A student print journalist in the audience at the “Broadcast is Not a Dirty Word” MediaFest 25 session admitted that broadcast is a dirty word because he never watches television news.
But Cari Hernandez, the news director at WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C., does not just do television at her station. The content her station makes is put on multiple platforms — beyond traditional television – digital, social media and streaming.
“It’s still broadcasting, but on different platforms,” Hernandez said. “It’s one-stop shopping. I’m looking for those ninjas. You have to be able to multitask and you guys can.”
Ten years ago, there were reporters, video editors and producers all working together. But now Hernandez is looking for reporters who can do it all. She thinks the new generation of reporters are well prepared for a career in broadcast journalism because they already know how to shoot and edit vertical videos or social media.
Above all, Hernandez said she needs multimedia journalists who can frame stories around the people in the communities they cover. But she warned attendees against making the story about themselves.
“I think that’s when we struggle because it’s like, ‘me, me, me, me, me,’ and I’m like, ‘oh, I don’t care,’” Hernandez said. “I need to know what’s going on in XYZ neighborhood or let me bring attention to whatever the issue is.”
On the panel with Hernandez was Washington-based Spectrum News reporter Reuben Jones, who see himself not as a broadcast reporter, but as a multimedia journalist. Only 5% of his day is actually spent on air; the rest is spent reporting on telling stories on different platforms, especially social media nowadays.
Jones said everything runs on X (formerly known as Twitter) in Washington, but it is often a very negative space. He just started posting reporter explainers onto TikTok. His first video, on a World War II bomb causing a street to close in Berlin, got quick traction.
“I just did a little video about it, like 10 seconds,” Jones said. “I’m starting to embrace it because I think there is a real opportunity for TikTok in terms of this style. Take a story that you do and do a version where you go a little bit more in depth and talk people through a story.”
Social media is becoming more of a dominating force in newsrooms, and Jones is exploring different platforms. While he uses TikTok for reporter explainers, he has made mini-documentaries that have done well on YouTube. Since television is often restricted to one-to-two minute packages, YouTube has given him more space to produce long-form content.
Hernandez and Jones emphasized how young journalists have to be willing to do it all to make it in the industry — but Jones warned journalists in the room not to spread themselves too thin.
“If you’re doing this and you’re doing that, you want to make sure what you’re doing is high quality,” Jones said. “Put effort into one thing at a time that you know is going to be solid. Sometimes we have to remember that we’re doing a lot and they can’t all be done at once.”
Tagged under: Mediafest 25, SPJ