{"id":11411,"date":"2026-07-21T20:10:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T01:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/?p=11411"},"modified":"2026-08-02T20:22:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T01:22:37","slug":"photojournalism-in-action-barstoolcherubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/07\/photojournalism-in-action-barstoolcherubs\/","title":{"rendered":"Photojournalism in action: @barstoolcherubs"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a photo on the official @medillcherubs Instagram account, cherubs listen attentively to guest lectures, hands in the air, ready to ask thoughtful questions expected of the journalists-in-training they are.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Boye, oh Boye\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

A cherub is photographed upside down on a dorm chair, feet in the air, \u201ctrying\u201d to finish a trend story. Another picture shows a cherub asleep on the floor of Fisk Hall, using a backpack stuffed with AP Stylebooks and interview notes as a pillow. Another photo shows a cherub eating her 12th Allison churro of the day.<\/span><\/p>\n

The account that captures all these moments? @barstoolcherubs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An Instagram account made by a cherub, for cherubs. Four posts per week. Four weeks. Hundreds of blurry photos that, dare I say, deserve a Pulitzer?<\/span><\/p>\n

My favorite parts of cherubs: the life-changing insights about journalism, the people \u2014 and the collection of unflattering (sorry!) photos I have of people in my camera roll, most of which are posted on @barstoolcherubs.<\/span><\/p>\n

@barstoolcherubs captures the in-the-moment moments. A friend falls asleep in Fisk? Photo. Someone sits in the strangest position in Jones after check-in? Photo. Cherubs burst into laughter over something that makes no sense out of context? Definitely a photo.<\/span><\/p>\n

The account is almost entirely based on \u201csnipes\u201d or, as instructor Carlin McCarthy likes to call them, \u201caction shots.\u201d On their own, they\u2019re just badly taken candid photos. But if you were there, they\u2019re hilarious. It\u2019s photojournalism at its peak.<\/span><\/p>\n

What makes the account so special is that it\u2019s unaffiliated with the Medill cherub program and Northwestern. It\u2019s a completely student-run tradition started two summers ago in 2024, with each class passing down the account to the next like a sacred journalism relay race (arguably more athletic than Junior Junior Olympics).<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, and every photo is an \u201cexclusive.\u201d The golden standard of journalism: reporting something that\u2019s never been reported before, according to instructor Cynthia Wang.<\/span><\/p>\n

The account is private, and you won\u2019t get accepted just because you requested to follow it after receiving your acceptance letter. You have to become a cherub first.<\/span><\/p>\n

That notification of \u201c@barstoolcherubs accepted your follow request\u201d is THE welcome. You\u2019re not just attending cherubs anymore. You are a cherub.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a program where each day is packed with lectures, interviews, deadlines and sprinting back to the dorms through rain or the 800 air quality index (thank you, Canada), @barstoolcherubs slows everything down. It gives people a chance to look back at the moments that make this summer the best summer of your life.<\/span><\/p>\n

More than anything, @barstoolcherubs lets us into this \u201cchamily\u201d \u2014 our cherub family.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An anonymous student picked the funniest moments to share on the unofficial cherubs Instagram four times a week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":322,"featured_media":11453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[650],"class_list":["post-11411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-experiences"],"acf":[],"authors":[{"term_id":650,"user_id":322,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jlee26","display_name":"Jean Lee","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcde7488e0eeca76b654b6ed0f7acc5d9a1144129a7a947fc667013d819acec5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Lee","first_name":"Jean","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11411"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12963,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11411\/revisions\/12963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11411"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=11411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}