The Daily Gamecock

WSJ reporter speaks about business, economics at j-school

Wall Street Journal reporter Valerie Bauerlein, a former reporter for The State, came to speak to journalism students Wednesday about shifting shopping habits and their effect on communities.

“I used to live in Columbia, Columbia is very close to my heart. And I was invited to give a talk about a topic that’s close to my heart — business journalism,” Bauerlein said.

Bauerlein traveled from her hometown of Durham, North Carolina, to speak at USC.

After graduating from Duke University with majors in English and French, Bauerlein wasn’t sure what to do with her life. She fondly recalls falling into the journalism field by accident.

“I was talking with a friend ... she said 'you should be a journalist, all you need is to know how to write and have a sense of curiosity, and you have both' ... It wasn’t two weeks later there was an opening at her little paper,” Bauerlein said. 

Bauerlein has been featured on the front page of the WSJ over 60 times in her 13 years writing there. Her primary focus now is economics and politics, but she spent the first seven years at WSJ writing about corporate life.

“I think it’s important, especially for students in our college, to understand different aspects of journalism,” said Tom Riechert, the dean of the College of Information and Communications. “It’s an area that students aren’t aware of ... And I think business drives a lot of energy in America.” 

Even though much of the focus of the event was on Bauerlein and her prestigious accomplishments, Riechert and the rest of the faculty were eager for students to learn from the lecture.

“There’s a perception ... that business journalism was something separate from journalism. And they're entwined,” Bauerlein said. “They're actually to me the same thing. A business story is a story, and every story has a business angle to it. So I think it’s critical that we understand what a role corporations and businesses play in our lives.” 

First-year journalism student Bubba Philpot heard about the lecture through his Principles of Journalism class and attended to earn extra credit, but appreciated learning about the connection between journalism and business.

“I think that it’s fantastic that she came out," Philpot said. "I personally do not have interest in business journalism, but I think it’s important for people to hear about it because if I just hear about business journalism, I’m not quite sure what it’s about.”

Giving students access to influential journalists is part of what the annual Baldwin talks are about. Students are learning more about what journalists do and seeing how the field is shifting in response to the digital age of media.

“I think they’ll get fired up and turned on about the opportunities in this area, and I think the opportunity to cover companies, to cover government, to cover sports all from a financial and business perspective is tremendous,” Riechert said.

Bauerlein herself wanted to speak at USC in order to inspire future journalists and say thank you to the people who had inspired her.

“I think that journalists in the field get energized by talking to aspiring journalists,” Bauerlein said. “Besides that, there were people that were mentors to me and really helped get me enthusiastic and confident that I could have a career in this field. And I’d like to do the same.” 


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