Session 1 Q&A
Q: Have you ever been on TV? - Javier
A: I'm on five days a week. I'm on the early morning show. I get up
anywhere between 2:30 and 3:30 in the morning!
Q: When did you first start liking to write? -Valeria
A: I basically loved to write my whole life...but I found out I wanted
to go into broadcast in high school.
Q: Do you have broadcasting for gossip/entertainment? - Maria
A: We have a sister station called the CW (little green logo)...They take
care of our entertainment for us. Any time the red carpet rolls
out (our CW reporter) will be there.
Q: How do you know which things to go to around town? -Liam
A: We gets news tips every day...We have to make sure to see which
(story) is more important. we have to decide and prioritize the stories
we can cover. while you're covering that story you have decide what
photos you're going to get and what pictures will be most important.
Q: What are some of the courses in high school you took for this career path? -Jessica
A: I made sure to get all of my basics covered to really build a foundation for where I was headed. I didn't take any journalism courses per say, but that doesn't mean you don't have to or shouldn't. You really want to lay out a foundation for college...I graduated high school with 29 (college) hours. I was able to then come and do the major I wanted to do, Broadcast Journalism, in three years.
Q: Is there ever a day where there is nothing to report? -Frances
A: There are slow days, but there's always something important going on.
Q: Do you have a written script or do you know what you're going to say? -Emma
A: If you have enough time from the field, you can write it out and read from a phone or a script. Sometimes you don't have that luxury. Sometimes you don't have the time to do that. You have to remember the important things, the bullets, and then go with those. When I'm on the morning show, I write out what I'm going to say and read it off the teleprompter...The hard thing about that is you have to make sure it doesn't sound like you're reading.
Q: What school did you go to? -Robert
A: I went to Weslaco High School in the Valley.
Q: What made you decide to stay here in Austin? -Laura
A: When I came to UT I made new friends that helped me click into this big, big university. My love for this university grew and I knew I was going to start a new chapter here. The allure of this city--the nightlife, the outdoors, the running--you have aspects of a small city along with a big city.
Q: What do you usually report about? -Mycah
A: I'm a digital reporter, so a lot of what I report on is geared toward online or digital spaces....I pick up the viral videos and show them to you guys. The majority of people at home probably haven't seen those yet, so I pick them and show them to you guys.
Q: Do you just do interviews? -Carsyn
A: A lot of what I do is interviewing, yes. But it can be hard. People don't want to talk to you all the time, but that's part of my job. we have to ask questions to get answers.
Q: Do you pound your face with make-up? -Aimee
A: We don't have our own hair and make-up artist. When I first went on air, I was nervous and wasn't sure what to do. I'm not the kind of person who puts on a lot of make-up, but I like to get dolled up sometimes. For on-air, I just do it myself.
Q: Did you cover Gangnam style? Sydney
A: Yes! If something is happening (online) and it's to glaring to ignore, you try to cover it. But we try not to (cover it) once it's over-killed.
Q: How did you choose/come about being at NBC? -Carlota
A: My internship began at KXAN, but it
s not common to be hired in the market you intern for. You tend to go to the smaller markets to earn your stripes. But I happened to be one of the lucky ones. I interned at KXAN for two semesters and got my foot in the door first...They got to know my work ethic and to know me, so when I applied for the second internship, I was a shoo in...xxx
Q: Do you work with anyone you went to college with? -Ava
A: No, but I work with plenty of Longhorns. A lot of our newsroom are Longhorn alums.
Q: Do you fly to different places when you interview? -Abigail
A: Not typically, but we do take road trips...like to Galveston for a hurricane or Louisiana for a gambling story.
Q: Do you think your job is hard? -Valeria
A: Yes, but not really. Its as easy as you can make it...I love what I do, so it's not really work.
