Sit down with young journalist, Shivani Parmar

In the first installation of our coffee talk series, we sit down with Shivani Parmar — journalist extraordinaire and a past coworker of mine. This past summer, she was involved in not one, not two, not three — but four different positions and internships.

Shivani is the senior staff writer at the University of Houston's newspaper, The Daily Cougar, and is also the news producer at the student-run broadcast station, CoogTV. She also interned with Houston Public Media as their news intern, and Houstonia Magazine as their editorial intern. Amidst it all, she managed to keep her professional Instagram account updated with all her latest work (tip: follow her @newswithshivani).

She is a go-getter and hard-worker, so I sat down with her to ask her a few questions about what makes her passionate about journalism and where she sees herself in the future.

What is it about journalism that attracts you to it?

I love storytelling. It is my version of helping out our community and making an impact.

I want to be able to decipher all of those COVID-19 graphs and explain what they mean to our viewers and what they can do to protect themselves. I want to be the one who attends those brutally long city hall meetings so our viewers don’t have to.

How did you find out that journalism was something you might want to pursue?

It's actually a weird story, but when I was in high school I applied to UH as an undecided major. So senior year of high school I spent a lot of time thinking about what I might want to do and not knowing what I would event want to look into.

The last week of school, our high school TV station asked me to film something for them and talk in front of the camera because I was the vice president of our class. The teacher told me that I did a really good job and asked me to do more things for them, and so I thought "sure, I'll try it out".

At the time, I was thinking about being a meteorologist, but I would watch the news all the time without really thinking about doing news as a career. I thought about it and realized I wanted to pursue journalism, so I changed my major at UH and now here I am.

What have been some of your favorite stories you’ve reported on?

Some of my favorite stories I have worked on were those that were unplanned.

I once wrote about a graduate student at UH who was feeding dozens of squirrels across campus while UH classes shifted to a virtual platform at the beginning of the pandemic. It was a story that had a lot of human interest because those animals relied on students to feed them and then all of a sudden they are all gone.

In the photo I included in the story, all you see is the student and a whole bunch of squirrels surrounding him.

You were busy this past summer with different internships, how did you find all these opportunities?

I was playing a game of catch up. I didn’t want to fall behind with my career goals just because of the pandemic, so I continued to apply to jobs and internships.

I found out about these internships just by looking up my favorite media outlets online and checked their website for internship opportunities. Sure enough many of them were still offering their programs but now through a virtual platform.

You also posted about your articles with Houstonia on your Instagram, @newswithshivani. How important do you think social media is to your work as a journalist?

I think that in this industry, you have to find different ways to stand out and be seen. I think that social media has proven to be effective in reaching some of my goals and I continue to post my stories on these platforms to keep my followers updated on the world around them.

I post screenshots of my stories, I do reels and Tik Toks too. I talk about the behind-the-scenes of my work life, and I also send out little polls to see what people want to see from me.

I love the polls you post on your Instagram Stories. What's your favorite way to post on social media?

I love doing pools because I love to see what people are interested in. I get to see what people like and get to know who I follow.
You’ve done all sorts of journalism work, from broadcast to print and digital — what have been some things you’ve learned from all these experiences?

I have learned that as much as they can be similar, the style is very different. I work at Houstonia Magazine every other day and I'm at Houston Public Media in between.

It was difficult being able to flip the switch from writing fun and quirky magazine articles to doing hard news. At the end of the day I learned a lot, advanced in my career goals and I made it through.

Would you say you're more interested in reporting hard news versus soft news?

I always thought I was more interested in hard news and breaking news, but this summer interning with Houstonia Magazine showed me a side of journalism that I hadn't thought about before. I was reporting on fun things like restaurants and celebrities and fashion, and it was a lot of fun.

Honestly, I'm feeling a little confused, I'm at a point where I'm a senior again and I don't know what I want to do. At least I have a lot of options and I'm not limiting myself.

My number one goal was to be a local news reporter, and I'm still sticking to that, but I'm hoping to have opportunities to branch out, too.

When you picture yourself in the next five years, what do you hope you’re doing?

I hope I am someplace pretty, reporting the news for a local television station.

What are some projects you’re looking forward to doing in the future?

I am looking forward to working on some projects my professors assign me as we get into the meat of this semester. I'm excited to put my knowledge from these internships to the test.

I'm taking a class in broadcast writing this semester, which I've had some experience with through CoogTV and my work with NTV Houston as a multimedia journalist, but I didn't know as much then as I know then. I'm looking forward to writing new and improved scripts.

What are some tips you might have for other young journalists?

As glamorous as a job in journalism may seem, there are also sides that are not so fabulous that you must be willing to push through.

Also, a big part of this job is networking. A reason you might get picked for a job over someone else may be because of someone you know that can vouch for you.

Lastly, join your school’s newspaper and TV station. It gives you so many opportunities to network and real world opportunities.

Finally, who are some of your inspirations or people you look up to?

Many of my local news reporters, like KPRC Channel 2's Dominique Sachse and Sofia Ojeda. My family grew up watching them on TV.

I actually took a class with Sofia Ojeda here at UH, and she actually follows me on Instagram now! I also got to tell her that she was one of the people that inspired me to go into this field, which was great too.
​
You can follow Shivani on Twitter and Instagram, and read her articles on Houston Public Media, Houstonia, The Daily Cougar and Medium.