Even the best stories mean nothing if people aren’t resonating with them.
I became involved with the audience engagement side of journalism during my time as Community Engagement Managing Editor at The Daily Tar Heel, and then as an audience engagement intern at The Current GA through The Dow Jones News Fund. I’m even working on a senior honors thesis about how journalism can better engage with communities of color to rebuild trust in the news industry.
Read more about my audience/social media/communications work below.
The Current GA
I recently interned at The Current GA, a nonprofit investigative newsroom based in Savannah, GA, as a Dow Jones News Fund Audience Engagement Intern. Before my internship kicked off, DJNF hosted a ten-day intensive training on all things audience engagement to prepare us for our new roles.
Target Areas:
Increasing engagement on social media platforms, which are crucial for small, digital-first newsrooms
The desire to expand vertical video production and style to better explain investigative stories for online audiences
A need to redesign and increase newsletter engagement with residents across Coastal Georgia
Approaches:
Creating posts on Canva by expanding on preexisting templates, rewriting copy and scheduling content to ensure a more frequent posting schedule
Scripting, shooting and editing videos in different styles on CapCut, with guidance from the paper’s sole social media editor. Often, that included filming stand-ups on camera, something I had never tried before
Authoring newsletters and leaving the editors with a comprehensive critique of how newsletter design can improve after I leave
Results:
Boosted Instagram following from 3028 to 3281 (an 8.36% growth rate, garnering 245,424 views) and TikTok following from 1504 to 2,367 (a 57.4% growth rate, with over 64,739 views), according to Later
Created dozens of static posts and multiple reels, primarily across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, ranging between 8-15% engagement rates. Facebook posts over the summer averaged a 21.44% engagement rate
Content I helped produce consistently had some of the most interactions on social platforms from across the summer
The Daily Tar Heel
After years on the University desk, I spent my junior year as The Daily Tar Heel’s inaugural Community Engagement Managing Editor. Along with working with the rest of the management and editing team to produce high-quality daily news and weekly print papers, I specialized in fostering engagement strategies to boost our presence among readers.
Target Areas:
A need to increase newsletter engagement as we rebuild our subscriber base on Mailchimp after switching away from iContact
A lack of LinkedIn presence, leaving the platform widely underutilized
Despite being a “teaching paper,” some of our writers weren’t learning the skills they needed to be successful journalists — they’re part of our community, too
Approaches:
Redesigning and editing daily newsletters with varied introductions, A/B tested subject lines, and content lengths to best reach students
Overseeing The DTH’s LinkedIn while brainstorming with audience engagement editors on how to best use it
Reviving structured newsroom “workshops” to teach staffers about news production, sometimes featuring guest alums and community members
Results:
We launched redesigned newsletters, rebranding them visually and giving some new names. Daily newsletters grew to an average 70% open rate for 61,000+ subscribers, while original weekly desk-specific newsletters gained unique loyal followings
Our production expanded with two new newsletters I designed: DTH Deep Dive and TLDR, the latter of which I wrote weekly
LinkedIn impressions increased by 78.6% in my first month, reactions by 40%, followers by 142.2% and reposts by 150%
Staffers began attending frequent workshops, asking more questions and giving positive feedback about the wide variety of skills they learned — which in turn led to stronger reporting
The Southern Environmental Law Center
During my summer 2025 internship with the Southern Environmental Law Center, I focused primarily on media research and social copy. The experience taught me about using social media as a tool to share information with a broader public audience.
Target Areas:
A desire to increase social media production across a variety of platforms to increase awareness of SELC for various demographics.
The need to have a single resource to sort through all SELCs partner organizations for easy access come social media collaborations
A focus on better understanding how SELC, its thought leadership and its focus areas are being portrayed in the news
Approaches:
Drafted social media copy and adapted it to platforms including LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Facebook and Instagram, along with creating graphics or connecting visuals to keep it engaging.
Built upon a former intern’s unfinished project to categorize SELCs 100+ partners in one easy-to-access Excel database
Conducted media research and browsed through weekly Cision Digest clips to find content featuring SELC attorneys, analysts or partners.
Results:
Used Sprout Social to look at the analytics across platforms. Some posts performed extremely well, garnering above average shares, comments and likes
Team is now able to refer to a massive (confidential) spreadsheet organizer with complete information about all SELC partners
SELC’s social media featured reposts of articles, podcasts and other projects that correlated to SELC and its people to garner more attention in online spaces.
Finished my internship with a presentation to senior attorneys about SELC’s strategy in positioning itself as not only a legal organization, but an advocacy-centric news source.
UNC Chapel Hill Pakistan Society
UNC Pakistan Society is a registered student organization for Pakistani Tar Heels to find community and stay close to their culture while at college. I’ve spent the last three years as the organizations Creative Chair (formerly Social Media and Design Chair)
Target Areas:
A lack of connection with new Pakistani students, not just at UNC but across the state
The need to boost our annual fundraiser, Mehndi Ki Raat, to ensure higher attendance and increased donations
To better contextualize the student organization in a broader scope as international conflicts and affairs impact Pakistani people
Approaches:
Posted consistent creative recaps of events, projects and social hours for members to share with their friends and family
Created unique brand templates via Canva and Illustrator and identified the public image we hope to put out for fundraising campaigns
Collaborated with the board to write statements and create posts about events in Pakistan to position our organization in global context
Results:
Boosted online engagement on Instagram and TikTok with increased shares, subscribers, and over 100k visitors during our busiest month in the 2024-25 academic year
The organization consistently reused the templates and my brand identity package, creating a cohesive visual identity for MKR and general activities
Our content became more complete and representative of our organization as a whole, making it more prominent not only on campus but in Pakistani contexts
