S1: Hey there , San Diego , it's time for KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. We've all heard about San Diego's sunshine tax. Today we hear about a new KPBS series digging into all the ways San Diego's high cost of living impacts daily life in our region. Then a conversation with local student journalists to hear about their hopes and concerns for the future of news , plus how they see younger adults consuming news differently from past generations. That's all had on KPBS roundtable. There are a lot of reasons to live in San Diego. Maybe it's to be closer to family. Maybe military service brought us to the region and we just couldn't return to those cold Midwestern winters. Regardless , life here does come with a cost. Rent , health care , groceries , car payments , student loans , maybe. The list goes on and on. San Diego's high cost of living is just too hard to ignore. And that's the focus of a new KPBS series called The Price of San Diego. Katie Anastas joins me now. She is KPBS education reporter and the creator of the series , Katie. Welcome back to roundtable.
S2: Thanks for having me.
S1: Great to have you here. And congrats on the new series.
S2: And there are a wide range of reasons for that. But , you know , it's not that a big one is that is that one is money and how expensive it is to raise kids here. So whether people are having fewer kids than they might otherwise , or they're leaving and raising their families somewhere where those daily expenses are just a little cheaper. We're seeing the cost of living kind of cause , potentially existential changes to local school districts.
S1: This sort of like how these costs are infiltrating everything , even something like schools , as you mentioned. So to kick off the series , you profile one Santee mom Alli Powell and how she's approaching food shopping and budgeting for that. Tell us more about her and what she had to say. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So Alli Powell lives in Santee. She's a mom. And she said that a few years ago back in , say , 2017 , she started noticing they were going out to eat a lot. And she was grocery shopping , too , but she was going to the grocery store and kind of buying whatever caught her eye. She wasn't going in really with a plan , and she realized how much money she was spending , and she wanted to get that spending under control. And so she started with planning out meals ahead for later in the week. And that made a huge difference for her. So she started with just 2 or 3 meals a week. Most of those were crockpot meals , so she could kind of throw everything in the crockpot at the beginning of the day and then come back and it was cooked and go from there. And and once she kind of got the ball rolling it , it became easier and easier for her. And now she's planning 5 to 7 dinners a week. She's going to the grocery store with her list in hand , and has really found this system that works for her family.
S1: And you mentioned , you know , some of the preparation. That's one thing I took away from what she told you , but she gave you some other tips , including just one approach she has to growing grocery shopping. Here's a little of what she had to say.
S3: I always like to shop alone , and that is one thing that I like to give as a tip for people. Because when your kids and your significant other come along , that bill starts going up because they're throwing things in the cart.
S1: That's I mean , that's a pretty good tip. I always try to eat before going.
S2: And one example , the week that I met her was that she had a bell pepper in the fridge that was a little wilted , but could could do if you cooked it. And she said , okay , I'm gonna make a stir fry this week because I have this bell pepper to use up. So little things like that , I think. I think we often think about buying things on sale up front and that being a way to save money. But I think that tip stood out because it made me think , there are things you can do even before you go shopping that can help you save money. And , you know , make sure you're not wasting food that you've already bought , that you've already put money towards.
S1: And of course , food waste is a big concern too , so it fits in well with that. Another story in this series , Food related. This one came from Jacob Air. It looked into the cost of eating out and how that's increased. And I'm wondering , you know , what can you tell us about how much the cost of food has gone up in recent years ? I think we've heard a fair amount about that.
S2: That includes it's broken down between , you know , food in general. Uh , within that there's groceries and there's food away from home. All of those things kind of rose around 3%. And he notes in his story that that might not sound like a lot on its own , but if you look back over the course of the last five years since the pandemic , costs have gone up by about 25%. So of course , we remember things like bird flu driving up the price of eggs. Um , we know there were supply chain issues during Covid. More recently , there are things like tariffs and major weather events all around the world that play into those costs. So , um , even if the most recent year is a 3% increase , that's kind of the latest in a , in a string of increases that a lot of us are feeling. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. So in the series goes beyond obviously just food. Um , another one of our colleagues , KPBS , John Carroll , looked into some of , I don't know , some things we should be thinking about in terms of buying a used car , a new car , kind of putting some more work into that old car we have. Tell us more about the range of stories you're , you know , you have in plan for this series.
S2: All of my stories are focused on families with kids. I wanted to kind of stay connected to my education beat and focus on families with kids. I am looking at kind of all ages of kids. So one mom I spoke to talked about all the costs that come with having a kid who's in their senior year of high school. So we talked about renting a tux or buying a prom dress , uh , getting that corsage or boutonniere , going to grad night , paying for the yearbook , all those little costs that come up when you're a senior in high school. So I talked to her about how she and her family work on tackling all of those costs as a team. Um , another example that I'm really excited about was I talked to a dad who learned to cut his kids hair and , uh , you know , over time , he's learned to kind of meet the , uh , meet the style preferences of his two little customers. Um , and I have a little sneak peek of of what he told me.
S4: There was a phase where he was very into Top Gun , so he wanted sort of like the Top Gun style cut , like five , you know , five , six , seven. Yeah , but you're 11 now. You know , it's like that was a long time ago. Um , sometimes , though , I've done that. And he's like , you did it too short.
S1: It's such a cute club.
S2: So that was la mesa resident Evan Shane Gross and his son Riley. I got to watch as they did one of these haircuts in their backyard and walk me through his technique. Um , and , uh , for his part , Riley said that his dad , Evan , has gotten a really skilled over the last five years and that he knows what he's doing. So yeah. Excited to bring bring stories like those to KPBS.
S1: You mentioned , you know , all these different costs that parents and families face. Um , you know , with kids and a big one is the cost of child care.
S2: I think my past coverage of child care has focused on child care for kids who are too young to be in kind of the K-12 system , so they're younger than 4 or 5. They're not going to transitional kindergarten or kindergarten yet. Uh , but as I've started working on this , it kind of reminded me that there's a lot of child care that parents need , uh , even after their kids go to school. You know , there's after school activities , there's summer camp. Um , so two of my stories focus on those kinds of of child care. So I spoke to a mom who's found a really great summer camp options at her local rec centers. Um , you know , she talked about how those summer camps have given her kids opportunities to go to the zoo and go to Plunge San Diego , which is a big , fun pool over by Belmont Park and things that she wouldn't otherwise be able to afford to take her whole family to , um , that she's been able to through these summer camps. So , uh , it's given me an opportunity to kind of look at childcare costs as a , as a broader kind of category that families face and look at how those costs come up even as your kids get older.
S1:
S2: Uh , they're they're growing. They're going grocery shopping at stores like Grocery Outlet , looking for those more affordable options. They're cutting back on going out to eat. Another thing that I've seen come up is that people are taking fewer trips and fewer vacations. You know , if they're if they're if they have some time off work , they're spending it more often at home. So , um , I think that could be an opportunity for a future story. How are people , you know , embracing the staycation or staycation ? Yeah.
S1:
S2: San Diego yeah , exactly , exactly.
S1: Not a bad place for it.
S2: And the man I spoke to who was benefiting from this program mentioned to me that , you know , he went into retirement feeling like he had saved enough to cover the expenses that he knew were coming. He had a plan. He knew what he needed to survive month to month. And then the pandemic happened , and we saw so many costs go up. And suddenly this dollar amount that he had set , you know , a few years before the pandemic , uh , was no longer , you know , kind of that safety net that he thought he could rely on. So , um , we're seeing that in some of the responses to people who are retired , who aren't going on vacations , not not , you know , doing those travel plans that many people expect to be able to do in retirement. Um , one person also told us that they were planning to relocate to San Diego in retirement and then found that they couldn't afford it. So , um , I think looking at that kind of phase of somebody's life after they're working and figuring out what's next for them is a kind of interesting series of stories that we could do. Absolutely.
S1: Absolutely. Especially considering that San Diego senior population is rising quite , you know , faster than than other age groups. One thing that jumps out to me when we're talking about costs and cost of living and prices , you know , there's there's this sort of like money , financial piece of it , making a budget , running the numbers , not buying that extra latte , whatever. But there's also this real emotional piece to it that I think comes up for a lot of people and money issues. Um , and I'm just wondering how you're approaching that side of the story with the price of San Diego and these stories you're telling.
S2: I think something that's kind of stood out to me while covering this is , of course , these these costs fall on everybody. But I think that in in my set of stories , it was clear to me that so much of this burden ends up falling on women. Um , women are often the ones who are kind of facing this debate of , do I continue working when I have children in order to pay for the childcare , or do I stop working and be the childcare ? And then we know that once women take a pause from working , they're missing out on advancement opportunities , on raises , on things that can kind of tee them up for economic success in the rest of their life. Um , and , you know , several of the moms that I spoke to in this series , uh , mentioned kind of going through that dilemma. Um , and that internal feeling of but I like working. And so I balancing kind of the needs of your children and the needs of yourself , I think is something that's worth , um , looking into. And , and I think for any kind of , uh , businesses out there or or business owners who have found a way to support your working moms in a creative way. I would love to hear from you. Um , I think , you know , I've heard of businesses that are working to provide childcare on site. Um , you know , I , I came across on Instagram the other day , a local yoga studio that provides childcare so that moms can go and do their yoga class and know that their kids are being taken care of. So I think looking at how we're supporting the moms of San Diego as they navigate all of these costs , uh , is something I'm interested in covering in the future.
S1: Well , it's a really interesting series and look forward to all , you know , the new stories coming out covering the price of San Diego. I've been speaking with Katie Anastas. She's KPBS education reporter , and you can check out these. You can check out the series at KPBS San Diego. Katie , thanks so much. And congratulations on the series. Links.
S2: Links.
S1: When we come back , the conversation with San Diego student journalists on how they view the future of news. You're listening to KPBS roundtable. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. Here on the roundtable , we feature conversations with journalists across our region. And today we wanted to have one with some of our region's leading student journalists. Many are looking at starting their careers during a precarious time for the news industry. Earlier this week , The Washington Post announced it was cutting over a third of its workforce. And as the business of news continues to try to change to the times , so is how people consume the news and produce it. I'm joined now by Alina Ejaz. They are student in San Diego State and production director of its college radio station , KCRW. Alina is also a student news assistant here at KPBS. Roman Aguilar is also here. He's a student at San Diego State and sports editor of the Daily Aztec. Sydney Bremer joins us as well. She's editor in chief for the point. That's the student newspaper covering Point Loma Nazarene University. I want to welcome you all to the roundtable. And a recent report from Pew found that young adults follow the news less closely than other age groups. And I'm just wondering if you agree with that.
S5: Um , because we know that a lot of people our age tend to get news from social media. There's been kind of this , like , phenomenon of , like , content oversaturation , if that makes sense , where people are kind of burnt out of seeing the same , like sad and depressing headlines. So people kind of just tend to check out , um , or if news doesn't really directly affect people. What I've seen is people that aren't super engaged with it , but also I think overall that like , traditional news doesn't really resonate with younger audiences anymore. So they're not really interested in what traditional news outlets have to say.
S1:
S6: It's more like it kind of just happens to pop up on their social media page , and most of the time it's just glancing at headlines. They won't actually take the time to read the story or go to the local source , whatever that may be. If it's in San Diego or wherever they are , to get the news , I think there's a lot of , um , assumptions being made. Um , students aren't necessarily going to those sources to find their own information to make sure that they're going to accurate sources. But I think as far as traditional news , I think it's really interesting that they're straying away from and this is a hard time to just in general in the world. So I don't think students are wanting to necessarily consume that. I think they might be more toward like entertainment or culture , lighthearted things.
S1: You're right. We're having this conversation at a very particular time when there is a lot happening right now. And I want to talk more about the moment.
S7: I think algorithms are a big part of what we consume , you know , through Spotify , through music , through what we watch , through television. So I think a lot of that that feeds into us and what we want to have as news , we can create now. And so I think when we're watching TV , if people are watching local stations and they're watching a part of news that they don't necessarily want to watch or kind of take into their brain , if it's like hard news , they won't kind of engage with it. And I think a lot of that kind of comes down to what they want to prescribe to their news content , and it all goes through algorithm. And so that can be like newsletters or that could be anything else. They want to kind of track as to what they want to read.
S1: So again , back to these algorithms. Social media kind of definitely gives you sort of access to how what different types of content and may feed you different things. So. Interesting there. So you know , each of you work with different student publications. And I want to touch on a little bit of those Roman. You've worked for the student San Diego State student run newspaper , the Daily Aztec. Now for all four years. Yes. And that that publication has a really long history. I think it goes back to something like 1913 or.
S7: So , 110 years now.
S1: I mean , talk about the role you see that playing for San Diego State's campus community.
S7: You know , when I started here , we started we were regularly printing newspapers. I think it was once a week , and then it went to once a month. And now it's once a semester and after a year hiatus from doing print. And so I think we were slowly realizing , you know , people actually like reading the newspaper on a , on a print and like , having something on their hand. And faculty and students were engaging and with our socials and really want that to kind of come back. And so we did that last semester for our print , and we were doing it again this semester. So there is a need and a want for , for , you know , physical news to be with students and the student body. And we're also adapting a lot to what people want to read , you know , because a lot of news now is a lot of hot takes that people are getting to try to engage with an audience , and we're trying to find a way to kind of get that for a student body. But at the same time , knowing that we're trying to build our trust with students , with faculty , and we're still doing our like our reporting.
S1: Sydney , I want to bring in you now your editor in chief of The Point. That's the student run newspaper at Point Loma Nazarene.
S6: It's been interesting , as a fellow student who is running this newspaper on how do we get students to read ? How do we get students to care about the news ? We do take a lot of what's happening nationally in our world now , and we're trying to apply it to campus. Thinking of how how can we make students care ? Why ? Why would they care about this ? So just an example is what's going on in Minneapolis right now. We're finding students at Point Loma that are from Minnesota , and we're getting their thoughts.
S1: For example , you have worked at KCRW , the student run college radio station at San Diego State. You know , talk to me about what makes a station like KCRW important in the college community here.
S5: I think. I mean , what I love the most about KCRW is that it isn't beholden to , you know , what the university may want , or what the president may want , or what the faculty may want. It's completely student run. It's for students , and we prioritize. Like what ? What do students want to hear ? And obviously for college radio , you know , it's fun and it's nice and you get to play music and that that , you know , joins people together. But then I think lately and I know Roman can probably speak to this too , we've kind of used that as a way to , you know , get people more engaged with news. So connecting people with like through their shared love of music , which I think everyone has , especially like people our age have. And Sdsu is also just such a huge , diverse campus. So there's so many different people with different experiences and perspectives. So having that kind of be the one unifying thing and then using that as a way to Get people to engage more and then also like , um , collaborations with other like student media organizations to like I think have really lately , at least since my time at Sdsu , have resulted in like a pretty cool , like , campus community. I feel like people within that that group are pretty tight knit , but I think what we're trying to work on is like expanding that , especially during these precarious times.
S1: I want to touch on , you know , a few of the stories you all have covered in your time as student journalist in Sydney. One story , you know , you've been quite covering quite a bit on the campus of Point Loma Nazarene , was on the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's killing last September. He was , you know , conservative political activist that was killed last year. Tell us more about that story and how you chose to cover it at Point Loma Nazarene. Yeah.
S6: Yeah. Well , just to preface , this was a very controversial topic because Point Loma Nazarene is a Christian university , so there was a lot there was a lot of controversy going on at the time because the school hadn't held like a vigil and like students and parents were expecting something for Charlie Kirk to like honor , to honor him. So that was really interesting to navigate. And as a student on the campus and the way to approach these stories , because this is the first time I think the point has ever covered something this controversial. So to kind of go about that , it was all about talking to all sides of the story. So we talked to people who were right wing. We talked to people who were left wing to get their opinions on what was going on , what they wanted the university to do , what they didn't want them to do. And then with that turning point , USA was a big thing. Some students wanted to then start a TP USA , not necessarily in honor of Charlie Kirk , but I think his his murder definitely was something to like , encourage that specifically at this time.
S1: And Turning Point USA was an organization that Kirk founded right kind of around his movement. Yeah.
S6: Go ahead. Yeah. So , um , that was just very controversial again , because , um , it turns out the associated student body , the group of student leaders on campus , had ended up denying it for several reasons. But that also was controversial because it's a Christian organization. So why would a Christian university reject that such an organization ? So I think as a student media , it was really a time of like getting all sides of the story to really provide a certain perspective as to what was going on , because I think there was a lot of misunderstanding during that time.
S1:
S6: So when they when President Cory Fulcher of the university first sent out the email notifying parents , students that the chapter had been denied , we immediately put that on social media. We made this like photo carousel , basically giving the main points of what the email had said so that the community could know what was going on in campus. We tried to reach who was the elected board of the student group TP , USA. They had actually denied to comment at that time , but that was something that we did include saying that , you know , we did our job , we tried to reach these people , but social media was our first thing because we recognize that's where students are on , like they're constantly scrolling. So we wanted to make sure that that the first thing that they got was from us , the student news. And then we posted a quick story. It was a ongoing story. Entoloma. Com our online website. We linked to that from our carousel. And we kind of continue to update that story as we got more sources , got more information. Roman.
S1: Roman. In one recent story for the Daily Aztec , you , your colleague T.L. Davis reported on how the the city of San Diego is still paying for Qualcomm Stadium. And now it's like years after its demolition at this point. Tell us more about the story and how you approached reporting on that.
S7: So Teyla , actually , when she was a news editor a year ago , she had started work on that story. It was something that she started work on but ended up graduating. And so I kind of picked that up , her reporting , and it was my first time doing something like this where , you know , you have a draft of something and it's trying to be able to finish and update it , because it was like a year's time since you had started it. And so just doing that. Um , it was it was interesting because there's a lot of bonds that were put into the stadium that were for potential upgrades that never got made and got pushed , and that made it for where the city had to pay the team more money each year extensively. And so now we're we're looking at the that closing within the next two years. Um , and just as a story and reporting it overall , um , we see patterns like the Snapdragon over the over the past year or so , there's been turf issues either with that's the San Diego Wave or SDC. There was that , you know , recent time where there was a chance that San Diego State , if they would have won the Mountain West championship and hosted , they would have been playing with SD FC during that playoff run as well. And the turf issues have been kind of constant. And so you see a similar pattern between Snapdragon and Qualcomm and where those issues arise. And just doing that story as well kind of brought up the issues of , you know , the city budget deficits and where those issues lie and where they're putting money towards and what they have to owe as well.
S1: And the city , as you report , is still paying almost $5 million a year , right , in the next couple of years as sports editor. Roman.
S7: That's the great thing about sports , if you watch football or baseball , whatever it is , you can find a story within a story. You can find that in the game or within something that's going on outside of the field. And so with that , we're we're pitch. We have beat writer systems now for our writers. We started that last year , so we'll have four writers dedicated to a beat and cover stories that way , and we try to have a feature profile , something that's outside of a game recap to be reported that week of. And so we think it's important to do that. And last semester , our big point of emphasis for that was Snapdragon Stadium , particularly with the football sales. And that was a big point of issue within the sports world in San Diego. And what that looked like with football having a great season compared to the past 4 or 5 years.
S1: Stay tuned. Roundtable returns with more after the break. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. We continue our conversation now with our panel of student journalists. Again , I'm joined by San Diego State student Ramon Aguilar , along with Sidney Bremer from Point Loma Nazarene and San Diego State student journalist Elena Ejaz. Elena , there are , you know , the stories you are telling. And then there's the question of how to tell them , you know , in today's age text , images , audio , video. I mean , there's so many ways to tell a news story today. It's hard to kind of may decide where to put your focus. And I know you've done reporting both in San Diego but also internationally.
S5: And I always tell myself , like , how would I speak to a five year old ? How would I speak to a five year old ? Um , and I think especially when I was reporting internationally , you know , a lot of the stuff that may be easy to consume , whether it's like a web story , um , like 1500 words or whatever might not make sense to someone who lives in Pakistan , where I was doing reporting. Um , so what I do usually in my , in my pre reporting like practice is I , I talk to people and I say like , how would you want to receive this information ? Like what makes most sense to you. And something that I've noticed is people often like like information to be condensed. They like it to be short and quick. So social media obviously really helps. But I think people Like visuals too. So I try and incorporate that like anytime I can. Which is understandable. You know , sometimes it's hard to like , read 20 pages and there's not a single picture. You know , I need to give my brain a break. Um , but yeah. So I think I just try and , like , be mindful of how everyone consumes news. It's not , you know , it might not be the same for everyone else. So a big part of that is like making news for every platform , whether that's audio , whether that's video , whether that's like a graphic for socials or whether that's like a web story. Obviously , not all of it is possible , but as much as I can do. Yeah. Um , as much as I can do , I will , I will try.
S1: Sydney , I see you nodding your head. I mean , what you know , what have you found resonates most with , you know , your audience ? Yeah.
S6: Well , what you were saying was so spot on. I think when you. When you run a newspaper , when you're in a in a position where you have the opportunity to kind of talk to all kinds of people. It's really interesting to see , well , how do people want to actually consume news ? Um , actually , last last year we only posted on Instagram once a week. It was this weird , like dump only on Wednesdays of like , our top stories kind of thing. This year we're starting to post every day and we've started this , like , Instagram Real series called The Breakdown. And that's kind of when we , our reporters hop on camera and we kind of break down like the top story of the week , because we understand that , like , students would rather watch than read , they want to kind of see the reporter who's behind the byline. I think it's really interesting to see the reporter tell you what the news is and explain it to like a friend. It's like , how do you kind of casually explain tough stories where print usually might be more formal ? And I think it's interesting to kind of tap into this other kind of journalism where it's like we're just trying to get the news to people and how can they most , how can they understand that in the most easy way.
S1: Roman Sydney there mentioned kind of that interest in who's behind the byline. Um , you know , I'm wondering each of you , you know , how you all think the role of journalist. I don't know , maybe I've already changed or is changing or how you see it.
S7: I think especially with sports , like , just from my my standpoint , a lot of that is personality driven , um , either through social media. If it's YouTube , it's a podcast. Podcast are huge for , for sports. Um , and then also to have sports and , and just in anything in journalism , um , journalists can be labeled as anything. Now I feel like the filter is , is very open to what a journalist is , especially in student media. Um , and so I think being able to differentiate that between someone who can say anything in the mic and also , you know , say report or write anything , um , and doing that with sources as well and , and having a personality to drive that , it's important. And we're living in a time , I think , a weird in-between , because we're a generation where we kind of grew up watching TV station. I know growing up with my parents , they would have coffee or breakfast or Indian dinner , and I'm watching the stations with them. I'm catching up on the news with them , and we're just openly talking about it. And so for me , I had to get back into that and get in the habit of watching a station TV , um , before going back into reading digital media and doing a little bit of both. And so I think a lot of that , too , is just where people are living , their ability to adapt to different platforms , too. Um , and we're seeing that too , with the Daily Aztec. Um , it's interesting that you pointed out that your you posted once a week because we're trying to we've been posting every day , uh , uh , Monday through Friday , but we are trying to do more like real content , multimedia packages , like we've been trying to emphasize that to our sections because that's what people see. That's what everyone else sees , you know , not just outside of San Diego State , but it's the San Diego community. Elena.
S1: Elena.
S5: I think that we kind of have to carry this burden now of , like , being able to be fluent across every medium , um , whether that's like video or audio or print or graphic design for socials. Um , and like Roman said , like , you know , I grew up listening to KQED radio , like , newscasts and stuff , so I wasn't like , brought into this world where it's like social media dominated. But that's something that we're seeing now , and it's something we have to adapt to. Um , and I think we're kind of expected to take on more of this , like personal role with the audience. Like , I think people especially our age are looking for authenticity. And I think that has kind of been a practice or an ideology that's been rejected by most journalists because I think they think that that means , you know , inherent biases. But I think now , like , you know , media landscape evolving , you know , that aside , I think overall people just want journalists to be more open with the audience. And I think that's like probably the biggest change that I've seen over the years is how people want journalists to interact with them. And then that affects , of course , how we put content into the world.
S1:
S6: I'm like in this class right now talking about the role of social media and like multimedia journalism , and we're talking about how a lot of journalists today , um , have their Instagram account is both personal and work , and it's kind of just a one example of how how much personality you're seeing nowadays on social media and in journalists. And again , like you were saying , like I also grew up with very like watching traditional journalists. And it's been interesting to see some journalists like now share their opinion and that's like accepted. And it's just kind of it's just crazy because I mean , again , like we're studying journalism , we're media literate , like we know ethics. And I think , Roman , your point earlier about how the being a journalist , that lines kind of blurred. It almost seems like anyone can be a journalist. And that's a little scary. Like if you post on Instagram or X or TikTok , whatever it is , you're like breaking down a news story , but you don't know , like the ethics of journalism. And you're like giving people the news and you're sharing your opinion. And people who don't know journalism like we do are going to assume it's true. They're going to trust the person telling them when they don't realize it's opinion. It's a little it's a little scary nowadays how social media is being used if it's not used correctly in journalism.
S1: So , you know , in this conversation about journalism , you are all kind of nearing the end of your college years. Um , you know , I kind of hate to be the bearer of bad news , but , you know , there is this sort of , you know , context of how the news industry is doing in terms of media job losses. This week , as I mentioned earlier , the Washington Post announced major job cuts this week. Um , you know , just fairly recently , Pittsburgh's top newspaper closed its doors and announced it was closing its doors. I'm just wondering from each of you how you all , you know , how helpful are you about the future of journalism ? Elena. Andrew.
S5: Andrew. I'm terrified. Um , I think , honestly , it's it's hard. Honestly , it's hard in general to be optimistic about things. But , you know , you have to , like , you have to force yourself when it comes to being in this industry or especially being a student journalist. Um , so I think , you know , on one hand , it's obviously very discouraging to see Like , especially everything that's happening with the Washington Post and the mass layoffs. Um , but I think that we've kind of seen this , like trend of , you know , these like , corporate media legacies being toppled. And I think a lot of people now are looking , especially during these like precarious times , are looking for community. They're looking to engage with their peers. Um , so I think now , you know , what I'm hoping will be a result from all of this is that more people will be more engaged with , like , local news. And , um , you know , there's so many great local news orgs in San Diego that I know a lot of , like , my friends like to engage with , which , you know , is gives me slight hope for the future. Um , so I'm hoping that , you know , at least we will see that , you know , more people are still trying to be engaged with with news. And that way where , um , I can still be employed. Um , but. Yeah.
S6: Yeah , I gotta find a job. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. Obviously.
S1: What stands out to you ? Yeah.
S6: Um , I think in this time where it is , like , frankly depressing in journalism , seeing especially , like , what's going on , I somehow still have a sense of optimism. There is value in good journalism , and I know readers still see that. They acknowledge it and they value it. And I think Elena's spot on with local journalism , I think what's going on nationally. Hopefully I'm optimistic that that'll kind of bring communities to gravitate towards their local organizations. I'm passionate about local journalism. I hope to end up there , so I'm feeling okay. I think the job market itself is it's difficult , but ultimately there is value in good journalism. And I think this conversation we're having just gives me hope that the student journalists today are learning these things. We're learning from mistakes. We're learning from just everything that's going on. And I think I think we'll be okay. I think journalism , I'm hoping that it'll get back on its feet , but I think we're in the right direction towards that.
S1: Roman , we'll have the final word.
S7: I think students want to see more journalism. They want to see good journalism. I mean , in any of our classes in the newspaper , just people we've been around in journalism. There is there is a still a positive mindset behind it. And I think to a lot of older journalists , they they want to see student journalists and those in the younger generation do well and be able to shed light on things that they weren't able to before or now that there's so many platforms to be able to do that with local communities to be able to put a spotlight on people and tell their stories. I think that that has never been bigger and never been more available. And so I think people are going to find new ways. And people already have in local San Diego organizations or any local towns and their socials and just being able to provide a story and then have that told in 3 or 4 different ways. Um , people are going to come up with different ideas , I think. I think we're fine.
S1: Well , I don't think we covered , you know , a third of what we could talk about talking about journalism today , but covered a lot of ground and really appreciate all of your perspectives. I've been speaking with Roman Aguilar. He's a sports editor with the Daily Aztec. He also works at KCRW. Also been joined by Sydney Bremer. She's editor in chief for The Point. That's the student run newspaper at Point Loma Nazarene University. And finally , Elena Aja has been here. There are fourth year student at San Diego State and production director at KCRW. I want to thank you all for being here on roundtable.
S6: Thank you. Appreciate it.
S1: That'll do it for this edition of roundtable. Thanks so much for listening. If you missed any of today's show , you can always find the show as a podcast wherever you listen. If you want to support the show , you can leave us a review as well. KPBS roundtable airs on KPBS FM at noon on Fridays again Sundays at 6 a.m.. If you have any thoughts on today's show or ideas for a future one , you can always email us at roundtable at KPBS or leave us a message at (619) 452-0228. Roundtables technical producer is Brandon Truffaut. Ben Redlich helped as well. The show was produced by Giuliana Domingo. Brooke Ruth is roundtable senior producer , and I'm your host , Andrew Bracken. Thanks again and have a great weekend.
