I learned a lot of from taking journalism here at Pennridge. Walking into class on the first day I really didn’t know what to expect since journalism is a completely different style of an English class. It’s not based on your standard five paragraph essays covering different books that you read. For me, I loved this style because I’m not a fan of the standard English classes.

However, I didn’t only learn how to write in a different style. We learned a lot about what makes up ethical journalism. The media in recent years has become sort of a battleground. Nowadays it seems that the media in the United States is just fighting over different political opinions. The media has been largely responsible for the deepening political divide in our country. Some of this is due to unethical journalism and false reporting (on both sides).

By taking journalism, I’ve learned more about how the media works and I now better understand how to get the plain facts for my news, without any political opinions.

For our beat project, I covered Italian food. I didn’t exactly think I’d be cooking for a journalism class, but nonetheless, I really enjoyed learning how to cook. Of course, I wouldn’t call myself a chef at this point, but I learned a lot of valuable beginner cooking skills while I also got to make myself and my family some great food. Without the beat project, I don’t believe I would have even attempted cooking over this quarantine.

Journalism is a great class that everyone will enjoy. If you don’t like how standard English classes are set up, you’ll love journalism since it’s a change in pace. However, I think even if you like the standard English classes, journalism offers a new perspective and allows you to develop some creative writing skills.