Blog Post 3

Last week we had the opportunity to have Yusuf Omar as a guest speaker in class. I really enjoyed hearing what Yusuf had to say regarding his media company Hashtag Our Stories. I really like that he was our first guest speaker because his company was so unique. He is a great example of what an entrepreneur is, and I feel it was very fitting for him to speak to us right before we begin our media startup projects. I have listened to a handful of guest speakers being a journalism major and most of them tend to repeat some of the same things. They all emphasize how important it is to follow the traditional news guidelines such as AP style, telling newsworthy stories, being objective, etc. Those are definitely important, however Yusuf’s company puts a spin on that to make it more unique. His company lets ordinary people suggest stories to tell. He uses nontraditional news platforms such as Snapchat to tell these stories. What I found so interesting about Yusuf is that he has experienced traditional news companies before starting his own company. He worked at CNN News for several years. He knew he had more to offer than sitting at CNN all day following their rules. I think his story is super important for everyone to hear because it shares the story that it’s okay to not follow “traditional” guidelines. Yusuf didn’t like working at a big corporate news organization and felt he could do something more enjoyable and unique. Personally, I feel I benefited a lot from hearing about Yusuf’s unique media company compared to the traditional corporate media company stories. His company is doing very well especially with how prominent media is in today’s generation. 

Additionally, I think Yusuf did a fantastic job of answering all of our questions. He put so much thought and detail into his answers which was great to see. I was very pleased with the answer he gave me. The idea of “fake news” is so prevalent in today’s society. Some people are so critical of news organizations and always assume something is fake news if they don’t like the company. I wanted to know if Yusuf deals with people criticizing his company about fake news since it’s not a traditional news organization. His answer is one that every news organization should follow whether they’re a large corporate company or a small market. He said that everyone should engage with those comments. He suggested responding with something like, “Thank you for your response. What do you know about this topic that we haven’t stated? Do you have another source we could verify with?” I liked his answer because I think it’s so important to engage with those people instead of just ignoring them. Yusuf also mentioned that most of the time they don’t even respond after that because they do indeed know that your news is true. Overall, I thought that was a very professional way to handle criticism and a great message to us students. I look forward to hearing more guest speakers during the remainder of the semester.