Hey guys, my name is Alex Nicoll and I’m a junior at the UofA. I was born in Dunedin, Florida, which is a suburb of the Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg area, but I’ve lived all over the South with stops in Alabama and Texas. I started working for my high school paper my sophomore year and almost quit after the year, but decided to stay after convincing from my advisor and friends on the staff and I’ve loved journalism since. I interned at the Dallas Morning News after my junior year as the high school sports intern. I then served as the editor-in-chief of my high school paper, The Sidekick. I then became a sports writer, sports designer and now editor-in-chief of my college paper, The Arkansas Traveler. I also have interned with The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and am a high school sports stringer for the paper as well. I love watching classic movies — I’m talking the Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant-esque movies. I’m a huge sports fan but have a varied taste in teams. I’m a Milwaukee Bucks fan in basketball, a Dallas Cowboys fan in football and a Tampa Bay Rays fan. I love listening to Motown, 70s Rock and Golden Oldies; my dad wanted to make sure I grew up with the right music “background.” My best story was one I wrote about a high school swimmer that had POTS disease.

One thing I found intriguing about data journalism was the numerous uses data can be used for in regards to being its own story or being used to supplement information for another story. I love that it can be used to interpret data-driven PR because I honestly despise dealing with the public relations of any business. I always change their PR language to what it actually is. I guess I don’t appreciate them trying to be something they’re not and I’m excited about what data journalism can do to combat this.