Narrative studies helps guide student’s journalism career

Eli Zeger got his first byline as a freshman in high school after what he describes as “an obscure death metal review” he wrote was accepted for publication by the “very niche metal blog,” Undergrind Zine. He was 14.

Zeger didn’t get paid for the 150-word review, but he remembers the excitement of seeing his byline and people liking his piece and commenting on it.

Since that modest beginning, Zeger’s journalism career has blossomed. Now a narrative studies major at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, he is selling his articles to some of the world’s most read and respected publications, such as the Financial Times and Vice.

His most recent piece — an essay on corporate personhood titled “How Corporations Try to be More Human than Humans” — was published in June by Current Affairs, a popular, progressive, bimonthly culture and politics magazine. The article, he says, is actually an edited version of his senior thesis.

Getting published

Zeger is living proof that it isn’t always necessary to go to journalism school to become a published journalist. While he’s quick to point out that what he is doing as an essayist is maybe a different kind of journalism from what is taught in most journalism courses, he says his narrative studies degree helped him understand how to tell stories effectively.

“Narrative studies taught me to draw on a variety of sources to make a single cohesive argument. So, I’m not just looking at one discipline. I’m looking at all these different disciplines to paint a broader picture of what I’m trying to say.”

The most helpful thing that his education at USC Dornsife has given him in terms of pursuing his career, Zeger says, is the understanding that there are a multitude of different angles from which to look at a narrative.

This has allowed him to find the unexpected, to look at things in different ways and to consider all arguments.

Corporate personhood is the legal notion that a corporation, separately from its associated human beings (like owners, managers or employees), has at least some of the legal rights and responsibilities enjoyed by natural persons. After exploring the concept’s history and evolution, Zeger’s article concludes that it is “a contrived and sycophantic ploy for avoiding responsibility.”

“I knew a little about corporate personhood. It just sounded evil and fascinating to me, so I wanted to pursue it further,” he says of his decision to make it the topic of his capstone project for his senior thesis. “I knew I also wanted to pitch the idea and get it published eventually as an article.”

Zeger says he succeeded in selling the piece to Current Affairs after one of the magazine’s editors noticed his posts outlining his story idea in the online freelance writers’ group, Study Hall, which Zeger joined in his junior year of university.

“I pitched it around to a bunch of places, but at the time there were a lot of freelance budget freezes and a lot of places were looking for very coronavirus-focused content, so I got a lot of passes,” he says.

“Then the Current Affairs editor reached out to me and said, ‘Eli, we like the idea. Would you like to work on it with us?’”

Zeger says the editor accepted the piece at the end of May, and it was published June 24.

A different way of making music

Zeger has been publishing professionally since his junior year of high school but didn’t begin writing essays until he started college. Since then, he has published five long-form essays and a dozen other articles. Before his Current Affairs piece, his most recently published work was a 3,500-word essay “on the curiously self-tortured legacy of post-grunge music” in the online and print journal The Baffler.

The initial inspiration to try his hand at journalism came from the movie Almost Famous. Based on a true story, the film tells of writer and director Cameron Crowe’s early career as a teen journalist, following bands for Rolling Stone.

Zeger didn’t quite manage that, but by the time he was a high school junior, he was getting paid $75 an article for writing short pieces for Vice’s then music site, Noisey, about the musical tastes of his high school teachers and classmates.

“I’d talk to my teachers about music and made little articles about that. It was fun concept stuff,” Zeger says. “I did review my prom, and Noisey paid me $75 and also covered the cost of my tuxedo. Yeah. That was nice.”

Born in the Bronx, Zeger grew up in Montclair, New Jersey, where his parents work in marketing and public relations. His father also wrote for magazines, including Time Out New York. Zeger says his parents looked over his early pieces and gave him some tips on writing, pitching and networking. He still occasionally asks them to take a look at a piece he has written, and he even did a Q&A with them about their youthful experience as bartenders for the Vice food column, “Munchies.”

However, music has been the foundational focus of Zeger’s interest as a writer. He plays guitar and bass and joined a number of bands in middle school and the early years of high school. His focus began shifting to writing after he fell out with some of his bandmates.

“I didn’t really have anyone to play music with at that point, but I still wanted to pursue it, so writing about music gave me that avenue. I’ve stuck with the writing but branched out to other subjects, including visual art. But I still like coming back to music as something to look at more broadly.”

In two pieces for the Financial Times’ Life of a Song column, published in 2018 and ’19, Zeger wrote insightful pieces about The Cure’s “Friday I’m in Love” and Shirley Horn’s “Here’s to Life.”

Staying true to himself

A USC transfer student, Zeger first attended Goucher College, a small liberal arts school in Baltimore, for two years. There, he completed a study abroad program at the University of Oslo in Norway before getting accepted at USC Dornsife, where he was attracted by the interdisciplinary education on offer and the reputation of the English and writing programs. A desire to be farther away from home, to experience living in a major media hub, and the climate were also factors, he says.

With just 10 units to complete, Zeger is due to graduate in December. He will finish his coursework online from his home in Montclair, as USC’s University Park campus remains largely closed to protect students, faculty and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He hopes to develop the long form essayistic writing that he’s been doing recently and would like to see his work published in New Republic, Mother Jones and The Guardian. He also aspires to become an editor “at a place that does more progressive leftist leaning articles and reporting.

“Because I’ve worked with so many editors now, I realize who the really great ones are, the ones who help me shape my piece and guide me where needed. I feel like I’ve developed an eye to help people say what they want to say and make their argument, and I want to do that [as an editor].”

Zeger is also interested in possibly working in art publishing.

“I know lots of art museums have little editorial departments for various anthologies and periodicals and that sort of thing. I’d be happy to work at an art museum, where the pace is slower.”

Start now and make connections!

His advice to other students who are aspiring writers/journalists?

“If you have an idea for a piece or an essay, pitch it. Start now, don’t wait until after college.”

Zeger also encourages aspiring writers to join Study Hall, enabling them to connect to journalists at all different levels, whether students in college or writers for the New Yorker and the New York Times.

“Just try to get involved in as many different communities of writers, online or in person, as possible,” he says. “Don’t be limited to campus.”

Zeger firmly believes that his liberal arts education will help him advance in his chosen profession as a journalist.

The great lesson he says his narrative studies major has taught him is that “objectivity” is a fiction.

“There’s always bias to objectivity, even if it’s framed in a factual way,” he says. “The liberal arts have taught me different ways to look at the world and how to find valid sources. My major taught me that I could maybe use a piece of fiction to validate an argument I’m trying to make in an essay rather than a report from The New York Times. It has taught me that all these different mediums — even if they’re not traditionally seen as valid — are indeed valid and that perspectives that I wouldn’t otherwise encounter are necessary.”