This is Kate Whalley. In this interview, she talks about what made her want to take journalism and what influenced her to become more interested in the news.

Q: What made you decide that you wanted to take journalism?

A: I partially took it because of the credit. But at the same time, I’m also taking it because I haven’t really had a chance to do a lot of reformed writing, so I thought it would be interesting to learn about things I actually care about and also get some good experience with publishing.

Q: Why do you think journalism matters around the world?

A: Journalism is more important right now than it has ever been and I think if we didn’t have journalism, the world would be worse not saying that it’s a great place right now. But journalism is extremely important to keep people informed on what’s going on and to help push change. Actually just the other day, yesterday September 23rd, The verdict came out for Breonna Taylor’s case and there were stories this morning about covering the protests from the night before. So I think it’s incredibly important to keep everyone up to date on what’s going on in the world.

Q: When did you start becoming more interested in the news?

A: I started becoming more interested in the news probably in 2015 and that was just because I was more aware of where the politics were shifting and how important it would be for my future depending on who was elected in the 2016 election. So I’ve made it kind of a rule for myself to be into as many news outlets as possible from news outlets from Twitter to Youtube,  so I can have the broadest spectrum of news that I can possibly get.

Q: How do you think journalism will impact you?

A: I think it will make me more observant and a better listener. I will be able to think through things in a more critical way if I am looking for others’ benefit instead of just my own. I think I will get better at on the spot analysis of a situation, and just generally I think it will be helpful in publishing on Hall Record as it will be good for people looking me up and seeing what I am interested in.