From my work at Voice of America, I learnt how to quickly scan headlines and make the editorial call of which stories would be news for those watching our products in different parts of the world. Performing the gatekeeping function myself taught me sometimes even though I think a story is important for people to know, it may not be an important story for the audience and would not serve their interests. For the videos I was producing, I had to be conscious of the different audiences each of the different products catered to. For audiences around the world, sometimes the only American news that was of any value was related to the election. Other times, the most important news of the day were the bomb blasts in Quetta, Pakistan, or the earthquake in central Italy. To pick the news headlines for each of the different videos, I had to remember that I had to pick the headlines that would be the most important for the main audience of that product. For example, the main audience of VOA60 Africa was the citizens of Africa. VOA60 America videos were aired on TV in Cameroon, so the headlines for those videos were about forest fires over large areas of land, or about the clowns terrorizing the country, or even the train crash in New Jersey.
I also learned how to operate heavy recording equipment and record stand- ups, adapting quickly to different on-air talents. Some speak quickly, some speak slowly, and matching the teleprompter to their speed without affecting the audio is
a skill. I also learned how to read news in front of the camera, and how to record my own stand-ups. As someone who speaks quickly and talks a lot with her hands, it took a lot of conscious effort to keep my hands steady and to enunciate each syllable without making it deliberate. It took a few recordings, but I finally got the hang of it to the point that I could record a stand-up in under five minutes, from setting up the camera and tele-prompter to reading the script.
Being on camera also taught me more about my own writing style. Writing for print or online is different than writing for broadcast. Sometimes, some words that seem to work in writing don’t flow well together or don’t sound good when spoken out loud. For example, a particular word could be repeated in print in a particular paragraph — sometimes even a sentence — but that would not work when reading it out loud from a script as it would not sound natural. And script- writing, I’ve learned, is about sounding natural. It’s about making it seem as if the talent is not reading from a screen, but is speaking extemporaneously.
From the seminars I learned many valuable tips to be a more mindful and thorough journalist. I learned from Major Garrett that even when you fee like your work does not make a difference, you get right back up and continue to do your due diligence. From Keith Woods I learned to appreciate a person’s diversity in their ordinariness. The class’ session with Peter Hart showed me that even the best of us can be wrong, that we can sometimes not question an element we know exists but we don’t pay attention to. It was reiterated to us again and again: build
relationships. Journalism is about telling the stories of people, and you can’t tell a person’s story without building a relationship with them. Like Donna Leinwand Leger said, it’s better to have a few in-depth interviews than many surface-level interviews. Down the line, if and when I get asked about a defining moment in my journalism career, one of those will definitely be the semester spent in
Washington, D.C.
During my time in Washington, I also learned the value of initiative and making connections. I was asked to film the award ceremony for the Alfred Friendly Press Partners closing reception held at the National Press Club. It was the first time I had covered an event on camera instead of writing about it. It was definitely a fun experience, and a great privilege to meet the press partners.
I also filmed the 2016 Freedom of Information Summit for the National Freedom of Information Coalition. It was my first time working with an audio box, but it was not difficult to figure out. I am pleased that despite not having worked a lot with video and audio, I quickly figured out the best vantage point from which to shoot the video and record the audio. After these experiences — both independently and with Voice of America — I am confident in my abilities to pick up a camera, arrange the lighting, ensure good audio levels and record
whatever it is I have been assigned to.
The connections I have made in D.C., with journalists from Voice of America, with other interns that I worked with, are ones that I will continue to
cultivate. As I learned from our speakers, relationships are built by staying in touch with people beyond just whenever you need some information from them. Relationships should be cultivated from staying in touch, conversing about more than just what one person needs from another. It’s about being human.