Jamese Platt was once a shy teenager who’d always pick solitary reading over socializing.
Those bookish instincts steered her to Pittsburgh to study law, though the news bug soon began biting. By her senior year she decided, “I wanted to really do this.” She joined the Pitt News as a staff writer and began pushing herself to develop her speaking skills.
“You do have to talk, especially in journalism,” she said. “You do have to get out of your shell.”
Platt’s seen how the decline of newsrooms has left some, like her family in Georgia, without access to local information, and she’s committed to being a part of the solution.
Jamese Platt
- Editorial intern
- Hometown: Vandergrift, Pennsylvania
- Major and school: Communications & English Literature, University of Pittsburgh
- Hot take on the cold: “I don’t like either extreme. I don’t like being cold but I really hate being hot. I feel very claustrophobic in the heat. I prefer cold in all the ways, especially looking at it from inside my house when it’s warm.”
“I don’t want to live in a society where news is not only hard to get but gets funneled into hate,” she said. “I just want to help people.”
You wouldn’t think it now, but Katherine Weaver also saw conversing as a thing to overcome in her road to journalism. Diagnosed with OCD as a young teen, she thought science was the best place for her — but a love of stories, and the language that builds them, lured her to the University of Chicago to study English instead.
Katherine Weaver
- Editorial intern
- Hometown: New Orleans, Louisiana
- Major and school: English Language and Literature, University of Chicago
- Hot take on the cold: “I don’t think anyone enjoys either extreme but I would much rather deal with cold. I did the math once and I lived through 32 tropical storms and hurricanes; I sweated my entire first 17 years. At least snow looks pretty.”
She knew from her early college years that she wanted to work in journalism, but it took some time to accept that she could one day land “such a cool job” for herself.
“When you really love something you can stomach learning to improve that part,” she said. “You can stomach overcoming years of social anxiety in pursuit of your dreams coming true.”
Weaver knows, too, that barriers to dreams lurk outside you as much as within you. Just days after arriving in Pittsburgh, the city’s paper of record announced plans to shutter in May. But she sees opportunity in the scramble to reassemble the industry.
“Journalism isn’t a dying industry, it’s a changing industry,” she said.
Photojournalism intern Alex Jurkuta returns to Public Source to add to his copious fall contributions.
He, too, admits to a little shyness.
“There’s a reason I’m behind the camera,” he said.
Jurkuta came to photojournalism via sports photography, and has since found himself learning more about the needs it summons for sensitivity and awareness, whether shooting in living rooms or at public protests.
Alex Jukurta
- Photojournalism intern
- Hometown: Waunakee, Wisconsin
- Major and school: Communications and English Writing, University of Pittsburgh
- Hot take on the cold: “I love everything about winter. I love snow. I love super cold – It wakes you up and it’s so much better than any kind of weather.”
That’s meant “taking other people’s feelings about their photo being taken into account” and “learning that the camera isn’t invisible.”
It’s also meant “learning the skills to tell a story through photos,” especially when taking portraits or shooting for enterprise reporting.
Jurkuta’s entry into photojournalism hasn’t supplanted his love for sports – and he’s open to whichever of the two might best support him.
“I’d like to pay my rent with the photos I take,” he said. “I’m not picky beyond that.”
Jamie Wiggan is deputy editor at Pittsburgh’s Public Source. He can be reached at jamie@publicsource.org.
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