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Senior journalism student finds interest as international correspondent

Adam Campbell at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. (Photo by Mike Dorsher)

As his college career was coming to an end, Adam Campbell found himself being more interested in Journalism field by working for a weekly community newspaper, the Press Star, in New London, Wis., last summer.

“I didn’t get paid for my writing. It was purely for experience,” Campbell said. “I did the accident reports, the education beat and one police story.”

“I enjoy writing about police activity because people do crazy things,” Campbell said.

When Campbell wrote the police story, which carried the headline “Police Arrest Armed-Truck Driver in Friday Night Brawl,” an owner of a local bar who was involved in this case called the office and told that the article was not appropriate for the situation and also told that the newspaper should not run the story because it was not newsworthy.

“I think the story was newsworthy because that kind of thing, someone pointing a gun at someone else, doesn’t happen everyday in New London,” Campbell said.

The newspaper ran the retraction for the article on the next-week paper and corrected that the incident occurred outside of the bar, he said.

However, the owner was not satisfied with the retraction and came into the office with a black suit and told John Faucher, the paper’s regular reporter, that the word “brawl” threatened his profits and expansion plans of adding a grill to the bar, Campbell said.

Faucher later told Campbell that he did not have to worry about it.

“I was relieved when John said that because I felt bad making problems for the company because of me,” Campbell said.

Although he is now interested in writing articles, English and writing were not Campbell's favorite subjects in ninth grade because these were difficult, he said.

Several activities and classes in high school changed his perspectives on writing, Campbell said, “especially Mr. Winkler for English, who helped me understand poetry, and Mr. Servais in environmental science.”

Environmental club, a student organization, helped him develop critical thinking skills and improve with choosing the right words to express certain things, Campbell said.

Also, moving to Green Bay, Wis., from Appleton, Wis., in the last quarter of 10th grade gave him chance to start writing for the high school newspaper.

Campbell started writing for school newspaper because he could write articles at home and submit them at school, he said.

“I was in a debate club which met two or three times a week, and we had philosophical debates,” Campbell said. “Because I had to commute to high school in Appleton from Green Bay the last of quarter of 10th grade, I couldn’t stay at school to participate in the debate club.”

He has been interested in writing Since he was a editor-in-chief for the high school newspaper, he said.

Campbell is now thinking about being an international correspondent for a paper such as the Chicago Tribune or the Wall Street Journal because it is well respected and credible, he said.

Campbell said that he hopes to work in Europe especially in France if he becomes an international correspondent since he studied in France for a semester and is able to speak French fluently.

“I like the country because it’s beautiful and the people are friendly and gentle,” Campbell said. “I like the idea of living in forest.”

Campbell enjoys listening the Wisconsin Public Radio for the news because of its communication with the listeners.

“CNN is great for keeping current with events, but I want to know how the stories affect people,” Campbell said. “I can only get that from stations like C-SPAN and Wisconsin Public Radio.”

He watches C-SPAN to watch press conferences so that he can see how a conference goes and how the press asks questions and how politicians answer the questions, Campbell said.

A program on WPR that Campbell enjoys is "Morning Edition" because listeners can call in to the program and express their opinion about one subject, Campbell said. “ I enjoy listening to variety people talking totally different opinions on one subject.”