For my media participation I chose to interview/shadow a journalist. Due to schedule conflict I was unable to shadow my journalist but was lucky enough to score an interview. On November 16, 2013, I met with Trina Williams the Associate Producer Newscast at National Public Radio (NPR) at Capital Teas at the National Harbor in Oxon Hill. On the misty Saturday the two of us sat at the tea bar where she drank a cup of tea per my treat, since after all I was the one conducting the interview, and we had a wonderful conversational interview.
Right from the beginning me and Trina had a lot in common for she decided to settle as a journalist after initially being interested in acting. This was only the beginning though, Trina went to Howard University where she studied communication. She interned at places such as CBS, Department of Veteran Affairs, and the Pentagon as a part of the Speaker's Bureau and once out of school she realized how difficult working in the journalism field could be. Trina remained living at home while working for a small news station titled, WFXA FM in Falls Church where she worked the newscast, but did not earn enough money to live comfortably at this time.
One day while working at WFXA a lady by the name of Stephanie mentioned to Trina that she should apply to be the administrative assistant to someone at NPR. Trina said, "hey why not," and looked at this opportunity to get her foot in the door. Consequently, Trina got the job and has been working at NPR for the past 20 years, something she didn't see coming.
One of the most memorable moments Trina shares was covering the 9/11 tragedies. Being that she was a part of the newscast, news is planned by the hour, and on this day of these horrific events it all happened subsequently as she wast to be delivering the news of the hour, she found herself actually covering breaking news.
The funniest moments that she recalls having on the show would be when anchors mispronounce words like their names because that is such a generic thing to know, yet still happens.
One of the last things we spoke about was who was her favorite journalists and why, she says that she admires Oprah which is like my idol! I want to be Oprah and so did she so we connected on that aspect which brought the plane in for a landing.
Overall I believe this was a successful interview and it gave me a little look into the professional journalism world as well as exposure to commonality that me and Trina have in many aspects which served to be comforting. With the comfort established in the beginning and the "real" information that I received while conducting this interview made this a great experience.
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