{"id":6653,"date":"2016-06-30T15:26:59","date_gmt":"2016-06-30T15:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/media.am\/i-will-better-serve-my-people-if-im-telling-our-story-to-the-rest-of-the-world\/"},"modified":"2016-06-30T15:26:59","modified_gmt":"2016-06-30T15:26:59","slug":"i-will-better-serve-my-people-if-im-telling-our-story-to-the-rest-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/hay\/2016\/06\/30\/6653\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI will better serve my people if I\u2019m telling our story to the rest of the world\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mary Nersessian Sagharian is a Senior Digital News Producer at CTV, a major news organization in Canada. While working on her Bachelor of Journalism at Ryerson University, Mary secured the coveted internship at <\/em>The Globe and Mail. When her work at the <\/em>Globe finished, she applied to CTV \u201con a fluke\u201d. She got the job, became a writer, then a producer, and has been there ever since. <\/em><\/p>\n

She found that she loves supervising and managing: \u201cIt quickly became apparent to me that I didn\u2019t want to be a reporter out in the field. I wanted to be controlling things.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Mary believes that it\u2019s important to have an informed public, and she sees her role as finding ways to make more people read the news. She feels that as an Armenian, she has a responsibility to share the history of the Armenian people with the rest of the world. <\/em><\/p>\n

You specialized in newspaper journalism but ended up working for the web. How did that happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I always wanted to do newspaper, always. [But] when the Globe<\/em> put me on the web desk, I found that I really loved the urgency and immediacy. I liked working for the web. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m lucky working in digital because I have these skills that will take me into the next generation. I think maybe it was a fluke, maybe it wasn\u2019t; maybe I was thinking ahead. But I think working in digital is a really exciting place to be, right now. <\/p>\n

I still would love to work at The New York Times<\/em> \u2014 it was the be-all and end-all. At the time, and still a little bit today, web doesn\u2019t have the same cachet as newspaper, as TV, but the truth is we have a lot more eyes on the web sometimes than other media. People haven\u2019t fully caught on but they are.<\/p>\n

Do you publish more content online? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I think people just go to web first. They\u2019re not going to wait to read the newspaper the next morning, if they want to know something quickly. Our aim is to reach the Canadian readership, of course. And as much as I still love the newspaper and holding it in my hand, I don\u2019t subscribe anymore.<\/p>\n

That said, I learned some great skills at newspapers. I\u2019d be very sad if they folded. <\/p>\n

When you\u2019ve been in the field, you know what it takes to collect the information and that translates. I\u2019m not leaving the office, but I can still pick up a phone and do interviews and get information. <\/p>\n

What does your day-to-day work as a digital news producer involve?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll do a scan of all the big news items, but I also have an eye on which interviews CTV News Channel is chasing, and what stories are people talking about and what questions are they asking. I have different tools I use. I look at BBC, but I [also] have analytics tools to see this story still has a life, can we answer these questions? <\/p>\n

We\u2019ll assign stories based on affiliate scripts: CTV Montreal may have a great story and we want to put a national spin on it, so we\u2019ll assign those stories; we\u2019ll assign stories based on TV interviews coming up. Because a lot of people don\u2019t just want to watch a five-minute interview. They want to read it, they want more context. So that\u2019s where we kind of serve as the wire agency. <\/p>\n

So we\u2019ll assign those stories and we\u2019ll keep the homepage updated. I\u2019m looking at the homepage from a distance and making sure it has all the relevant content, looks the best it can, but also how to push it out on social media and give our stories some extra attention. <\/p>\n

So it\u2019s assigning, editing, planning ahead, going to the meetings with the TV folks, so that we can direct people to them, but they\u2019re also directing back to us. We have to meet the CTV national news mandate; we\u2019re not just doing our own thing. <\/p>\n

If I worked anywhere else, for a publication, I\u2019d be an editor. But because this is the TV world, it\u2019s producer.<\/p>\n

When I get home, I often log in and organize myself for the next day. You have to organize yourself to get everything you need to get done. There\u2019s some weekend work, and I told you, I don\u2019t take lunch, I really don\u2019t, I just eat at my desk, it\u2019s fine, it\u2019s no big deal. A lot of meetings, a lot of editing, just back and forth, and making sure we have the most up-to-date relevant information, a lot of micromanaging, delegating and making sure it gets done. I love the immediacy; I love managing people, assigning to their strengths and weaknesses, and scheduling in a way that hopefully works like a well-oiled machine, so if someone calls in sick or there\u2019s a breaking news situation, we can immediately react. And I think we\u2019re good at that. <\/p>\n

So you assign stories just for digital?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s changing a little bit now that we know national reporters are going out into the field. It\u2019s changing in that we\u2019re asking, hey, if you\u2019re there, if you can collect this for us, or you know that extended footage that you shot or interview? Let us know where we can find it, we\u2019ll watch it, we\u2019ll turn something [out of it]. You know, cause they only have a few minutes sometimes to get something on TV, so there\u2019s a lot of extra clippings on the floor that we can turn into something great. <\/p>\n

 A little video, some great photos, some extended footage from an interview that didn\u2019t make it on air\u2026\"Photo<\/p>\n

Is it mandatory now for journalists on the field to create multimedia content?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not. We\u2019re saying we\u2019re digital first now, and people are coming around. Some are better than others. I think it\u2019s a little bit of an instinct for some. CTV News had our Snapchat password, I gave it to them, and it was awesome. When CTV News was in London covering the Queen\u2019s birthday, you know, I can\u2019t fake that. It\u2019s live and they\u2019re there! Maybe some people will wonder what value that adds to the website, but I think it\u2019s reaching this group that\u2019s constantly on Snapchat. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not mandatory for reporters to all have their own Twitter accounts?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, it\u2019s not mandatory, but they all do now. Some tweet more than others, but I think a lot of them are seeing the value of tweeting because we can embed, collect [the tweets] \u2014 and it\u2019s a way of taking notes too. Or if they\u2019re at trial, we can fold that all into a live blog, and people will follow along cause they want to know exactly what\u2019s happening, minute by minute. So everybody has a Twitter account, [but] some are more prolific than others. <\/p>\n

Also I think it\u2019s a personality thing. Most journalists want to be tweeting, I feel. It\u2019s part of their brand.<\/p>\n

You mentioned some tools. What tools do you use?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have some of our own analytics tools, which I won\u2019t mention because I don\u2019t want our competitors to know what we\u2019re using. But I\u2019ll see what\u2019s trending on our website, I\u2019ll also see what\u2019s trending worldwide, and on Facebook or Twitter or of course I\u2019ll look at Twitter Trending, but also there are times when there are false campaigns being circulated. And I start to see more and more emails sending me an infographic about how refugees get more money than Canadian seniors. But it\u2019s not true. So we did a fact check. And that was one of our most read [story], for days and days, and it still comes back. <\/p>\n

What is the role of the media, in your opinion: to pander to an audience (give the public what it wants) or decide what\u2019s important and report on it, even if the audience may not consider it important?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure there are some organizations that pander, [but] we don\u2019t really do that. We\u2019ll be on the election day after day after day, even when people are tuning out by the end of it. It\u2019s still important. <\/p>\n

We\u2019ll try to take things a step further. I don\u2019t want it to be just a viral story. It has to offer some context as to why people are interested and talking about it. <\/p>\n

\n

My goal is to make every news story interesting and tell people why they should be interested because sometimes they don\u2019t know why they should be. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Tell me about your personal project, #KidFriendlyNews<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I try to put a different spin on the news every day, get my kids interested, cause I think it\u2019s very important to have an informed public, and it drives me batty when people don\u2019t know what\u2019s happening in the news. Makes me sad. <\/p>\n

I remember my parents dragging me in front of the TV to watch Nelson Mandela being freed. We talked about news all the time. Growing up, we always had the newspaper, we always talked about it. So the idea behind #KidFriendlyNews is that I hope people will talk to their kids about what\u2019s happening in the world.<\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s what I kind of hope we do with social media: find a different way to attract people to read something that might otherwise be boring, that is important. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Did you write for diasporan Armenian media in Canada when you were just starting out?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, I started at the Scarborough Mirror<\/em>. I called and said I would like to volunteer my services, and they took me on as an intern, in high school. And in university, it was the Toronto Star<\/em> and the Globe<\/em>, and I wrote some stuff for Horizon<\/em> kind of freelance, but I never pursued anything. And my thinking, honestly, was I will better serve my people if I\u2019m telling our story to the rest of the world. I will still sometimes write some stuff for Toronto Hye<\/em>. But we know about the [Armenian Genocide], I want to tell everybody else, and we\u2019ve done a lot about the [Genocide], on CTV, more than anybody else. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There was one time I was kind of irritated: when I wrote that article on manti [a type of dumpling] for the Toronto Star<\/em>. I worked a long time on that one feature: it was my way of telling Toronto about my community, and the weekly [Armenian] television show picked up the paper and said, ” The Toronto Star<\/em> wrote about manti this week”. And I was like, wow, no credit to me? Because the Toronto Star <\/em>wasn’t going to write about manti if it wasn\u2019t for me. So I was a little irritated by that. We have to work harder to lift each other up. <\/p>\n

Have you been asked to cover a certain story because you were Armenian?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, never. But when I discovered that my grandfather had written his memoirs about the Genocide, I told CTV I really wanted to make something out of this\u2014<\/p>\n

A news story?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, and I had to explain why it was important. I had to make a case for it, what and how media outlets around the world covered the Genocide and what their policy was. And at the time, it was nothing like what it is now \u2014 people will easily use the word Genocide. It\u2019s changed in the last 10 years. So I made a case. I interviewed the Turkish ambassador. I had to. I had to talk to the other side. Especially since I was Armenian, there was going to be greater scrutiny on me covering it properly. He called me after and said you did a very objective job in covering this. <\/p>\n

\n

You have to talk to the other side. It\u2019s not a blog. If you\u2019re treating it as news and you want to be taken seriously, you have to talk to them too.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Do you find that you have a preference or pay special attention to Armenian topics?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Personally, yes. It doesn\u2019t really influence the stories that I assign, in terms of their being about Armenia and so on, but it does influence human interest stories because I think I\u2019m more attuned to stories of immigration and building a new life in a foreign country, and to Middle Eastern and Eastern European kind of topics than some of my colleagues. <\/p>\n

But your personal preference isn\u2019t necessarily reflected in the coverage.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Are we writing about Armenian stories? No. We\u2019ll maybe write about some refugee stories that I\u2019ve heard about that others haven\u2019t, or during the Genocide commemoration, sure. But on a day-to-day basis, no. <\/p>\n

What is of interest to major mainstream Canadian media from Armenia or Armenian topics? Are there hot topics on Armenians here or stories coming from Armenia?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the [Electric Yerevan] protests were happening, we published some stories. We published a couple \u2014 nobody was interested. They weren\u2019t. There was a [bus] blast in Yerevan \u2014 no one was interested. Germany recognizing the Genocide. In the newsroom it was recognized as newsworthy, it was in our top stories, [but] it didn\u2019t really get much interest. Even when some of the \u057b\u0561\u0580\u0564 stories, the genocide, you know when the Pope recognized it? I think there was some interest there. It was when Kim Kardashian was going to Armenia, so I guess people were tuning in, right? But during that period, there was definitely interest. I think once people have tuned in, they don\u2019t need to hear more. <\/p>\n

During our conversation, you mentioned in passing that you wouldn\u2019t encourage your children to be journalists. Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I would not encourage them to be a journalist because I would not wish the same stress on them. It\u2019s low pay, and lately a lot of jobs have been lost in Canada. Or maybe if they want to pursue it\u2014 I don\u2019t know. I will encourage them to pick a lucrative path. But you have to be passionate about your job too. You have to love it. I do love it. Otherwise, I wouldn\u2019t still be doing it.<\/p>\n

Interview by Adrineh Der-Boghossian<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mary Nersessian Sagharian is a Senior Digital News Producer at CTV, a major news organization in Canada. While working on her Bachelor of Journalism at Ryerson University, Mary secured the coveted internship at The Globe and Mail. When her work at the Globe finished, she applied to CTV \u201con a fluke\u201d. She got the job, Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hay","category-viewpoint","author_posts-adrineh-der-boghossian"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}