The Daily Egyptian (the DE) has a new Editorial Board, including the first Black woman to hold the position of editor-in-chief, Oreoluwa Ojewuyi. Other editors include Chris Bishop, multimedia editor; Jason Flynn, news editor; Chloe Schobert, design chief; Ryan Scott, sports editor; and Sophie Whitten, photo editor.

Ojewuyi, began her career at the Daily Egyptian in the Fall of 2020 as a reporter, though not without caution. 

“I always was interested in working at the DE,” Ojewuyi said.  “I would ask people who worked there to give me the honest truth about how difficult it is to work here and they would tell me it’s a really rewarding job, but it’s a huge responsibility.”

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After ensuring that she was in a position where she could devote the necessary time to properly contribute to the work of the Daily Egyptian, she formally applied, writing feature and opinion articles for the entirety of the 2020-2021 school year.

After receiving the job, Ojewuyi was asked to mentor and talk with multiple families encouraging more young black women to get into journalism. 

“That’s really what matters the most to me, that I’m creating an example for other people but also for myself,” Ojewuyi said. “I just hope that my position here can inspire more people, especially Black people and Black women, to enter the world of journalism, to not mince their words and create spaces for themselves where there aren’t a lot of us.”

Ojewuyi was encouraged to apply for the position by former Editor-in- Chief Kallie Cox and former Managing Editor Julia Rendleman. After an interview with the Daily Egyptian executive board, she was granted the position at the end of the 2021 spring semester.

The whirlwind of activity needed to prepare the Daily Egyptian for its newest generation of student employees was, “a bit overwhelming trying to get everything smoothed over on my own,” Ojewuyi said. “As editor-in-chief, I wear a lot of different hats.”

Organizing the different arms of the production, from the reporters and photographers to the designers and IT department, requires a wide range of understanding over the entire process as well as the ability to communicate and coordinate effectively with a large team.

Ojewuyi also considers herself an activist.  “I always say that journalism is meant to create action,” Ojewuyi said.  “It creates some kind of discourse or action in actual life, and I hope people will realize just how powerful words and journalism are in shaping the world and the way people think.”

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Ojewuyi said she relished the opportunity to advocate for her beliefs and open herself up to different viewpoints.

 “Working at the DE forced me to listen and consider viewpoints other than my own, and that’s a strength that I really have appreciated,” Ojewuyi said.

Ojewuyi highly encourages any one of any major to apply to work at the Daily Egyptian. 

Bishop is the Multimedia Editor, a new position created in the fall of 2021. 

The position largely entails video production and represents a new front for the DE.

“My old boss, Leah Sutton, the old photo editor, wanted a lot of video work that we had never really done before.” Bishop said. “So toward the end of the semester we’re like, ‘well, maybe we want to split up the photo desk so that way we can focus a little bit more on video work.”

The multimedia department works with the photo department to create various forms of media to augment articles written by the news desk and, occasionally, creating their own projects.

Bishop owns a media company called Crypto Media, where he largely professionally practices real estate and wedding photography. 

He devotes time to the DE because he enjoys the camaraderie of the DE and enjoys the opportunity to engage with the variety of work.

“I enjoy doing it, but it’s not like I’m not doing this to try to get a job in the future. I’m just doing it because I love it.” Bishop said. “So now, being a multimedia editor and being on the Ed board, I really want to take the Daily Egyptian in a new direction… we’re really excited to just see where everything’s going in the future and where we can take it to.”

Flynn, the new news editor at the DE, organizes the reporters, edits articles and helps to decide the articles that are to be approved for the print and digital versions of the DE.

Flynn, who previously worked at the Red and Black student newspaper in Athens, Ga. started at the DE in the fall semester of 2020.  

 While living in Chicago, Flynn worked at various restaurants and co-founded an online magazine with other food industry workers, known as The Dish. 

“My sort of goal is to take all of the facets and the tips and tricks of the things you learn in journalism school and through more traditional reporting and apply those styles and things to more trades reporting and trade magazine reporting,” Flynn said.

Due to this, last year he was asked by the former editor-in-chief and former news editor to apply for the position.

Flynn said he enjoys traditional journalism but is more interested in labor organization as well as  trades reporting. 

Flynn also enjoys using journalism to advocate for workers within the food industry.

“I think the area that interests me the most is this place where foodways, the way we grow, eat and make food, intersect with people’s work and people’s backgrounds.” Flynn said.  “Where all those different areas come together in one little pocket… that’s the stuff that really gets me going.”

Schobert, the design chief, leads the design team, which creates graphics, assists with ad production, and organizes the layout of the print and digital editions of the DE.

Schobert started as a photographer at the Belleville West High School newspaper before progressing to the position of editorial and sports editor.  

Schobert then applied to attend SIU to pursue a degree in graphic design, joining the DE in the fall of 2019.

“Journalism is very important,” Schobert said. “Especially in this age where anyone and everyone has social media and can just post anything anywhere.  I think it’s really important that we have journalists who can find fact from fiction and make sure that the truth is getting out there.”

Schobert said she sees the DE as a great opportunity to gain skills that can be used in future careers in a real life setting. 

“You get to create all kinds of graphs for anything.  I’ve created graphics about daily Covid- 19 cases to more abstract things like editorial cartoons,” Schobert said.

Schobert recommends that all students in Journalism work for the DE in order to build a portfolio and gain experience that can’t be gathered in a classroom setting.

Scott, the sports editor at the DE, edits the sports stories and game recaps on top of attending games and writing stories.

Scott began his work in journalism at Lincolnland College and was  a sports reporter before taking over the position of editor.  

When Scott transferred to SIU and began work at the DE he took over the same position.

“I’m a big sports fan,” Scott said. “I’m a Bears fan and a Cardinals fan.”

Scott follows a lot of sports in his spare time and wants to become a sports reporter, taking his cues from more established reporters. 

“I follow a bunch of sports reporters on social media and I just follow what they’re doing… I want to be a sports writer so I wanted to do something with that while I was in college,” Scott said

Whitten, the photo editor, primarily tasked with the job of training photographers and editing their cutlines and briefs within the paper.

Whitten started at the DE as a photographer, signing up for the Photo Editor position in the spring semester of 2021 and being chosen through the interview process to head the photographers.

“A lot of our photographers either haven’t worked in journalism or photography altogether.  Sometimes we have new people with a camera and we have to teach them how to take and frame a photo,” Whitten said.

Whitten owns a photography business outside of working at the DE but devotes time to the DE in order to meet people and listen to their stories.

“As a photographer, I’m still meeting people and I’m still speaking with people,” Whitten said. “You really come away understanding that person you spoke with and you can feel inspired sometimes by what their stories are.  We meet some really inspiring people and it’s really cool to hear their stories.”

 Whitten also emphasized the need for new recruits within the DE. 

“It is such a fun time working at the Daily Egyptian and I would love to have more photographers working with us.”

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