By: Rosa
Sundar-Maccagno, 7A (this almost-twelve year old journalist is my cute and brilliant niece, who had to do an interview for a school assignment)
1. How did you decide to become a journalist?
I was always interested in what was happening around the
world. I used to live in New York City at the time and I was interested in
international affairs, in politics, in economics, and writing about what was
happening, and particularly writing about what I believed was the truth about
what was happening, you know I felt that was something that was very important,
something I would love to do for a living. Because I thought that a lot of the
newspapers were not giving an accurate account of what was happening in the
world. So I felt that if I could become a journalist then with my perspective I
could make a difference.
2. Can you describe what your job involves?
My job involves deciding everyday what is the most important
news and ensuring that all those news items get covered properly, accurately
and in a way that readers will want to read them. I’ve to keep my readers
informed about what’s happening in the country and the world. That’s
essentially my job.
3. Can you describe a typical working day for you?
My day begins in the morning when I wake up. I get all the
newspapers in my city, I get them at home. So that’s about ten newspapers. I
quickly go through them all, I see which are the stories, I try to make a list
of the stories that we missed that other papers have, or stories that require
follow up. Then I turn on the TV, I also go online to read more newspapers.
Then I start making phone calls to my colleagues saying you need to cover this,
you need to cover that. I go into office at 12 o’clock. We have a meeting where
we discuss the editorials that we need to write for that day. After that I may
meet some people outside the office, or I may have to go give a talk somewhere.
Then in the evening around 6 pm we have another meeting where we discuss what
will go on page 1 of the newspaper. I have colleagues who look into all these
things. Then finally I go home about 11 at night. So it’s a long day that I
work.
4. Could you describe the path your career in journalism took?
I started off as an Assistant Editor. I was a junior guy,
responsible for selecting the letters to the Editor. We get many letters every
day, so the newspaper has to decide which ones are going to be published. And
sometimes the readers don’t write in very good English, those letters have to
be corrected. So that was my first job, to process letters to the Editor. After
that I began to write editorials. Then I became a reporter, so I would go on
assignments to Kashmir, Pakistan, to Serbia as I said. Then I became a Foreign
Affairs Editor, so I was basically analyzing what was happening rather than
reporting directly. Then I became a Deputy Editor, then I became Chief of
Bureau, which is the head of the team of editors in one city, and from there I
became Editor. I went from being the guy who selects the letters to the Editor,
to being the actual Editor, in about 17 years. I think it’s a long time, but
it’s not a long time actually.
5. What’s your favourite thing
about your job?
My favourite thing about my job is that every day is a new
day. It’s impossible to feel bored because the newspaper you produce everyday
is different from the newspaper you produced the previous day. So it’s not like
working in a bank, it’s not like working in the university, or in any other
job, because the content of what you do changes every day. Because news happens,
new things happen, which require us to write about them, require us to analyse
them. So I think the freshness of the job is something that I really, really
like.
6. What do you dislike about your job?
I dislike the long hours and the fact that it keeps me away
from my wife!
7. What has been your favourite assignment?
My favourite assignment was when I was a reporter and I went
to Serbia in 1999 to cover the war. I was in Belgrade for two weeks. It was
scary, dangerous, bombs were falling around us, there was a lot of tension. It
was scary but it was also exciting. So I think that of all the assignments that
I’ve done, that would be my favourite.
8. And what was your least favourite assignment?
My least favourite assignment, I suppose.. You know
sometimes as a journalist you have to go somewhere with the Prime Minister, you’ve
to attend some event, you have to cover a boring speech or function. As a young
reporter, you have to do these things. So I think probably the time when I had
to cover some speech by the Prime Minister or President, that would have been
my least favourite.
9. What are some of the challenges you face in your job?
The fact that people are not always as skilled as you’d like
them to be. There’s lots of competition from other newspapers, from TV, and sometimes
my reporters won’t have a story that another newspaper will have or they’re not
able to get a story that another newspaper has, or a TV station has. The
serious challenges are dealing with a highly competitive news environment with
limited staff.
10. Was this the career you thought you’d have when you were a child? Or
did you want to be something else?
When I was a child I was always attracted by the world of
international politics and diplomacy. Some of my earlier memories…I used to
keep a scrapbook, for example, of wars and conflicts around the world. I was
interested in Palestine. So I always dreamt of becoming a diplomat who would
help to resolve some of these difficult problems. When I became older, I became
more interested in becoming a teacher, a professor. So I started studying Economics,
the idea was that I would teach Economics in a university. But when I was doing
my graduate degree I got more interested in politics and journalism. So you can
say that by the time I was 28-29, I decided firmly that I wanted to be a
journalist.
11. What gives you the most satisfaction in your job, what makes you the
most satisfied that you’ve achieved something?
Satisfaction can come in many ways. It can come from something
as simple as getting a letter from a reader who says “a story you carried has
really touched my life and I thank you for carrying that story.” Or we write a
story and because of that story a road gets repaired, or a hospital gets fixed,
or somebody corrupt gets investigated. When stories we write in our paper have
some kind of impact on the public, that’s the biggest source of satisfaction.
12. If you weren’t a journalist, what else do you think you’d be?
Oh, that’s a tough question! If I were not a journalist, I
guess I would be maybe a scholar, maybe a researcher. Yeah, I think a researcher, somebody who works in a
think-tank, writing books, I think that’s what I would be. I don’t think I’m
suited for any kind of office job.
13. What skills are required for your job?
Nothing other than good English, and honesty, integrity. And
the desire to tell stories. You have to be interested in the world around you,
that’s the only requirement.
14.. What is something that is not
generally associated with journalism but that you have to do, something
that people don’t really know about journalism?
I think that people don’t imagine that journalists have to
read a lot, they have to keep educating themselves about different topics. People
assume that journalists just know everything. Whereas actually, a lot of hard
work goes into being a journalist. The best journalists are those who take the
time and effort to really study the subject they write about. That’s not
appreciated much. People either assume that journalists are ignorant, or that
they know it all.
15. What advice do you have for
an aspiring journalist?
My advice to an aspiring journalist would be to make sure
that your writing skills are good, excellent. Practice writing, practice
telling stories. Get into the habit of writing, whether it’s for a school
journal, or a college newspaper. You also need to enjoy interacting with
people. So if you are shy and don’t like talking to people, you need to get
into the habit of meeting people, talking to them, get interested in their
lives. All of that is something an aspiring journalist needs to practice.
