Curiosity critical in journalism

By Kianna Joe
Navajo Times

TEMPE, Ariz. – From Tempe’s Arizona State University campus to Crownpoint High School in New Mexico, there’s curiosity around journalism.

Specifically, with Diné journalism and what it looks like at Navajo Times.

On Feb. 2 at ASU’s Memorial Union building, I was able to talk to dozens of Native American students from 7th to 12th grade during the RECHARGE conference.

The goal was to empower young Indigenous students. With my background in journalism, working with Navajo Times and operating my own media outlet, “She Towers Zine,” my goal was to ensure that these students knew they had a voice and stories they could tell.

I started off my presentation talking about She Towers Zine, a multimedia platform for all Indigenous artists at any age to share their voice. I aim to put out a zine every month that is entirely made up of community art including written pieces.

There are different themes each month and artists have complete control to share what that theme means to them.

On the zine website, I also include articles on Indigenous peoples and events and podcasts with other Indigenous creatives.

For these students, I wanted them to know that I had a voice, that I had art and writing to share. A very easy way to share that with the rest of the world was through an online and printed zine.
I outlined how they could make one, how to start and finish a zine, what topics they could choose and how to share it.

Next was talking about being an intern reporter with Navajo Times.

A huge misconception I heard from the students following the presentation was they thought reporters and journalists live boring lives because who wants to write?
I knew that was a misconception especially to younger students because I thought the same thing.

On the projector, I put up some of my favorite pictures I had taken that either made it into the paper or that I took for personal memories because writing stories and reporting for Navajo Times is far from boring.

After I mentioned to students about my interviews with the Navajo Nation president, Buu Nygren, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and visiting the Grand Canyon more than once, I saw wide eyes.

Similarly in New Mexico, at Crownpoint High School, I was able to talk with freshman students taking journalism classes. Around the room I heard the excitement after mentioning who I’ve been able to interview.

At the high school, I was asked by the journalism teacher, Spencer Faunt, to go in and specifically talk about Navajo Times and to be interviewed in return by the students themselves. It was fun to be the one being interviewed.

Students asked me what it’s like being a reporter, if I was scared to do it, and how I started.

I believe writers are pushed to their limits. Nasty comments, nasty emails and phone calls barrel our way, and we have to learn to keep moving. We have to learn to be cool-headed and get to the next story. Sometimes we get sick, we have family emergencies, or we simply want to enjoy a couple days at most with our friends and family like everyone else.

I told students I am 22 and I am still in school, and I was, at the time, on leave from work because my mental health was not great.

Even though we are constantly waiting on other people, trying to talk with people, going to events on different sides of the reservation, writing outside of that, when I need my break, I re-energize with the help of family, friends, and ceremony. I am still young and still have so much to experience and so do these high school students.

If I never worked with Navajo Times, I wouldn’t have been able to meet people I idolized since I was a kid, talk with people like Bone Thugs-N-Harmony or see parts of my home that I only remembered when I was younger.

It was very heartwarming to read some of the articles the students were working on. My favorite one was about what comes after high school.

The lede was longer than what my editor likes but it was descriptive.

This student captured the repetitiveness of going from grade to grade and then the confusion many seniors face when they’ve reached the end of high school.

I talked with a student on how I format my stories and what helps me, and we were able to organize her story and answer questions they couldn’t really understand previously. Questions such as, How are they going to pinpoint their main purpose of the article?

What warmed my heart and opened my eyes was they handed me a note that said they wanted to know more but they were shy.

Looking around the room to other students and remembering the students before that class, I remembered them all being shy.

Their sleeves covering their mouths when they spoke, trying to shove the questions into someone else’s hand so they didn’t have to speak out loud and looking away from me when I read their articles.

Students are curious about different career fields and these students were curious about journalism and what journalism looked like in their local paper.

I had students ask about interning for Navajo Times, when they could start, what they could be doing after they leave to eventually be an intern at the paper.

I talked about how I enrolled at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and was able to prepare for an internship through classes and then eventually dive into the internship with Navajo Times.

I am grateful to Crownpoint High School’s principal, Kelly Morris, journalism teacher Spencer Faunt, and ASU’s Office of American Indian Initiatives, the Phoenix Indian Center and ASU Access for allowing me to talk about Diné journalism at the Navajo Times.

I hope to see some of the curious students later when they want to intern with Navajo Times.

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