Storytelling is the heart of journalism

It’s been literally decades since I’ve been in elementary school. And while life as a working adult is just so much fun all the time, sometimes you need to hear from children to put things into perspective.

This week, three of my coworkers and I were invited to speak with some third-grade students at Wagonwheel Elementary about the newspaper business. I knew that there would be questions.

And boy, did they have a lot of questions. I know kids are naturally inquisitive, but I was surprised by just how many questions they had, and how long some of them had their hands raised, waiting to be called on.

They asked some thought-provoking questions, such as, “do you get to eat lunch?” and “what do you guys talk about when you eat lunch?” and “what is your schedule like?”

But they also asked some hard-hitting questions. “Do you like your job?” “What’s your favorite part of your job?” “Have you heard of the Nintendo Switch?”

I told them that every day is different, which keeps things interesting, and that my favorite part of the job is telling stories.

Because at the end of the day, journalism boils down to one skill: storytelling. This can be easy to forget when there’s a week full of government meetings or serious crimes. But talking to these kids, I was reminded why we report the news.

It’s about the people. Yes, it’s also about politics and crime and the economy, but deep down, it’s about the people.

Not every story is an investigative piece about some injustice going on behind the scenes or bills. Some stories are just about a local person doing something cool.

At the Wyoming Press Association’s annual conference, the News Record took home a few awards, but the stories that I won for were not the ones I enjoyed writing the most. Yes, hand counting ballots and the state shooting complex are important issues, but talking to Gillette’s longtime residents about the blizzard of 1984 and the Fourth of July fireworks fiasco were way more fun.

I’ve found that many journalists take themselves too seriously. Yes, what we do is important, but let’s not act like we’re all out there saving lives. Some of us may be, but most of us have a pretty comfortable setup. We get to sit in front of a computer and write stories.

I don’t expect these children to care about the economy or the political climate. They’re children. They shouldn’t have to, at least not yet.

Who knows what they’ll grow up to be? I doubt I inspired them to be reporters, but I hope they cultivate a love for telling stories.

It’s one of the oldest traditions in human history, and we’ve got to keep it going.