A great interview from San Francisco

Today I'm so glad to share with all of you the interview I gave to the talented journalist from San Francisco, Ama Simone Miller. We discussed about social media, the evolution of journalism and we made a comparison between the way journalism is made in USA, Italy and Venezuela. You can read her blog  http://asimiller.wordpress.com/ and follow her on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/mychasi. Enjoy your reading!

Interview with José Domingo Guariglia

AMA SIMONE MILLER

José Domingo Guariglia – journalist, blogger, and broadcaster. So announces his LinkedIn headline, and looking at his LinkedIn profile, he’s filled those shoes. He agreed to be interviewed; below is talk on blogging, differences in news styles between countries, journalism, and more!

What kind of journalist are you? How would you describe the type of work you do/want to do?

Since I got my degree I’ve been working in online journalism. I used to work as the Coordinator of a website in Venezuela ( http://www.globovision.com/ ). This is the website of a local TV network specialised in news 24 hours a day. My work consisted in writing the news that were going to be published on the website and coordinate the rest of the writers and the distribution of the contents along the site. Since November I quit and I moved to Italy where I’m finishing my studies in Communication for International Relations. I want to focus on international journalism

What made you want to enter the field?

I’ve always liked to write and I consider myself a very curious person. When I had to decide what to do for the rest of my life, I thought that Mass Communications was a broad career that offered me a lot of prospectives and I’m happy with my choice.

On your LinkedIn profile, it shows that you’ve studied for three different degrees: Mass Communications/Journalism, Broadcasting, and a Masters for Communication for International Relations in the works. How has each of these degrees supplemented your career and work?

Mass Communications is my Degree. I consider myself a communicator, first of all. During those five years of study I learned a lot of things that I have used in my work experience, but it is also true that all that knowledge is very wide and today, if you want to be competitive in the work market, you need to specialise in something.

I’ve always been attracted in multiculturalism, languages, travel around the world and cross-cultural communication and I had a class in International Information at university that I really enjoyed. So, for me, the best decision was to specialise in the international field. That’s why I chose the Master in Communication for International Relations. I really hope to start working in an international media very soon.

About the Broadcasting course, I can tell you that I also like the work on camera and the many dimensions you can give to your voice when you work on the radio. At university I didn’t have the opportunity to explore the multimedia side of journalism, and so this course was important to fill that part.

How do you work with social media (FaceBook, Twitter, blogs, etc)?

When I was working I constantly used social media. In fact, part of my work was to keep updated the Twitter and the Facebook accounts of the TV network. Today online journalism is more than web sites. If you don’t have a presence in social networks, your impact as a media will be very limited. Now that I’m not working, I use social media to keep myself informed about what’s happening in the world in a fast way. On Twitter I follow all the media that interest me and I also share with my contacts those news that I think that could be useful. I also have a blog http://proudnomad.blogspot.com/ but is more a sort of diary of what I’m doing and what I think.

What do you think social media’s role will be in the future of journalism?

I think that media should understand that the industry has changed completely. Now the media are not the only owners of the information. People is also an important source and social networks have given the power to the people. Nevertheless, the work of a journalist will always be important to select and classify the information that comes from different sources at the same time.

Do you think ‘old school journalism’, like print newspapers and news networks, will be around in twenty-thirty years? Why or why not?

Yes, I’m sure they will be around, but they will need to redesign their role, to change in order to keep the new audiences attracted.Maybe, use more graphics and photos instead of whole pages with text and concentrate more in the analysis of the facts and not in the news that everybody could find on the internet. The history of journalism has taught us that new media doesn’t eliminate the old ones but they become complementary. That’s why today we have printed media, radio, TV, magazines and internet.

In American journalism, there seems to be a lot of pressure for journalists to be absolutely neutral and avoiding showing a preference towards one side or another in articles and news reports. Is the same true in Venezuela or Italy? From what you’ve experience, what’s the ‘standard’ journalism style of the countries you’ve worked and studied in?

Well, I can tell you that in Venezuela and Italy the situation is very different from the American way of making journalism. Italy and Venezuela have many differences but I have seen that in both countries the politics take all the news agenda. Media only talk about politics and both societies are very divided. Journalism has suffered a lot in this situation because the media have become part of the game. So you can find media that are supporting the government in a very obvious way and some that are against the government and sometimes tend to exaggerate the facts to make the government look worse. In both Venezuela and Italy, journalism is not based on objectivity and people know that. In the end, people only read the newspaper that reflects his or her opinions and this doesn’t contribute to the analysis of ideas that journalism should inspire and promote. In TV and radio, I have seen that there is a tendency to make entertainment shows and avoid politics.

About your blog, Proud Nomad – what inspires you to blog?

I had a previous blog called Equilibrio Radical and it was only in Spanish. I used it as a way to promote all the materials I was writing for different media. It was a sort of portfolio of my work. Two months ago, I realized that I needed to refresh it because all this year I’ve been travelling and knowing people from different parts of the world that don’t understand Spanish. Suddenly I realized that I have become international and that my blog should be international too. So I thought about the possibility of changing the name, the address, the language and the purpose of my blog. Now, it has become a diary, a space where I can explain myself and try to understand what’s coming to my mind. It’s like a therapy.

And finally, a bit unrelated…if you could go anywhere for a month, where would you go?

I have no doubts about this one. I would go to NY. It’s my favorite city in the world and it’s the place where everything happens. For a journalist it’s the perfect environment. I like the chaos that you feel when you go to a city like NY. There you feel you are alive…