Table Mountain, SOUTH AFRICA – Cape Town journalists Kristin Engel and Steve Kretzmann offered advice, motivations and feelings about the profession in a talk with Youth Journalism International students during the 2025 Global Conference.
Engel and Kretzmann spoke to the group at Table Mountain, a beautiful mountain park overlooking Cape Town.
Kretzmann, who writes for the South African non-profit news agency GroundUp, has been reporting for 26 years. In the last decade, he said, he became particularly interested in covering water-related issues.
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He told students about a journalist’s need for curiosity.
“I often see journalists with no curiosity and that bothers me,” he said. “There’s always a story.”
Kretzmann encouraged the young journalists to develop their interests in the world by exploring novels, theater and history.
He also suggested students look at their communities like tourists in order to find unique angles for their reporting.
Engel is a climate journalist for the South African news site The Daily Maverick, covering topics ranging from food insecurity to the country’s biodiversity crisis.
She shared similar views as Kretzmann with the students, telling them to educate themselves on a variety of topics and remain passionate.
Engel spoke with enthusiasm about her profession and said she “always wanted to do journalism.”
To gauge the results of their work, Engel said, journalists should have a kind of impact tracker. She said she looks for feedback after a story is published to learn what changes or effects the work had.
After Cape Town’s 2017 drought, Kretzmann began following the city’s water problems more closely.
“Water quality is generally quite bad,” he said. “I kept thinking about the quality after the drought.”
Engel emphasized the importance of fighting climate change and discussed how severe the effects have become. But she hasn’t given up.
“There are solutions,” she told the students. “There is hope.”
Kretzmann echoed the belief that journalists have a responsibility to the world around them.
“There’s this cliche of [reporters being] the voice for the voiceless, which is true,” Kretzmann said. “I will give voice to the voiceless as best I can.”
As journalists, it is their job to “find those little pockets of hope,” Engel told the students.
“Keep that fire burning,” Engel said.
Dorothy Quanteh is a Reporter with Youth Journalism International from the United States. She co-wrote this story, recorded the audio and conducted a video interview.
Anya Farooqui is a Reporter with Youth Journalism International from Pakistan. She co-wrote this story.
Ahmed Elkhamisy is a Reporter with Youth Journalism International from Egypt. He conducted a video interview.
Mayama Opare is a Senior Reporter with Youth Journalism International from Ghana. She conducted a video interview.
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