The Story of Journalism part 5: Journalism Lives Forever

Nowadays, journalism doesn't only stop at newspaper. It has expanded to radio, television, blog, multimedia, and even podcast.

Source: Wix

Podcast becomes super popular nowadays with a various types of show and true crime is my favorite one. I have known about podcast since college. Of course, the app has been there on my iPhone for a long time but I didn't pay attention much to it. My professor has a podcast show named Americanooooooo, where he interviews people in business. They often talk about entrepreneur, how to start and grow a business, the story of success and failure, and personal growth. They are all so well-interviewed. I don't know why he called the name of the show like that but I believe he loved drinking coffee, or it is a beginning of every conversation. I mean when you go to a coffee shop, beside studying and working, you meet people who are your friends, your family, your lovers, your business partner, or your interviewee. With a cup of coffee on their hands, the conversation will be better because caffeine helps people to focus on the conversation. His podcast has opened my mind to a different type of journalism, which is the easiest one.

All you need is a good recording device and a good story to tell. For the first time, I can listen to every conversation, every commentary show, every news report on my phone for free. I can listen everything everywhere all at once. My favorite podcast genre is true crime. Oh my God, it is so exciting and so haunting in every episode I listen to. If asking me the best true crime show that I have ever listen to, it's very difficult to say because each true crime show has its best. However, there are two shows that I sometimes binge-listen to. The Dropout, which is about the case of Elizabeth Holmes and her Theranos company, and Serial, which the first season about Adnan Syed, who was wrongfully convicted of murder his ex-girlfriend and being sentenced to life (He was released in 2022, thanks to this podcast). I can see there are a lot potential in podcast industry. It is a new way to give everyone the chance to talk and to discuss.

My inspirations

To become a journalism student right now, besides all the inspiration from my grandpa, there are many great journalists that I look at them as my idols. They had made the journalism industry become great. They are legends. Deeply inside my heart, there will be no one can replace them and they will continue inspire and pass the torch to every generation of journalist. In this final part of The Story of Journalism, I'd like to pay my special tribute to every journalist who I have followed their path since the day I was in this major.

From newspapers and magazines,

Ben Bradlee, Katherine Graham, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, Jennifer Rubin, Aaron Blake, Art Cullen, Anna Wintour, Walter Baranger, Truman Capote, Rachel Carson.

From television,

Edward R. Murrow, Barbara Walter, Katie Couric, Oprah Winfrey, Walter Cronkite, Neil Sheehan, Chris Wallace, Anderson Cooper, David Muir, Diane Sawyer, Connie Chung, Lester Holt.

The first magazine I read.

As I share in the first part of The Story of Journalism, I told the story of my grandpa bought me two magazines for teenager. Little Angel and Student's Flower. In this post, I will share with you about Little Angel magazine and why I love this magazine so much.

The latest edition of Little Angel

At the time of ten years ago, having the latest issue of Little Angel is like you had known more information about the showbiz which was written fit with the teenage readers from 9 - 13 years old. Little Angel helped me to understand more about showbiz, K-Pop, US/UK music, and world of teenagers. There was no such thing called Gen Z many years old. Maybe it had been around but no one talked about it.

I was in my secondary school and when I came to class, I sometimes saw all the girls in my class read Little Angel and they loved it. In the beginning of the 2010s, K-Pop began to get into Vietnam which made many people get crazy with every K-Pop band. Going anywhere, all I could see that students at any age talked about K-Pop idols and to be honest, I was a big fan of a girl band. Girl's Generation but I was afraid to tell everyone because they would tell me that I was gay. Now, thinking again, I think it is ridiculous. I am a male. Loving a girl band is normal.

As far as I remember, Little Angel was published two issues a month. Each issue always had a K-Pop chart. Everyone wanted to see which song is leading. But what important were the stories about their favorite groups. What I liked about Little Angel is the way they write articles. There are two types of journalism. Newspapers to read and newspapers to speak. But it seems that Little Angel turns the reading newspaper into a speaking newspaper. The way Little Angel writing made readers feel like they were listening to a news report. They also used words suitable for young people, which I now call "catching the trend." That is why the Little Angel newspaper always won the hearts of teenage readers at that time. On the middle page of the newspaper was an attached poster of a certain idol. Just remove the pin and you will have yourself a poster for free. In addition to news about K-Pop, news about Vietnamese and US/UK idols was also explored in Little Angel, but I didn't read much. Perhaps after the K-Pop section, readers would immediately jump to the Zodiac section to see where their "destiny" is. To be honest, I didn't even notice it at the time because there was no news for me. But later, when I grew up, I started to believe more in non-spiritualism.

Little Angel was my whole childhood sky. Back then, I still used a flipped phone and there was no wifi at home, so my need to access social networks seemed to be negative. So, having Little Angel newspaper as a bridge to help me understand as well as update what is happening around to make them equal to you. After many years of accompanying the young generation, Little Angel newspaper seemed to have become a shadow in the current young generation. That's right, nowadays when you open Insta or Facebook or TikTok, you immediately know what your idol is doing. Who went up and down, who was sealed, who was involved in a scandal, they all know. But only regret that those news no longer keep the clarity as what Little Angel newspaper once wrote. The language of Little Angel is for teenagers. It is geared towards the trend of life, rather than being heavy on topicality like mainstream newspapers. Little Angel was an indispensable friend in my life at that time. I would like to thank my grandfather for signing up Little Angel for me and thank Little Angel for helping me get closer to the times.

Throughout five posts about journalism, I have shared with you all the memories and stories that I knew and remembered. They are a dedication from me to journalism. Journalism always plays an important role in our daily life. People need to know what happens around them everyday. And for journalists, our job is to report and seek truth as SPJ's Code of Ethics has stated. In the age of fake news and multimedia, there will be only one truth and let the readers decide what truth they believe in.

Thank you,

Huy Nguyen