Michelle Garcia (‘06) is an editor at NBC News overseeing NBCBLK, its vertical covering Black America. Previously, she covered major social movements such as the #MeToo movement and the fight for marriage equality.
At SUNY Oswego, she studied journalism and was the Editor-In-Chief at The Oswegonian,
For the Media Summit, Garcia will be one of the panelists discussing the First Amendment and the major headlines of 2020
Matt Watling: What does it mean to come back again as a panelist being a SUNY Oswego graduate?
Michelle Garcia: I remember the first Media Summit and Ben Bradlee came to talk to us, David Folkenflik from NPR. They were at our school to talk to us, and I was a senior and Editor-In-Chief at The Oswegonian. I was growing into my love of journalism at the time, and for me to see these people and talk to them and listen to them talk about the work they do, I was like, “Oh my goodness, that’s a goal to be up on that stage.” I came back in 2015, I was on the panel and that was really exciting. To come back again, I feel really honored.
MW: Did seeing the panelists inspire you to become a great journalist?
MG: The impact was to see these huge names in journalism and think, “These are my future colleagues.” I could be working at the Washington Post … or The New Yorker. It made these esteemed places feel real to me. As a student, … it was like Coachella for nerds. The Oswegonian staff, we used to call each other news nerds and it was all these huge greats in our industry and it was like, “Wow, we get to see these people live on-stage.”
MW: What excites you the most about the panel discussion?
MG: What I have been thinking a lot about lately and not just for the panel is the way people tie together the idea of free speech and expression and how that ties into misinformation. And, of course, misinformation ties into all the major news stories of 2020. I think misinformation has been growing in the American press, especially in the last 30 years, probably with the proliferation of media that is specifically targeted to counter mainstream media.
The discussion over the first amendment and all these news stories is also a story about misinformation in America and how we are going to be able to regain the trust of Americans who flat out do not believe in facts anymore, which is incredibly daunting, incredibly worrisome and scary.
MW: Is there a way for journalists to gain back this trust?
MG: That is a big, big question, and just as there are tons of — I don’t even want to call them news organizations — information organizations trying to disseminate false information, there are many who are trying to counter that. I am going to be honest with you and say I have no clue how we are going to do this as an industry, because this is not just a “let’s pass some laws,” or restrict social media or all these little stop gaps things that could be done. It’s not going to take just the news media, but it is going to take probably some sort of policy, some sort of legislation, it’s going to take the efforts of social media companies to tamp down on misinformation.
MW: What is a small piece of advice you would give to a student?
MG: I have thought about this, especially when it comes to early career, is being aware that you’re going to suck for a little bit. Even if you are at the top of your class, and you have all these amazing college journalism awards, when you get into the real world, you might suck for a bit.
If you keep working hard, you will improve and outlast people that couldn’t stand to hear that their work isn’t that good. It kind of is a battle of Darwinism in some sense. If you can stick around long enough, you end up good enough at it.
