Taylor Johnson, On Covering White Extremists, Black Baiting, and Becoming Campus Famous

White supremacy on UNR campus, protests, issues related to diversity and even construction is what the news editor, Taylor Johnson, of the Nevada Sagebrush covers. In this episode of the Reynolds Hotbox, with host Lucia Starbuck and cohost Scott King, Johnson discusses her experiences writing for a student run print news publication, the time her work was plagiarized and why it’s important for her to capture student voices. “When I've reported on diversity related issues, protests, what not, I like to focus on the students because to me, students are like the spirit of this university. They have a lot of power even if they don't see it and I love hearing their experiences and their voice, especially like when reporting,” Johnson said. This semester, Johnson spoke to fellow students for her recent article, ‘White Supremacy Persists at UNR, Two Years After Charlottesville,’ which covered the actions of the white supremacist group, American Identity Movement, putting their fliers and posters on bulletin boards around campus. Johnson wrote about student and faculty responses and did what most media didn’t, included the AIM founder’s side of the story. The article brought Johnson publicity after the president of UNR shared the story with the entire school. Johnson said she received criticism from both sides. Take a listen to this episode of the Reynolds Hotbox to hear more about Taylor’s experiences writing this article and the impact it had, as well as what drives her to be a student journalist.