From the files of "Is this a good or a bad thing..."
These last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity for me. New York is in "celebrity season" with new movies, albums, etc being released and marketed, which means there are lots of events and interviews for me to provide for Mega TV's various shows. In addition to "farandula," I also try my best to keep our Mega TV programs abreast of the major news happening in the Northeast, from swine flu to the recent university shootings, to the war's effect on families in our area. I consider myself a reporter first, but I do find it fun to sit and talk with famous people every once in awhile. I also understand that famous names often attract viewers and readers, especially online, so I try my best to help the channel get eyeballs and exposure.
When I am about to cover an event, or interview a celebrity, I treat it the same as if I were reporting on a major city announcement or investigating a story. I do my research ahead of the event, and take special care to try and ask questions with some substance, and not just the typical "What are you wearing" and "How does it feel.." type questions that they've probably heard a thousands of times.
This usually results in a lot more interview time than what is often allocated to someone of my current status in the Spanish media world. I can usually get pretty good engagement from my interview subjects, even while their PR agents are buzzing around trying to get them to the more "major" outlets. My subjects appreciate that I've put effort into their interview, and usually provide me some great sound bytes for my pieces.
So imagine my surprise when quotes from two events I recently covered - an interview with Sofia Vergara, and my recent covering of the red carpet event for People en Espanol, found their way onto the pages of some more established media websites.
“I’ve sung in my house,” she told Mega TV, “but I had never stood on a stage.” Vergara, who only had two weeks to rehearse for the show, has a deep bellowing voice that catches audiences by surprise. Best part: She’s turned the cellblock warden into a Latina by peppering her lines with some Spanish phrases. “They said, Do it however you want—being Latina, being a young woman, sexy—we won’t change you,'” she has said.
I'm very grateful that they gave Mega TV the credit for the quotation.
From another perspective, last week, I covered a red carpet event for People en Espanol. I was able to get some pretty good sound bytes from the celebrities attending, mostly because I researched their latest projects (and in some cases, latest gossip) and created index cards with individualized questions for each attendee. It took me a quite a bit of time to put all this together (being a staff of only 1) but it was worth it, because I got great stuff which I included in my piece.
I then saw that some of the quoted answers showed up in print in a recent Associated Press article, which is circulated to hundreds of other websites and newspapers, as is the nature of their distribution. I remembered there was an AP person next to me with a tape recorder, so I figured that was where the quotes came from. To be clear, there is nothing wrong with using any of the answers I solicited during the event, because events like these are basically press conferences, where anything being said by those interviewed in public can be used by all media attending. But I'm pretty confident that the quotations referenced in the article were provided from my questions because they were pretty unique vs. what was being given to the other people on the carpet line. Check out the
article here, and then my piece on the event below.
I guess I should be flattered that my work is helping other media with their articles. That the information one gets makes its way to other outlets is usually a good thing for a reporter, even if it's "just" entertainment stuff. I hope it proves that I am taking what I do seriously, and not just celebrity chasing or trying to get camera time. So, to Latina Magazine and the Associated Press - Thank you and...you're welcome?
