Welcome to Brazos Matters.

I'm Jay Socol and joining me is KAMU, student content contributor and senior journalism major Victoria Taylor.

Hey, Victoria.

Hello.

Welcome back to the studio.

Thank you.

It's great to be here again.

So I think since you were in here last, you have officially completed your Aggie swim team career, right?

Yes.

That's correct.

Can you relax?

Are you still getting up at the crack of dawn and jumping in the pool?

Where are you?

Definitely not.

I've definitely.

A weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

Of course I'm going to miss it.

Especially like my teammates.

But I still do, unfortunately.

Wake up a little bit earlier than I would choose to.

I think it's just kind of in my blood now, but I think maybe that's a good thing because you've been doing it forever, right?

Yeah, but it's good waking up knowing I don't have to jump in a cold pool.

I think that helps.

So now you can just focus on, this final stretch of your career as a journalism major.

Yes.

So that brings us to today's topic, and I want you to talk about it and why you suggested we pursue it.

So as a journalism major at A&M and I'm almost done with my journalism at A&M career, but I just want to know kind of about the upcoming of the department, because I feel like even in my time here, over the past almost four years, it's already changed so much.

And I'd love to hear more about what's to come in the future for the department.

Okay, so we have the perfect person in the guest chair who is also a friend of KAMU.

Flora Charner is a professor of practice in the Department of Communication and Journalism.

She has had an impressive career, mostly in television news, both here and abroad.

And now she's at Texas A&M, teaching the next generation of storytellers for thanks for being here.

Thank you so much for having me.

It's great to be here.

Of course.

Alright, Victoria, take it away.

Could you just start off and kind of tell us about your background in journalism and how you landed at A&M?

That's a great question.

So my background in journalism, I before joining A&M, I was working at CNN.

I was a director of coverage for international newsgathering.

So basically a lot of the international stories are we're seeing now the latest in Iran, Israel, Gaza, Russia, Ukraine, those were all stories that I would have been covering under my watch.

In the role that I had at CNN.

Before that role, I had been a field producer for a few years, working out of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and I covered Latin America mostly for, CNN.

Before I joined CNN, I worked for the Associated Press.

That's where I started out, my career.

And I also had some freelance opportunities where I worked for a few different outlets, including, Al-Jazeera, the BBC, The Guardian, and America's Quarterly, which is a, magazine put out by the Council of the Americas.

So how did you get A&M?

It was very interesting, this journey to A&M.

So I am not an Aggie, but I'm married to an Aggie.

And so I feel like I became an Aggie by association, through my Aggie marriage.

And my husband is also a journalist.

He is also now teaching, at the Department of Communication and Journalism as a professor of practice.

And he had been involved with the former journalism students Association and, you know, we were working at CNN.

We're both at CNN.

That's where we met.

And that's, where we started our relationship.

And we were looking at next steps and things that we wanted to do.

And we knew that there was an aspect of teaching that interested it us and that we were looking to pursue, we had both at different points of our careers, pursued master's degrees.

We had done that with the intention of possibly teaching.

And then the opportunity came at A&M, his alma mater, a place where he wanted to give back, a place that I had gotten to know, where the journalism program was being revamped, redeveloped.

He had been one of the last classes that had graduated under journalism before the degree had gone away.

So seeing the degree come back and be relaunched and redeveloped sounded like a very exciting opportunity to be a part of.

And so the opportunity came.

We were, presented with the opportunity for both of us to come together and be able to be a part of it.

And we moved from Atlanta to College Station, two years ago.

And here we are today.

Okay.

I want to go back a little bit to what you were talking about, all the significant seismic events happening around the world.

Which one of you you or Mariano, get, antsy, the antsiest, about.

Oh, I need to be there.

I want to be there.

This is where I'm supposed to be.

I'm supposed to be reporting on these things.

Which one of you, kind of gets that feeling?

I think we both get it at different points.

I mean, I can tell you one that happened to me this year because even though we're both full time professors, we're both here full time.

We are both because we're professors of the practice.

We are both still working journalists to when we're able to balance it, we both still do occasional work for CNN and a few other outlets.

When we're able to and being a Latin Americanist, as somebody who covered Latin America for a very long time, when the US captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and went into the country and took him and his wife and left in the middle of the night, I woke up to phone calls from my former boss being like, are you available?

And can you help us with this and what are you doing and why aren't you here?

And, you know, given the lessons that we learned during Covid and given the technology that exists, remote work is a lot easier.

So I was able to essentially set up a mini newsroom in my college station house and work for CNN a few days and contribute to this major breaking news story in a region that I knew very well and that I had expertise on.

So that was that was one of those moments where the antsiness was felt.

But then I was able to also do something and produce something on that story.

What can you give us an example?

What kinds of things did you do basically at your kitchen table?

I mean, we we had a security incident with one of our teams in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, that had been detained by, some security officials and dealing with the logistics of getting the person who had been detained undertaken was a bit tricky, but we managed to do that.

There was a lot of, information coming from a lot of different sources on this.

And so there's a lot of information verification that was happening.

And then, I was able to write an article, once the one week mark had come since the the president had been taken, looking at everything that had happened and kind of being able to explain a little bit, taking a step back what had happened, where we were and how the situation had unfolded.

So it was fascinating.

And just being able to work with teams that I had worked with before and, coordinate, just information and video and how, we were looking at reporting and, just seeing how breaking news story was developing from my kitchen table.

So do you take that experience and bring it into the classroom in any way?

Yes.

For sure.

Yeah.

I was just going to say, being in your class last semester where we learned about international studies, I feel like that definitely brought a new perspective to the journalism and communication department, because that that class had never been offered before, and just being able to really dive into different news sources and you encouraging us like we have to pick a news source to follow over the semester, just definitely helped me stay more in touch with the whole world and what was going on.

I'm happy to hear that.

Yeah, that's what you want to hear.

I mean, that's one of the things that I one of the things that I feel, especially with our students and especially for young people in general, is that we are constantly inundated with so much information and we're constantly watching so many things and so many different sources, some of them official, most of them not official.

A lot of them on social media, a lot of them unvetted and that it's it's difficult to then discern what it is that you should trust and what it is that you should follow, and who it is that you should trust and who it is that you should follow.

And and so I feel like a lot of times people just choose to tune out.

And that's one of the things that I've tried to bring in all my classes of just encouraging my students to really look beyond what they may see on a TikTok feed, or what might come up on an Instagram story.

And to really dig in, and especially if something sounds tricky or suspicious or something like that you don't really think is true, to go to trust that gut feeling and go beyond and try to do a little bit more research of that.

With the Venezuela example in the International Communication and Journalism class this semester, we've been able to look at that specific story, how it played out, and I was able to share with my class some of the experience that I had looking at that story, firsthand.

And they were able to kind of see how they perceived it, too.

And, you know, I covered it for one news outlet.

There were a lot of other news outlets covering this, so we looked at how a lot of different news outlets looked at this, too, because I like bringing different voices into the classroom.

I think when when Victoria was in my class, I would try to bring in guest speakers to who were in the regions or who were covering the stories, because I like having all these different perspectives that they could hear from.

And then allowing the students to make informed decisions as to where they get their news or how they get their information, and to choose the outlets or the sources or the people that best fit what they see and how they see things, unfolding.

And Victoria knows that I'm jumping around a little bit, but you talking about that makes me jump to I, which now makes me at least question everything that I see and hear.

Right?

And so how do journalists or people who are teaching journalism, you know, how do journalists create credible content and then convince your audiences that it's legitimate?

Well, that's a really great question.

And that's one of the things that I think about a lot, too.

You know, I'm constantly looking at things and, and, you know, in one of my other classes that I teach, I teach new media, an independent voice class, we look at the use of AI a lot, and I feel like each semester that I'm teaching this class, it's the technology's just evolving in the way that we define things is evolving more and more, to where it was just two years ago when we started talking about these things with the Venezuela example.

In the first few hours after Maduro was captured, there were a lot of images and photos that came out because the Venezuelan government was demanding proof of life.

There were people trying to see what had happened.

There was a lot of because it was also the middle of the night on a weekend after New Year's had just, you know, New Year's Day had been like two days before all of a sudden and all these images started coming out of an arrested Maduro that were shared, that were used there, were published by credible news outlets that eventually had to take them down because they were, you they were made using generative AI and not labeled as such.

And so that became a problem in a breaking news situation like this, where images will start flooding the internet, they'll start coming out and it's becoming more and more difficult to differentiate what is real and what is fake.

And so it wasn't until the president put out a photo that could be attributed directly to President Trump that could be, connected to an official source, that that was the source that was the photo that at least CNN ended up going with, because you could attribute it to official source.

And there were still even questions around that photo, because that looks suspicious, too.

But at least it comes from an official source that you could link it to.

And so that's one of the examples that I've used in some of my classes.

Just because I feel like this generation knows AI a lot more than maybe your generation in my generation did, but it is still becoming more and more advanced where even having that knowledge of being able to differentiate AI, it is still so easy to consume information and consume content that is not real and to share it, which I think is the biggest issues, that we just share it and we we propagate it without knowing what it is and where it came from.

And then it's a lot harder to bring it back once it's proved to be false.

Yeah.

This is where I ask Victoria a question.

So where do you tend to get your news from?

Both platform and source, I think.

And I'm going to credit you honestly, before last semester, I was not reading official news sources like AP and CNN and any of those I the only news I kind of saw was on Instagram.

If there was a post like from an account that I wouldn't even follow, that was just on my feed, and I would look at it and if I was interested, I would go further and just search it up online.

But after last semester, I decided to follow AP as my choice in her class.

In your class, and I still get the notifications every day from different stories going on and when I know, like now, I'm much more aware of the big events that are going on and actually have read information and know about them compared to just seeing an Instagram post about the Venezuelan person being captured.

But now I can read and understand more about the topic.

So yeah, I want to do a quick reintroduction if, if you're just tuning in I'm Jay Socol.

Our guest today is Flora Charner, professor of practice in Texas A&M journalism Program.

We're talking about the evolution of the university's new journalism degree and how her own impressive career translates in the classroom.

So I want to ask you real quickly, and I know you don't necessarily speak on behalf of all of Texas A&M journalism, but you are part of it.

So in your opinion, what exactly is A&M journalism program supposed to be and supposed to do?

And is there an effort under way to kind of distinguish it in some way from other programs in the state?

Yeah.

No, that is an excellent question.

And I think that it's one that we are exploring and that we are looking at a lot of different things in terms of how we want this program to be, unique and different from a lot of others that may exist in the state or exist in the country.

I am part of a really excellent team of faculty and staffers that are working on this now that bring a lot of interesting experiences, both working in the state of Texas, working abroad, working for a large publications like the Dallas Morning News, or working for local publications like The Eagle, or working in photography, working in television, working in print, working in radio.

So we've got a lot of good foundations and a lot of variety.

And now as we continue to build, we've just hired new faculty that are going to be starting in the fall.

These are going to be more academics with the tenure track and that are going to be doing more research.

And as we're building this program and bringing in all these different people with all these different skills, we're now trying to figure out what our North Star is going to be.

And there's been a lot of interesting ideas, and there's been a lot of interesting projects.

One of the ones that I know that was featured on the show previously was the South Texas Project, which is one of the big things that we are working on.

Within the department, and within our journalism cohort, because we are part of this massive state that we know with, media contraction and media consolidation and changes in media, that there's more and more news deserts in the state.

We saw a demographic in South Texas change and shift in their voting patterns and their, living patterns.

And so it's been an area of the state that we have wanted to explore and to get to know and to get to, have more information about.

So we've had faculty led trips to South Texas with a group of students that have gotten to do on the ground reporting on stories impacting real people in this part of the state specifically.

And Laredo is where we've done these trips.

And they've gotten the story published in publications outside of just the A&M publications, and they've been able to get it outside and and get reputable, outlets to, to publish.

And so it's one of these things that we're building partnerships to create this program.

And we're building partnerships to expand, on this program, one of the ones that you and I have been working on is a partnership with KAMU, which I think is very exciting in terms of developing our broadcast program a little bit more.

A lot of students, especially, I felt that when I started out, were very interested in broadcast, and we're looking to develop television skills and develop radio skills and podcasting skills.

And so it's been one of the things that's been fun to work on developing.

And that has been a great partnership with with KAMU to develop and that we've really, been able to set a foundation to, to sort of explore that.

And so I think that we're trying a lot of different things and seeing what our North Star will actually be.

But I feel like in all the things that we're looking at and trying, there's been a lot of successes already.

And, you know, I think that at some point we will have a clear definition of what our journalism school is right now, being in the building stages, we're still sort of figuring out exactly what will define Texas A&M journalism.

I think one of the things that will be a part of it is what's part of A&M in general, which is all this, culture of service and culture of of responsibility and honor and all these things that are always associated with the other degrees at A&M and that we want to be associated with journalism.

And our journalists will be prepared and ethical and media savvy and skilled to go into any newsroom they want.

Make sense?

Yes.

I definitely feel like learning under all your staff and all the people in the journalism department.

And over the past almost four years, being able to have been in some of their classes multiple times, getting to know them and their backgrounds, I can just tell all the knowledge they have in the journalism industry, because I've been in the field for so long.

So could you touch on some of the skills that you think are most useful in the journalism world that are being taught to future journalism hopefuls who are hoping to go in the field, like myself?

Well, I think that no matter what kind of journalism you're doing, writing is going to be essential.

And I think that's why our program has had a very heavy focus on writing and on, writing well, and on developing writing skills.

So writing is going to be an essential skill, I think, for any aspect, whether it be broadcast, whether it be digital, whether it be print, whether it be social media, you have to be able to write captions to post.

You have to be able to write copy to video.

You have to be able to print on a website no matter where you're working for.

So writing, I think, is the fundamental and the basics.

I think that the other skills in terms of the media literacy skills are going to be very important.

And that's one of the things that we're looking to build in our students of being able to identify these sources, of being able to have this knowledge of these sources.

When you are going into interviews and and being able to explain these stories that are happening because you are following them on a regular basis.

And, you know, I think now we're developing more of these other skills with photojournalism, with broadcast, with, podcasting, you know, these are all skills that I think people can choose different lanes and different avenues that they can go into to, to focus on.

And, you know, I think that we'll just continue to build more and more.

We've had we've had a lot of things that we've tried to do.

You know, we had one of our colleagues brought somebody in to do a drone workshop, you know, and that was a workshop that was open to students where you could look into drone, which is video that's used on a regular basis.

There's classes that will work, you know, in the broadcast class that I'm working on now, it's a bigger camera.

There's other classes that will focus on mobile journals of what you'd do with your phone.

You know, these are all resources that are going to be useful in that are could be important and necessary because the industry is changing.

And I think that one of the things that our students have to to be is to be adaptable, because they are going to be going into an industry that is adapting as you are going into it.

And you had some curiosities about, you know, what the future looks like, right?

Yeah.

Mainly within A&M for the future here.

I know they're renovating Bolton right now, and with the new faculty coming in, could you kind of touch on those renovations?

And if there's any new classes that you know are coming to the journalism department?

Yeah, I know for sure.

So this renovation I think is going to be a really great way to open the doors to the rest of the university, to communication and journalism in general.

The renovation is going to have a lot of the skills, set up that we now rely on other aspects of the university to provide.

Our students will have, areas where students could do audio and video editing.

We'll have areas where students could do podcasting, will have, gaming room with a lot of that, development in the gaming world could happen to that.

There's going to be a lot of spaces where it's going to really allow our students to be able to have a space within the main building, which is our building of Bolton, where most of these classes happen to be able to apply these skills, you know, and I encourage my students at this point to look for the spaces that exist where you could find these things.

We have the studio at the Evans Library annex to has whisper rooms that has editing bays to has the ability to do these things.

And so it will be nice to also be able to offer that to the students within the department, for them to be able to work on these things and to give our program as it's going through its, through its rebirth in terms of the content and the faculty and the classes, to also give it the physical facelift to in the building itself.

Yeah.

So with the couple minutes we have left real quickly, what what are your thoughts about there still being a place for long form reporting?

Or have attention spans moved away from that forever?

You know, I think I'm surprised to hear from my students that they actually prefer listening to a two hour podcast on YouTube rather than a 32nd clip sometimes.

So I think that the long form maybe for written it depends on the topic.

Even though I think that magazine stories, I will still see students reading magazines on a tear on occasion, but I feel like there is now almost like a a counter to all the snippet and to the short information that we had been getting for such a long time.

The X, Twitter 140 characters.

It was an expanded the just headline posting the the quick little clips and now I feel like people are choosing to engage with longer content, which to me was surprising when I heard that that was the case.

But it's more engaging longer content by content creators they choose to follow rather than maybe established media outlets.

And I think that that's where the shift is happening with some of that where I feel like students, at least my students, in terms of what they've told me, that they they do find it easy to engage with the longer content, and they're just doing something else.

Like, I think that that's just a different way of consuming a lot of this content where it's not you're not planning on sitting down and watching it and dedicating your attention to watching it.

You might be have the YouTube on your laptop while you're cooking, or while you are working on something else.

And even when my students are primarily listening to this, in the case of podcasts, they still prefer the video and having the video aspect, even if they're not necessarily watching the video, which I think is fascinating.

I find that super encouraging for a charter professor of practice, Texas A&M journalism.

Thanks for being here.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.

Of course, Brazos Matters is a production of Aggieland's Public Radio, 90.9 KAMU-FM, a member of Texas A&M Division of Community Engagement.

Our show is engineered and edited by Matt Dittman.

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We'd love for you to rate and review and subscribe so you never miss an episode for Victoria Taylor.

I'm Jay Socol.

Thank you so much for watching and for listening to Brazos Matters.

Have a great day.