Features: What actually happens behind the scenes

It’s around 5 p.m. on a Thursday night, and there are powerful voices blaring through a microphone speaker echoing through McCarthy Quad. Several workers’ union protesters are aligned in a circle urging passersby to acknowledge their need for higher compensation. While several students stop to join the crowd, others simply laugh, snapchatting or taking photos of the seemingly peculiar sight. A few are even fleeing away as quickly as they can from the scene in fear of involvement.

And there I found myself cautiously approaching the quad, trying to understand my boundaries as a journalist. I soon realized that this very process of understanding and discovering my journalistic boundaries would be an adventure throughout my undergraduate career. And as a former news editor and current deputy features editor and columnist, I wanted to take you through what really happens behind the scenes of breaking news, investigative and long-form pieces, and the Daily Trojan’s supplement issue. Stay tuned.

The emotions of those participating in the protest were palpable — it was as though you could feel their tears and anger in the air. I was in my American Politics class and left early to cover the unexpected event. To be quite frank, for Trojans, 5 p.m. is one of the busiest times of day, and there was no one else who could cover the event.

So, as I tensely began to join the crowd of protestors, not knowing who to speak to or what to do. I began to realize the importance of understanding the depths of emotion for those protesting. I put myself in their shoes, wondering how I would best react to a journalist covering the event. That simple shift in mind was a crucial turning point not only for better coverage of this specific story, but for the rest of my journalistic career. And while news is objective, speaking and interacting with individuals is not. It could not have been a more perfect time for me to have experienced this event.

Though I initially approached the scene with caution, I left with confidence. As I joined the circle and interacted with protesters, I learned their why: the significant reason that motivates them to be a part of such a movement. The relationships I built after leaving the event allowed me to connect with the protestors to the point where my later interviews were raw, real and comfortable.

Just a few weeks later, the Daily Trojan’s supplement, “On the Money” was released. The supplement was a special issue highlighting the wage disputes on campus, in addition to various large-scale monetary projects at USC. This falls directly under the kinds of stories I assign to writers and cover myself as the deputy features editor. This semester has been a whirlwind, to say the least. For the most part, my role includes a lot of brainstorming for special articles in news, lifestyle, sports and, sometimes, even editorial so that issues not traditionally seen in the paper can be highlighted.

If there’s one thing I could say about this role, it would be how amazing it is to closely work with the other talented editors on our editorial board. For example, current Editorial Director Sonali Seth and I are working on an in-depth story on the gender pay gap among professors on campus and Multimedia Editor Kay Angrum and Design Director Sam Lee constantly produce amazing graphic content in correspondence with the lifestyle articles. But my job requires me to constantly interact with the other section editors such as Sports Editors Darian Nourian and Regan Estes to pitch sports ideas and work with their specific team of writers. This constant interaction with other sections for is what was void from my role as the news editor in terms of producing content across the board. Like most traditional papers, the news section is separate from other sections to avoid any sense of biased reporting. And while the editorial board is a tight-knit group, we do our best to avoid any sort of opinion-based discussion for large on-campus disputes. So, the shift from news to features has been a different — albeit an invaluable way — to expand my scope of knowledge as a journalist and as an editor for the paper.

I might have only discussed one story that truly impacted my journalism career, but there are several others that have shaped my time working for the paper. Just know that behind every paper is the blood, sweat and tears of our committed editorial board. And, also note that every time we see students and colleagues picking up the paper, we know our job is done. Because each and every paper covers stories that are intended to bring to light what really happens on campus.