Two stars in the School of Journalism and Media, Faith Castle and David West, have joined The Drag with an exciting new podcast all about the Black student experience on American college campuses. Castle, president of the UT chapter of the National Association of Black journalists, and West, secretary for NABJ, began the project when Tyler Campbell, son of Longhorn legend Earl Campbell.
“There’s something about being a Black journalist and being able to tell Black stories and having that personal perspective,” Castle said. “We hope that through our use of Black media we can continue to tell stories, and not just stories of trauma. Stories of triumph and just our everyday lives.”
With Campbell’s help and The Drag, Castle and West are producing two podcast episodes by the end of the semester, when both of them graduate from UT Austin. So far, the pair are in the research and interviewing stage of the project, and they’ll begin scriptwriting and editing in the next few weeks.
One of the episodes will focus on athletics, tapping into Castle’s and West’s love for sports journalism and allowing them to show how sports stories are more than just statistics.
“It doesn’t have to always be how many points were scored and how many goals, whatever sport it is,” West said. “If you’re writing a piece focused on one athlete, and you really take time to cultivate that relationship, you can really tell a holistic story overall.”
But the podcast won’t end there. Castle and West want to make sure other NABJ student members get an opportunity to work on the podcast and continue telling stories on Black students for Black students.
“More so than anything, we want it to be everlasting,” West said. “We want to set the foundation for NABJ and more Black students to come after us to be able to continue working on this project.”
The podcasters also want to set an example for the journalists that come after them that Black journalists should tell Black stories without being tokenized.
“I hope this encourages just any young Black journalist to know that you can tell any story that you want,” Castle said. “As long as you just have the passion behind it and the motivation to dive deep.”
