By Stella Mullin
Having navigated her way into a highly competitive industry, Alexandra Goldberg credits UC Santa Barbara for helping her achieve her dream of working as a broadcast journalist. While at UCSB, she worked with campus radio and television stations KCSB and UCSB TV, started and developed a podcast at the Santa Barbara Independent and graduated with a major in Communication and a Minor in Professional Writing in the Journalism Track.
Goldberg then went on to the USC Annenberg School for Journalism, and now works at WHAS11, an ABC local news affiliate in Louisville, Kentucky.
UCSB Writing Minor graduate Alexandra Goldberg interviews a farmer in Chennai, India in March 2024. Goldberg is now an on air broadcast journalist with ABC.
When she entered UCSB, Goldberg figured that majoring in communication would put her on the best path toward a career in journalism.
“It was a broad major and it was the most applicable to journalism because there are more journalism adjacent classes,” she said.
Alongside courses in her major, Goldberg discovered and began to pursue the journalism offerings in the Writing Program, learning of the Professional Writing Minor in her freshman year.
“I knew from day one I wanted to do the [professional writing minor on a journalism track],” Goldberg said. “I started taking those pre-reqs as a freshman, and I took every single class I could in the journalism minor and in that little [journalistic] subsection of the school,” she continued.
After being involved with KCSB during her freshman year, Goldberg shifted to UCSB TV. She first worked as a news reporter and then moved her way up to executive producer as broadcast journalism began to have an even stronger hold on her. Goldberg says UCSB TV allowed her to experiment and undoubtedly make mistakes with broadcast journalism and working on camera instead of behind the scenes. She found she liked being in the action, telling stories.
“[UCSB TV] is really where I found my passion for the broadcast journalism side of things. Writing and reporting for TV, script writing, on-air delivery. I made all my mistakes on those cameras so then I could pursue that for a full-time career.”
Juggling a podcast, producing a news show and pursuing a major and a minor was not without its challenges. She looked to UCSB journalism professors for guidance, specifically Nomi Morris and Paul Mena, both Writing Program faculty who directed the Journalism track in the Professional Writing Minor.
That and a sense of passion for the field. “It’s been busy but I’m lucky because I’ve been passionate about it for so long,” said Goldberg. You can’t teach passion. So, I really tried to let that guide me.”
Morris even led Goldberg on the ieiMedia Berlin International Reporting course in the summer of 2022, allowing Goldberg to further develop her broadcasting interest. The program takes a small group of students to Berlin, Germany for three weeks, simulating the experience of being a foreign correspondent.
“[By then] Nomi Morris was already a great mentor of mine, and I knew that she led this group of students every summer on this Berlin trip,” Goldberg said. “And, to be transparent, that summer I couldn't get any internships… I decided to go on this trip with Nomi and become a more competitive applicant by doing something a little more unique.” She said it worked. “That still rings true to this day, because how many 20-something-year-olds can say you covered international politics in a place like Berlin, Germany?”
UCSB Writing alum Alexandra Goldberg covering Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s arrival to Louisville, Kentucky International Airport on Oct. 23, 2024 for WHAS11, an ABC local news affiliate in Louisville.
After graduation, Goldberg moved two hours south to attend USC’s Annenberg journalism school to fill her “journalism toolbox” just a little more.
“UCSB gave me kind of the nuts and bolts of journalism and reinforced my passion for it,” said Goldberg. Doing things like the Berlin program and being a podcast host at the Santa Barbara Independent and taking those journalism classes — being surrounded by this niche set of people who share the same passions as you—that’s pretty fundamental in helping a student realize that this is where they see themselves,” she said.
Goldberg says UCSB gave her all of the writing skills, reporting skills, pitching skills “—both short form, long form, fluffy and feature-y, and also hard and political news —” to set her up for continuing her education at graduate school.
UCSB’s program includes but does not focus on broadcast journalism, so at USC she was able to fill in the gaps that led to a TV career. Goldberg mentioned that if she ever turns to teaching, she would want to develop broadcast journalism curriculum at UCSB. But, she appreciates that she received such a well-rounded print and digital background, because that is what makes for a good broadcast journalist.
“In retrospect, UCSB gave me a little bit more of the framework to be a great writer…I actually think that's an extreme advantage, because the best TV news reporters and the best TV script writers come from print backgrounds or digital backgrounds,” Goldberg said.
Still, no amount of schooling could truly prepare her for a job in a working newsroom, where she is now.
“The pressure of having to make air every day, at every show, is something that I don’t think you can teach in school,” Goldberg said. “And that’s kind of what the beautiful learning curve of being in this job is.”
Goldberg last fall Zoomed in as a guest speaker in UCSB’s Journalism and News Writing course. She advises students interested in this path to explore different aspects of media work, and to never give up on being curious.
“The thing that will help you most in this industry is an innate sense of curiosity,” said Goldberg. “You should lean on your curiosity as a budding journalist. If you have curiosity about the world, about your community, about the way the government works or maybe about the way the climate is changing, then that should be your North Star.”
Stella Mullin is a third-year English major at UC Santa Barbara. She wrote the article for her Digital Journalism course.