The #CSUSocial team has grown 🙌 Couldn’t be happier to introduce John Cline, our newest member of the CSU Social and Digital Media team. Let’s get to know John a little better.

Tell us a little bit about your experience in social and digital media.

Science, travel, and culture have always captured my curiosity. As a child, I remember sitting at the dinner table and reciting obscure natural history facts to my family. They would ask, “Where did you learn that?” And my reply would often be from the Discovery Channel or National Geographic Magazine.

Fast forward to my early days in college. I was a young, dewy-eyed student wrestling with the existential question of what I wanted to study and where to start an early career. One day, I sat in on a lecture from a local wildlife photographer. I remember being amazed at the idea that someone could make a living telling stories with digital media. Shortly after, I went out and bought my first camera and never looked back.

In time, I started building experience behind the lens and learned that digital storytelling is more than beautiful imagery – it’s a tool to share ideas and expand my creativity.

As a photographer, videographer, and social media professional, I’ve worked for and partnered with federal, state, and NGO organizations, telling visual stories about land conservation in South Africa, endangered species in the Everglades, shipwrecks and underwater archeology of the Great Lakes, hammerhead shark research in Florida Bay, remote sensing technology and underwater exploration, beekeeping, the obscure art of lutherie, and more.

I’m excited to add my background in digital media to the CSU Social team and bring to life all the amazing stories at our land-grant institution.

What are you most looking forward to working on as a member of the CSU Social team?

The CSU Social team is full of talented storytellers. Each brings their own unique set of skills and experience to the table. I’m stoked to learn from each of them and grow as a digital media professional.

Moreover, CSU overflows with digital media opportunities. From cutting-edge research to student life, community engagement to athletics, I look forward to exploring the diversity of CSU stories waiting to be told.

What’s your favorite aspect of working in the digital storytelling space?

My favorite part of digital storytelling is the challenge of finding that “it” factor that makes each story unique, relatable, or interesting.

Whether it be highlighting an important message or teasing apart anecdotes that make a certain character or subject particularly intriguing, I love to find creative ways to curate a visual experience that the audience can engage with and leave feeling like they learned something valuable.

What performing artist is in heavy rotation in your current playlists?

This is tough! I bounce between a lot of artists and genres, but as a 90s baby, grungy rock and throwback rap hold a special nostalgic place for me. Artists like Nirvana, Rise Against, Tupac, and Outkast are a few that will regularly be on repeat for me.

What’s something interesting most people don’t know about you?

You could say a green thumb runs in the family. My current house plant collection stands at 27 leafy friends.

One that I’m most proud of is a dawn redwood sapling (metasequoia glyptostroboides), which my dad patented for horticulture and is considered endangered in the wild. I plan to bonsai it this spring!