Kuldīga students spend summer learning journalism at Kurzemnieks newsroom
Two communication science students from Kuldīga spent their summer working at the Kurzemnieks newspaper, later sharing their experiences and reflections on journalism and student life in a podcast episode.
Edvards Sokolovskis and Dārta Garokalna, second-year communication science students at the University of Latvia's Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, spent this summer working at the Kurzemnieks newspaper to learn journalistic skills. They discussed their experiences, impressions and memories from the newsroom, as well as student life in Riga, in an episode of the Kurzemnieks runā podcast.
How they joined the newsroom
Dārta first connected with Kurzemnieks while completing a university assignment studying regional media, when editor-in-chief Daiga Bitiniece invited her to work there after the academic year ended. Edvards' interest in journalism dates back five years, to when he shadowed a journalist then working at Kurzemnieks during a school "Shadow Day" in 9th grade. Since that first summer, he has returned to work at the newsroom every school break.
Work experience and challenges
Both students wrote for different sections of the paper — Dārta mainly covering people's hobbies and passions, while Edvards often searched for people celebrating birthdays and interviewed passersby on the street. They agreed that finding willing interview subjects was the hardest part of the job, noting that local residents refused more often than tourists, whom they also interviewed over the summer on Liepājas Street in Kuldīga. Their favorite assignments included interviews with working schoolchildren, incoming first-year students and tourists, as well as personally meaningful topics, such as an article about attending a Formula 1 race in Hungary.
Student life in Riga
The students shared impressions of their first year of studies, including dormitory life and the university's welcoming events, Pirmsaristotelis and Aristotelis. They mentioned both engaging and demanding courses, such as History of Communication and Communication Ethics, as well as a course called Text, Author, Genre, which required reading substantial literary works weekly. They also touched on academic integrity concerns, noting that use of artificial intelligence for coursework is common among classmates, and said universities should address the issue more seriously.
