Young journalist offers advice to mass media students

Only out of school for 18 months, Wes Lowery is already an online reporter covering Congress for The Washington Post.

Lowery, who has also reported on a number of top national stories -- such as the Boston Marathon bombing, the Aaron Hernandez case for The Boston Globe and the Christopher Dorner manhunt for the Los Angeles Times -- spoke to an estimated 125 mass media students Wednesday at the Rose Theatre in the Grauel Building at Southeast Missouri State University.

His presentation was this year's Michael Davis Lecture. A journalism student in Southeast's Department of Mass Communications, Davis died Feb. 15, 1994, of injuries sustained in a fraternity hazing indecent. In 1997, the department held the first lecture to honor Davis' memory, according to university information.

The 23-year-old Lowery described his journey from a young student starting off at his middle school paper to internships while a student at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, and on to some of the biggest papers in the country. While acknowledging his good fortune, he told students they have to be prepared to be lucky.

"Luck happens when you put yourself in a position to have the opportunity to be lucky," Lowery said.

For example, he was off the day of the Boston Marathon bombing, but was watching Twitter and saw two explosions were confirmed. He called his editors at The Boston Globe and said he knew about the explosions and asked where they needed him.

From there, he was into one of the biggest stories of 2013, and that's been a pattern in Lowery's career. He's always on the lookout for the big story of the day and trying to figure out how to get involved. He advised students to look at who's better than they are at which aspect of journalism and find a way to acquire that trait.

Quoting one of his mentors, Lowery said, "If you do journalism the right way, it's a lifestyle."

"It's a decision you make ... to meet people and collect information," he said. He noted journalism is not a 9-to-5 job, so it helps to be passionate about it.

Another important part of Lowery's rise was internships. After his freshman year at Ohio University, he got an unpaid internship at a weekly on the west side of Cleveland, a 45-minute drive from where he lived on the city's east side.

Two days a week, he took his mom's minivan to work there. He was paid $40 per story, and was working 40 hours a week to make money. Although he said he was miserable that summer, that led to internships at the Detroit News and Columbus Dispatch in following summers.

And he fought through his misery. "I think that's one of the things we forget sometimes in this field, especially in the digital age where we feel like everything's been leveled out, where we can see what we want to do, we can see people doing what we want to do, and we think, 'I can do that; I can be where that person is,'" Lowery said.

"A lot of it's about taking that first step and having that lead to the second step and the third step," he added.

Amber Cason, a junior, and Julian Sanders, a sophomore, were on hand for Lowery's talk.

Sanders said Lowery offered tips on how to grow Southeast's National Association of Black Journalists chapter, which had an effect.

Cason said his advice also was valuable.

"I thought it was very, very useful, especially because he's so young ... It's good to see someone out in the professional environment doing what we're all here to work for anyway," Cason said.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

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