Terrell Jermaine Starr

Terrell Jermaine Starr

This past Thursday, my NewsVision class had the opportunity to hear from veteran Journalist and Senior Reporter at the “The Root” Terrell Jermaine Starr. Terrell Jermaine Starr spoke to the class about his journey through journalism and how he got introduced to his main focus which is “Russian Journalism.” Starr was first introduced into the world of Russian studies when he had the opportunity to live and report in Russia during grad school. At first he was not excited about visiting Russia, instead when he was told that he would be living in Russia, he was extremely devastated and tried his hardest to get switch countries. After many failed attempts when he finally got to Russia, he was pleasantly surprised by the Black culture that already existed. It was from there that he decided to really embrace in his experience and now he has made it a goal to expose more Black people to Russia. One article that gained a lot of media attention was titled “Black Guide to Russia . Which like the title provided Black people with more details on what actually happens in Russia.

Along with Starr discussing his passion for Russian Journalism, he also talked about working for Black Media Outlets vs. One that may appeal to more races/ethnicities. He stated that many of his experiences working for White people limited his skills as a journalist. He felt as if by working for White people he had to be more “politically correct”. But by working for black media outlets he could say how he felt and didn’t have to worry about the backlash; because he has tons of people supporting him and having his back. He provided an example, on how one time he spoke out against his boss who posted incorrect information and was later fired. This at first was a learning experience for him, but not in the way you may think. Although he was out of a job and living check to check, he saw that he had the whole black community supporting him. Instead of being exiled for stating his views of his community, he was welcomed with open arms and provided numerous job opportunities to continue to get paid to write freelance.

Personally, I believe it’s important to step outside of the Black realm, so that we can continue to have our hand in every media outlet, furthermore its important to be that Black women in charge at NBC, ABC, Time Warner etc. However, I do agree with Starr that not everyone is built to deal with the hurdles that you may have to jump through to get there. I believe I am one of those people that are built to jump through those hurdles so that I can break the glass so the next black person can have the opportunity to be in one of the higher up positions.

From Starrs talk, I walked away with more knowledge on the field. A lot of things that he spoke about exposed me to different elements of journalism. For instance, I didn’t realize that Russian Journalism could be its own field. But one thing that stood out to me was that Starr said “If you see something that can make you unique that may not be developed, it’s okay “Start it and make it your own.” In this field, it’s important to be unique so that you can set yourself apart from the others. Currently, I want to be an entertainment journalist. However, there are tons of students at Howard and in the world that want to go into Entertainment. I need to be able to set myself apart from the thousands that want to go into the same field. Although I haven’t figured out this niche, I appreciate Starr coming in and emphasizing the importance of developing your own style.