COMM 200 Week 1 News Writing: Interview

Nathan Borthwick (He, Him), a man who hails from Plymouth Minnesota, Came to NDSU to study strategic communications. He is a Third-year student who hopes to pursue a job using social media after he graduates. When asked, Nathan claims he took COMM 200 because he knew knowing the basics of media writing could open up doors to new opportunities in the future. He elaborated by saying that media writing and storytelling is an important aspect to what he wants to do with his career. Although it is not a perfect fit for what he wants to do, he stated that understanding the basics of media writing can help a person to become a better communicator.  This class is also required for his Major. Preceding the interview, I asked Nathan a few questions about himself to break the Ice. I started with what is the best way to eat a PB&J. He responded by saying “The best way to eat (a PB&J) is to take one piece of bread, put peanut butter first, then jelly, and fold it over”. I personally would not agree with this, but I can see how this method of eating a PB&J could be satisfactory to an individual. I then asked Nathan what his least favorite movie was. He immediately responded by saying he hated the original Garfield movie. He further explained that as a kid he found the movie to be disgusting, and to this day refuses to watch it. One thing that I found Interesting about Nathan is that he is a music producer and Youtuber. Through further research, I found that over the past year, Nathan had accumulated over 100,000 views/plays on his music across all platforms. I concluded the interview by asking him what he thought the most important thing a professor can do to help his students was. He said that “A professor can be extremely helpful if they are clear with what they expect. Giving clear guidelines for assignments is important as it creates less confusion among the students”.