By Sydney Ball

After flying out into the world, some Louisville Cardinals return to their nest. Such is the case for Michelle Eigenheer, a full-time instructor in the Department of Communication. Fall 2025 was her first semester in this role, although she previously lectured part-time for the university in 2023.

As a University of Louisville student, Eigenheer wrote for The Louisville Cardinal. She quickly rose through the ranks of The Cardinal to become the news editor.

While working for The Cardinal, Eigenheer said that she was taught some important lessons. These lessons included adhering to deadlines, offering support to fellow writers, and holding peers accountable when they failed to meet their deadlines.

Defining her work

In 2015, Eigenheer graduated from U of L with a Bachelor’s in Communication and began freelancing in journalism. She has written stories on an array of topics, including agriculture, business and law.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Eigenheer wrote a story for Southerly Magazine about the barriers to education for children of migrant farm workers. In this story, she addressed how these children struggled to complete remote schoolwork due to unreliable internet access. Eigenheer calls this her proudest story.

“That was a piece that combined the things I had come to really care about, along with reporting on an underserved section of the population,” said Eigenheer.

While working as a podcast reporter for Just Security at the New York University School of Law, Eigenheer produced an episode about the Battle of Khartoum. The Battle of Khartoum was a two-year struggle for control over the capital city of Sudan.

Typically, guests on Just Security provided most of the information for episodes. In this case, Eigenheer had to conduct her own research and interviews.

After a 16-hour workday, Eigenheer felt she had produced meaningful and satisfying content.

She described the making of this episode as the “Best and worst of the crunch of journalism.”

Perspective on the state of journalism

From her experience in podcasting, Eigenheer learned what is necessary for public speakers. Now, she teaches COMM 111 and COMM 112.

These are public speaking courses; COMM 112 focuses on the workplace. Students’ ability to confidently and clearly convey their thoughts is important to Eigenheer. Through public speaking courses, she believes that young students can learn skills that will help them later in life.

Eigenheer talks passionately about her work in journalism. As an instructor, she now has the chance to teach hopeful journalists how to be successful in their own careers. With this responsibility, she is realistic about the future of journalism; the industry has worsened since Eigenheer published her first story.

“It’s a really tough industry to go into right now. It’s been a tough industry to go into, but it’s harder today,” she said. “Layoffs are constant, and at publications you wouldn’t think are lacking money.”

Despite the challenges that journalists face in 2026, Eigenheer believes that the ability to publish media independently is an advantage for students looking to enter the industry.

“Because of the way media has grown, and the access we have to be our own creators and to disseminate online independently, if you’re creative and self-motivated, you can produce this content and make a living from it,” Eigenheer said. “It’s not easy, but you don’t necessarily have to follow the path of traditional journalism.”

Writing a future for U of L students

Eigenheer warns students not to let stress detract from their love for journalism.

Eigenheer prepares her students to consume and create news media in COMM 305, Mass Communication, and COMM 320, Newswriting. In both of these courses, students are taught to analyze the real messages of the media that they consume.

She believes that understanding how news stories are produced can help students better understand society.

“Being able to see how we report the news tells us a lot about what our values are at the time,” Eigenheer said. “We’re picking and choosing, and that is a reflection of what we think people will read.”

Heading into the spring semester, Eigenheer looks forward to getting better at teaching her public speaking classes by making them more useful and engaging. She is also excited to teach Intro to Mass Communication for the first time.

Photo courtesy / Mickie Winters