Nearly everyone on campus knows Shanna Fuld, even if they don’t realize it. They know exactly what she thinks of those annoying people who raise their hands in class too much, or how important it is for women to take active roles in the workplace. That’s because Shanna is currently the opinion editor for the widely-read campus newspaper, The Oswegonian.
Funnily enough, journalism wasn’t Shanna’s first passion.
“I really got into broadcasting first because my middle school had a TV station,” she explained. “We were connected to the Queens public access channel and I had a show in middle school.”
Thus, Oswego State was the natural choice because of the school’s widely-hailed media program, but Shanna soon became interested in writing for The Oswegonian.
“In my freshman semester, I walked into the doors and I was like, ‘Hey! I’m Shanna Fuld and I want to write articles here!’ and they were like, ‘Great to meet ya! Here’s an assignment.'”
Shanna quickly became heavily involved with the newspaper and rose up through the ranks, first as a staff writer and then as a copy editor. She claimed to have written an article a week ever since she started on the staff, but admitted that writing is currently taking a backseat as she focuses on her editorial duties.
Shanna was encouraged to apply for the position by the former opinion editor himself.
“He needed someone to take over his position and he asked me to do it for him,” she explained. “And I pinky promised him at the bar that I would do it for him.”
Shanna loves the opinion section because “opinion is fun” and it is the only section where people can talk about national issues, since the rest of The Oswegonian is dedicated to campus or local news.
“You can talk about current things,” she said. “You can make changes.”
Although women have been part of The Oswegonian staff in various positions in previous years, this year Shanna is the only female section head that has power to make editorial decisions in a group of six people.
Shanna reported that there was more pushback against her when she first began her position, compared to her male co-workers .
“I just noticed that the other editors weren’t being as questioned as much,” she said.
She remembered an op-ed she wanted to write about an experience she had with the Oswego hockey team that she felt had to do with gender inequality, but the editor above her dismissed the topic.
However, Shanna reports that workplace relations are improving.
“I think I’ve broken through to a place where I’m not really taking ‘no’ so much,” she said. “I don’t mind criticism, but I’m not taking no.”
After graduation, Shanna hopes to become a news anchor, although she is still debating whether to focus on local news or to work for a major network.
“In the future, I just hope to be writing pieces and producing pieces on television that are on information that people need to know about, and make people question the society that they live in,” she said.
She urged any other women who are interested in taking editorial positions to just go for it.
“You gotta be in charge of content, you gotta be monitoring what’s going out there,” she said. “When we have a society of half women and half men, but we’re only seeing representation through the eyes of men, how are we going to be seeing stories that need to be published?”
She acknowledged that it might be hard and intimidating at first, but her advice is simply to “never let them see you sweat.”
“Do what you do and do it well, and let them know that you’re not questioning yourself.”