I believe in appealing to a sense of indulgence. That is not often a characteristic people I think of when I think of journalist. But I also believe in telling the truth or at least in being honest. For those of you wondering, I don’t actually believe in “the truth” but I believe in a reality untouched by human perception or belief, by experience or understanding – a reality that exists outside of all of the influencing factors the human mind is dosed in from birth.

I believe that journalism is the pursuit of that reality. I believe that writing, creative nonfiction and novelistic (yes I made that word up because there is not a word that exist that is both an adjective and describes the state of being like a novel as eloquently as “novelistic” sounds) is the Baroque form of journalism. It’s flowery, it’s epic, it’s extra as all hell. And it’s wonderful because of it.

It makes your mind work in ways that journalism has prided itself on avoiding for decades, even centuries now. You have to think about what metaphors and similes mean and force yourself to engage all your senses to even try and picture let alone understand what the author is trying to say.

There was something that Frank bestowed on me that made me love that exercising of my senses from the inside out.

With Journalism Interactive’s approach to the changing atmosphere of the news – thee single most titillating thing about the news to me – it feels like going back home to those times of making a reader feel like they were there. It’s a full circle back to the point of using the mind to experience things your  body hasn’t actually been through. It’s a wonderful cusp to be on.

While 3D experiences may not be require the same input of energy as reading a long-form journalism does, engaging your audience DOES. My time on the Community Outreach Team at the Columbia Missourian mixed in with my research on citizen journalism and the inspiring words of those such as Erica Williams Simons, deputy editor at Upworthy (for those of you who haven’t heard of Upworthy’s mission & motivation, you need to do some research in order to understand why they’re relevant) remind me why I’m here.

I’m here to acknowledge a voice, to uplift a voice. I’m here to exercise a voice, in the best. way. possible. And that’s what matters.