Changing the journalism narrative

The field of journalism has had hard criticisms in recent years. One individual is looking to change that through the power of books … and her cat. 

Miranda O’Bryan is a Martin native and a 2020 graduate from the South Dakota State University School of Communication and Journalism and School of American and Global Studies. 

She also held the title of Miss South Dakota 2023, where she used her platform for awareness of literacy rates and addressing the misconceptions of the journalism field. 

Starting at SDSU as an undecided major in exploratory studies, O’Bryan took a journalism class her freshman year, which sparked a passion for the industry. 

She then changed her major to journalism and history a semester into her freshman year. 

O’Bryan always loved history. “As I grew and matured in my classes, I realized how perfectly they really did go together with learning to research in journalism and connecting to historical significance.” 

With SDSU becoming home, O’Bryan became involved in a variety of opportunities during her college career. She was involved in Alpha Xi Delta women’s fraternity and the SDSU Honors College, worked as an Admissions Ambassador and was part of the Hobo Day Committee on the communications team, events team and assistant pooba for the marketing team. 

Along with those activities, she became involved in the Miss America Opportunity in 2017, though she didn’t know much about the organization at the time. Her first competition was for Miss SDSU. 

“I think I understood the concept of it briefly,” O’Bryan said. “I really didn't know like the nitty gritty of what that organization stood for or that it was a scholarship organization at its core. They focus on service and success.” 

An initial pull toward competing came from a friend of O’Bryan’s competing in the Miss America Opportunity the prior year. 

“I mostly did it because I had a stereotype in my head that I wanted to break, and I'm a very competitive person. I was like, ‘You know what? Let's give it a shot. My friend did it, and I was really inspired by her.’” 

Though O’Bryan competed that year for Miss South Dakota 2018, she did not win the crown. It would take five years for her to win the title. 

However, each competition increased her confidence and inspiration. As Miss South Dakota 2023, she hoped to pass that on to others. 

Why journalism? 

O’Bryan always liked to write. In fact, she wanted to be an author from a fairly young age. 

“I wanted to be a journalist, and I wanted to be a journalist because I wanted to be a voice for my community. You know, thinking back, growing up in a small town in western South Dakota, we had our newspaper and the people that we watched on TV, and we trusted them. We looked to them for our information so that we could create our own opinions and understand the world around us.” 

Through early experiences, she found out newspapers were not for her. She then took a multimedia journalism class in the School of Communication and Journalism and really enjoyed it. 

O’Bryan worked closely with associate professor Rocky Dailey in multimedia courses. “He taught an introductory course where we used cameras for the first time and learned to wrap cords and all these things. It may have seemed monotonous at the time, but it translated directly to everything I was doing day-to-day in my internship in college and then everything I would eventually do day-to-day in my career.” 

Along with her multimedia courses in the School of Communication and Journalism, being part of Jacks News was highly impactful to her student experience and helped develop skills for her career. 

“That class was incredible because it was entirely hands-on training for what we would do every single day if we went into that career,” O’Bryan explained. “So, this was a great learning opportunity, and an opportunity for me to continue those skills that I'd learned in my internship and bring them into the classroom to share with my fellow students.” 

O’Bryan also had significant experience working with Dailey on a documentary as part of her honors curriculum independent study. 

As part of the study, she and Dailey interviewed, produced, edited and created a half-hour documentary. The documentary was submitted to several film festivals and aired on South Dakota Public Broadcasting. 

“I think those experiences are what really kind of solidified or sparked my passion for broadcast journalism and then kind of pushed me to experience the other areas of journalism, too,” O’Bryan said. “I had a front-page story in The Brookings Register, because we were writing for the newspaper with one of our classes. We also did press releases, which again, now I've been able to write as Miss South Dakota, and I would have never realized how much those experiences were going to blossom into.” 

Career and crown 

O’Bryan had interned for KOTA Territory News in Rapid City during her college career, so she expressed interest in working for them come graduation in spring 2020. 

A few weeks later, she received a call from the news director who offered her a reporter position at the news station. She began in June 2020 as a reporter but would fill in as a news anchor on weekends just a few months into the position. 

“I was really loving being the face for my community,” O’Bryan said. “So, I went to my bosses and expressed that I’d like to eventually anchor full time.” 

Over the three years at KOTA Territory News, O’Bryan worked her way up from reporter to noon-time news anchor, then to her dream position as the evening news anchor. 

It was six months into her evening anchor role when she earned the title of Miss South Dakota 2023. 

She turned in her resignation two weeks after winning the Miss South Dakota title to focus on serving the state in her fullest capacity. 

“It’s been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to serve my state and to serve the people I’m so proud to represent. It’s this once-in-a-lifetime, one-year opportunity to give back to the state that created the woman that I am today.” 

Changing the narrative on journalism 

O’Bryan is thankful for the Miss America Opportunity platform to discuss different passions of hers — one of those being combatting the distrust of the journalism field. 

“When I was in college and coming into college, there was really this idea of fake news coming about and distrust in the media, and I wanted to be that person people could trust. I wanted accuracy, and I wanted fact. I wanted people to understand the difference between fact and opinion, and I wanted to put myself out there as the person they could listen to, the person they could turn to.” 

To combat the distrust, O’Bryan suggested tuning into local news to start. 

“At the local level, we have the opportunity to talk to the kids who run a lemonade stand in the area to then, you know, masking in public schools during the pandemic, so completely two different sides of the coin,” O’Bryan said. “That's what a community is. It's all of these stories, it's all of this information. And so really starting with your local news, and making sure that you tune in there will help people see the value in it again.” 

O’Bryan also challenged the public to push outside of their comfort zone with the national news stations they are watching. 

“If you’re comfortable watching these certain channels, turn to another and just listen and compare. It can be really helpful to get past this idea of ‘fake news’ and understand fact vs. opinion.” 

“And the local news like you do get those feel-good stories, which is really nice,” O’Bryan continued. “That breaks the idea that the world is all negative, and it can feel that way. But there's so many wonderful things happening out there, too, and we have the ability to be able to cover a wider array at the local level.” 

Being an author, improving literacy rates 

Another passion that O’Bryan shared with the world, especially through her role as Miss South Dakota, was literacy rates. Her passion for this topic began with her love for reading and desire to become an author. 

What O’Bryan couldn’t expect would be that a visit from her cat, Jericho, to the KOTA Territory News station, would spark the idea for her first book. 

“We brought Jericho inside, and I don't know if it was me or if it was a coworker who coined him ‘Jericho the Journalism Kitty,’ but it just was like a lightbulb moment of, ‘Oh, that's a really cute idea for a kids’ book.’” 

A year after her lightbulb moment, O’Bryan decided to fully pursue the idea. 

She wanted to put a story to the concept of “Jericho the Journalism Kitty” teaching children about journalism, a field that people have distrust in, but put it through the eyes of a cat. 

After coming up with her first draft, she shared the story content with her family and a coworker, who is also an author. The feedback was positive, leading O’Bryan to continue forward in securing an illustrator for her book: a former classmate and another SDSU graduate, Mackenzie Yordy. 

“I knew that she was this incredible artist, and I told her, ‘Well, I wrote a kids’ book, and I want you to illustrate it.’ Two small-town girls to SDSU Jackrabbits, why not do this together?” 

The pair had a physical copy created by the time O’Bryan planned on competing for Miss South Dakota in June 2022. The next step for O’Bryan was searching for a publisher who would take on the book. 

Following research on the publishing process, O’Bryan pursued self-publishing through Amazon in January 2023, and her book was officially approved for publication by Amazon in September 2023. The whole process from the start of the idea to publishing took around three years. 

“I ordered the very first copy for myself and teared up when I held it in my hands,” O’Bryan said. “I held Jericho and said, ‘You’re a part of history, and we get to teach kids about journalism!’” 

O’Bryan hopes the book is a source of inspiration for those who read it. 

“I want it to be something that sparks inspiration in somebody for something. Whether that's to learn more about journalism or, ‘Look at these incredible illustrations. I want to be an illustrator.’ 

“I just wanted this to be something that people could find a connection to in some way,” O’Bryan continued. “Books are really, really wonderful for that.” 

Ultimately, her book comes back to inspiring children, impacting the narrative on journalism and improving literacy rates. 

“One-third of fourth graders will never reach the proficient reading level, and around half of U.S. adults can't read above an eighth-grade level,” O’Bryan explained. “So, literacy rates in this country definitely could use some improvement. And I think we start with kids. It creates a building block and a foundation for the rest of their lives, their education and their careers. 

“Potentially having ‘Jericho the Journalism Kitty’ as a piece of that foundation, a piece of those building blocks, maybe it will inspire the next generation of journalists, or it'll inspire that grandparent to want to learn more, or that parent to pick up more books with their kid because they could see that twinkle in their eye. … So I put a lot of weight on the shoulders of ‘Jericho the Journalism Kitty.’ But at the end of the day, I want it to be something that people can find some joy and connection in.” 

O’Bryan is thankful that she gave different experiences a try at SDSU, including the Miss America Opportunity. 

“If I'd never said that yes to SDSU, if I'd never said that yes to journalism, if I'd never said that yes to the Miss America Opportunity, if I'd never said that to all of these incredible opportunities, I would not be the person I am,” O’Bryan said. “So, just allowing yourself to be open to possibilities, and leaving that door open, is so important. And even if you do feel like you know exactly what you want to do, still stepping outside of your comfort zone and trying something else, like applying for the Hobo Day Committee or walking into the American Indian Student Center or trying something new, you never know what opportunities are going to come from that. 

“You never know what your future is going to hold, so don't close yourself off. I think SDSU really helped me experience that, and I’m forever thankful to be a Jackrabbit. I think that's been a huge piece of where I am here at 26 years old, and that is going to continue to foster the person that I grow into when I'm 45, when I'm 75 and for the rest of my life.” 

Learn more about O’Bryan on her website, and find her book on Amazon.