A Portrait by Sarah Stallinger

Quinty Veenman, a 22 year old Dutch girl, discusses her views on the negative sides of journalism, her news consumption and the lack of progression in the media.

After finishing her bachelor’s degree in creative business at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Quinty decided to follow up with an honors minor in International Journalism. She felt the urge to broaden her knowledge in the art of writing, as her former studies more focused on the creative side, rather than the basics of journalism.

Quinty defines journalism as “a way of informing and making people aware of everything that’s going on in the world. It creates awareness. If you have a good newspaper, a good journalistic outlet, you will have stories that actually matter.”

She describes her media consumption as “quite bad”. Due to the constant negative news reporting from traditional media, Quinty switched to social media. She can: “pick and choose what you want to see and read. I got more news that spoke to me. So, Instagram became my main source of news.” Still, she uses social media with caution. She feels a lack of trust in the online news and social media sources, which leads to her often doing her own research, like fact checking and comparing different sources, and discussing important information with her friends.

Socials are going in the right direction, and old print journalism is stuck.

She is intrigued by the idea of one day writing for a paper. She recognizes the importance of discussing subjects such as ongoing wars and economic issues, but feels like a lot of relevant topics are being left out, such as mental health issues or housing problems in Amsterdam.

“We’re stuck in the old journalism. Newspapers should always exist, but we ignore certain subjects that are way more important now.” She feels the need for more diversity in newspapers, including a wider variety of topics. Quinty wants to be the change that she feels like is already overdue.