The clock is ticking, sources are calling and you’ve got a story to produce. It's just another day on the job.
Imagine a job where you're on-call 24 hours a day. Imagine traveling to a war-torn, foreign country without so much as a day’s warning. In this job, no two days are ever alike. This is the job of a television news correspondent.
Susan Candiotti, a correspondent for CNN, has many responsibilities. She starts her typical day by scanning papers and television news. She conducts interviews and makes phone calls for her assignments. Oftentimes, she doesn’t know what the next day will bring. Candiotti has to be prepared to deal with anything “There’s never a dull moment,” she says.
Candiotti says the most exciting part of her career is meeting and interviewing people from whom she can learn. She is always looking for ways to make a difference. “The world is never the same after I do a story,” she says. “People are better informed and inspired.”
The job of a reporter can be difficult. Candiotti keeps a packed suitcase nearby in case her daily routine is interrupted with an assignment to cover a major event. It has happened before. Candiotti traveled with U.S. troops to Kuwait in 1998 with less than a day’s notice.
She says that any story that involves tragedy is a difficult story. Yet her most rewarding assignment involved a man who was killed because of his race in Jasper, Texas. “The reward was when the victim’s family thanked us for our coverage because it was done in a non-sensational fashion,” Candiotti says.
Interviews are an important part of a television news correspondent’s job. Candiotti’s advice for successful interviews is to remain emotionally balanced.
“Keep your sensitivity,” she says. “Don’t become too detached, since the people you interview can sense that. Also don’t become too emotional. It is important not to become part of the story.”
After completing an interview, television correspondents must edit the tape and add background facts to the segment. Candiotti spends about five hours interviewing sources for a 90-second story. She then takes a few more hours to put the story together.
The goal of a television correspondent, Candiotti says, is to consolidate all sides of a story in a fair and objective way.
“If there was no free press, the result would be chaos,” she says. “Only one side of the story would be portrayed, which is dangerous.”
Candiotti worked hard to achieve her current status. In college, she interned at WGN in Chicago and WTAJ in Altoona, PA. “It’s not an easy profession,” she reminds journalism students. “People are looking to you for a fair and accurate picture of the world around them. You can’t let your feelings taint the story.”
Candiotti credits her success to listening to other people’s advice throughout her career. She didn’t accept things at face value, but wasn’t a skeptic, either. “If you are willing to take on the responsibility,” she says, “journalism is for you!”
