives all relating to one issue. I utilized a professional opinion to establish credibility, I interviewed an older adult with health issues that are exacerbated by pollution, and I used the opinion of a student from California to highlight the lack of understanding for climate change outside of Utah. 

Writing my story was mostly smooth sailing, but I think an issue I failed to address was how politics play into the issues I discussed. Politics weren’t a focus of my story, but the Republican majority in Utah’s government plays a large role in the issues we face so I felt like I needed to address it.

The pandemic has slightly affected the amount of emissions found in Utah, but I found that it wasn’t significant enough to mention since most people are back to work and driving normally again. 

My focus came to me after writing ideas I felt were important to my story. I was able to connect these ideas to create a focus on climate change and how it is affecting Utah specifically. Writing this story was honestly very challenging for me because I’m not a great writer to begin with, so writing in a journalistic style proved difficult for me. It was also difficult because one of my sources gave me so much information that I could use for multiple different stories. I had to find what was important to me and write about that, but that was difficult when there was so much interesting information. I wanted to add a section about politics in Utah but couldn’t find a way to fit it into my story effectively without it being distracting or out of place.

Overall, I learned a lot about my writing and what I like and don’t like about it. It mostly taught me that I’m not passionate about journalism and it isn’t one of my strong suits. Interviewing was very difficult for me and connecting the pieces of my story proved even more difficult. While news journalism may not be for me, I have definitely learned a lot of skills that I can utilize in other areas of my life.

ABOUT ME:

I am a full-time student at the University of Utah currently studying strategic communication. I am planning on graduating in spring 2022 and hope to use my knowledge of visual rhetoric, public relations, and communication theory in a career relating to social media. In my free time I enjoy producing music, photography, video games, movies, and art.