Journalism professor aims to prepare students for unprecedented times

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Journalism professor of practice David Joachim believes news writing classes must have real-world stakes to be truly effective. Assignments need readers. Student work should be scrutinized outside the classroom.

That’s why, as the new coordinator of COMM 260W, Joachim hopes to raise the stakes for students taking the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications’ core writing course. Scrutiny, he said, ensures greater accuracy and accountability.

“When my students approach people, I want them to identify themselves as reporters and say their story may be published,” he said. “The most important part of my journalism education was doing the reporting and presenting my work in the newspaper.”

COMM 260W: News Writing and Reporting is a required class for journalism and advertising/public relations majors. Joachim knows many of his students won’t become reporters, but he also knows embracing the skills of journalism makes them incredibly marketable.

There are more than 10 COMM 260W sections offered every semester. With 20 students per class, instructors assign practical, hands-on projects and provide one-on-one feedback. Assignments vary, but many align with current news events. Projects regularly get students out of the classroom interviewing people and reporting on what's happening around campus.

Knowing what makes a topic newsworthy, how to conduct effective interviews, and how to present the facts in a well-written article is important across many disciplines and trades.

“No matter where the industry goes or the changes to news consumption, the raw materials of reporting are always going to be needed,” he said. “I teach in a way where the skills are transferable to other things. Our No. 1 priority is making sure students have the tools to improve their lives.”

Joachim joined the Bellisario College faculty last August, bringing with him three decades of experience covering business, politics and legal news. He spent 11 years at The New York Times and held a leadership role during its award-winning coverage of the 2008 global financial crisis. He was a senior editor at Bloomberg News for nine years before arriving at Penn State.

In 2011, he started teaching as an adjunct professor while working as a full-time journalist, first at George Washington University and then at Fordham University.

Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society John Affleck said Joachim adds an “impressive mix” of newsroom and teaching experience to the Bellisario College.

“David is a great addition to our journalism department,” Affleck said. “He brings experience from the nation’s top newspapers, experience teaching at Fordham, and the curious-about-everything mind of a great reporter.”

He added, “As we continue to develop our news writing course for the future, he will do a great job in guiding our students and instructors.”

Tons of stories

After 30 years in the industry, a journalist accumulates a lot of bylines, and Joachim is no different. He said his “tons and tons” of past articles provide examples and stories that he incorporates into his classes. He also is still very much a news junkie and leads class discussions on the news of the day.

“I may not be producing news every day anymore, but I try to bring what I read into the classroom,” he said. “I ask students on day one where they get their news, and often they don’t have a news diet. They’ve never really had a reason to go out and seek news, so their news finds them.”

Joachim said the problem with news finding students is that they’re not going to see anything that surprises them.

“You only see things that reinforce your thinking,” he said.

To combat this routine, Joachim assigns three daily visits to the Associated Press app or website.

“Instead of scrolling TikTok, I ask them to scroll AP News,” he said. “They find stories they never would have thought about. The serendipity of being an omnivorous news consumer rather than relying on algorithms helps students explore a wider world.”

It’s a part of Joachim’s commitment to modernizing COMM 260W in a way that combines the time-tested principles of traditional journalism with the needs of the evolving digital landscape. Other parts of his classes include focusing on local news and developing students’ appreciation and knowledge of local and state politics.

The U-word

Joachim said one unique thing about today’s college students is the amount of trauma they’ve experienced over their lifetimes. Several interconnected factors have made their era uniquely challenging, including the COVID-19 pandemic, deep social changes, divisive politics and the rapid transformation of technology.

He said students are living in unprecedented times and admits that journalists are not supposed to use that word.

“We were taught to avoid the word unprecedented, because things were never unprecedented,” he said. “But we live in a time when the word unprecedented is useful in everyday conversation.”

Joachim said the closest comparison would be “Depression babies.” Americans who grew up during the Great Depression and lived through World War II experienced volatile times that affected them the rest of their lives.

“But,” he added, “even people then couldn't imagine what we're going through now.”

Joachim said he sometimes feels guilty because as a young reporter he wanted upheaval. He wished for historical moments and scandal, but today he feels students experience it far too often. That is why he wants to help them adapt to these unpredictable changes and prepare them for the future.

“I think it’s had an effect. I’ve seen it in my classes,” he said. “Now, I’d give anything for some peace and quiet.”

A visit from the local congressman

Joachim’s path to the newsroom wasn’t always clear. After high school, Joachim went to Stony Brook University with no career ideas. He was already a serious news junkie with an interest in politics, so he visited the school newspaper with the idea of writing a column on politics — a tall request for the new kid on campus.

“Well, of course, the editor immediately kind of disabused me of that,” he said. “She did hand me an assignment, and then I was off to the races. I remember writing the story in longhand on my girlfriend's parents’ kitchen table.”

The story was about a local congressman visiting campus. It was published, and Joachim saw his name in the newspaper. People were reading his article. He was hooked.

Stony Brook didn’t have a journalism program. Joachim pieced together six classes to complete a journalism minor, but he said his time with the campus newspaper truly set the foundation for his long career in the industry. He was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, called The Statesman, for more than two years.

Joachim still advises the campus newspaper at his alma mater and is part of a group of alumni who help guide the publication from year to year through regular attrition.

“I really like to stay involved,” he said. “I feel like I owe my career to that newspaper, and it’s important to me that it survives.”