By Hunter Price

Mari Fagel ’05, a former Chronicle editor-in-chief, spoke to the Chronicle staff this past Sunday about her current studies in broadcast journalism. 

“I came to talk today about the changing face of journalism. Despite what you may hear, it’s not dying,” said Fagel. 

Fagel is currently working at her master’s degree in broadcast journalism at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern. She talked about how journalism is a changing industry, and is adapting to be more interactive audience-focused. At Medill, where 12 out of 45 of her classes have been journalism related, she learns how to cover and develop her own stories and she works on deadline reporting, where she must shoot, edit, and turn in reports all in one day. 

Fagel explained, “At Medill, you have to be a one-man band and you need to know how to do everything.”

Fagel addressed the current state of journalism, in which schools such as Northwestern and Syracuse had to change with the times, making their journalism programs work to consider their audiences and keep them focused. She explained how they need more to offer besides print editions such as online or behind the scenes coverage.  When to applying to Northwestern, Fagel sent in a folder of her printed articles whereas now when applying for a broadcasting job, she sends out a link to her website containing her work. 

Fagel explained how when she was at Harvard-Westlake, there was no Chronicle website, and commented on how well-made she thought it was. She advised the staff to try adding a slideshow containing photos accompanied by audio clips to keep audiences interested.