United States Agency for Global Media

Celia Mendoza

International Correspondent, VOA Spanish

1. What made you want to become a journalist?

Since I was little, I have always enjoyed news, but also storytelling. I come from a place where news was vital for our country. Colombia is the place where I was born and grew up and has a difficult history of violence and turmoil, and that also became one of the reasons. Being able to tell the stories of people, to be able to be at the places where things are happening, and to present those stories to the world became one of the reasons why I ended up doing journalism.

I also feel that this career, it's a calling, you have to be passionate about it. You don't do it for the glamour or for the pay on occasion, you do it because you really are committed to the stories and to what's happening, and I think it’s very important as a career, but also personally for me being an inspiration to do many other things.

2. What was it about VOA that interested you, and how does working here differ from your experiences at other broadcasting companies?

I started working at VOA in New York. I was at News 12 New Jersey when I got a call from who eventually became my boss. VOA became a good place to be, not only because it was different from commercial television, but because of the subjects that we cover.

The way we do things is balanced. We always have every side of the story; it's not an opinion, but most importantly, for me in particular, it gave me the opportunity to go in-depth into subjects that are of interest and also for my region. I cover many things for the Latin America division, and I started in New York, so we cover a lot of the things happening in the city. It's one of the most covered cities in the world: anything happens in New York, everybody wants to know. But also, I had the opportunity to then go to the United Nations and work there as well, and that is one of the places where you are able to learn a lot about others, about the governments, the policies, and eventually to be able to travel around the world covering the stories.

Because of VOA, I have been able to [cover crises], international policy, but also war zones in Israel, as well as Ukraine. And that is one of the big differences between VOA and a local or a private channel where journalists are not as diverse in terms of the things that they can cover.

3. What is something about being a journalist that you wish the public knew?

I think that the passion and the compromise that journalists have in their careers. In the past few years, we have heard a lot about fake news and journalists trying to become famous, and with the explosion of social media, there is a very fine line between what an influencer is and what a journalist is, what a communicator is.

People now can tell their audiences as if they were journalists, but I think that the people don't know is [that] for a journalist, [there] is a commitment to the truth, but also [there] is a compromise to the public with everything that we produce, which means that we have higher standards than anybody else out there trying to present information.

So I think [that’s] something that people should know about us, not only us personally [as] journalists, but VOA, and that's one of the reasons I work here.

4. Having been a journalist in the industry for over 15 years, what are some notable changes you’ve seen in the field of journalism throughout your career (positive or negative)? How have said changes influenced the way you do your work?

 Definitely the capability to go live from anywhere and anybody being able to tell a story; that is positive and negative at the same time. Just because people will be able to present their stories a lot of times could be misinformation. New technologies [are] one of the biggest changes that we have seen accelerated in the past few years with artificial intelligence, but even before that, the Internet changed the way we work, our cell phones became our computers, our live news, it became everything that we do. And now you can do full stories on your cell phone, and use microphones. So I think that is positive. When I started my career, we had satellite trucks and microwave trucks. We had a whole team of photographers and reporters, and I think I had a good time in terms of what I had learned because I was able to experience that part of our career, but also when I was in Denver as a local reporter, I was able to start editing, eventually moving to New Jersey as a one-man-band which allowed me to shoot my own video, edit, and do everything myself, and that has become even more important now that we have new technologies and the access to produce information quickly.

But of course, the most important part is not to be first but to be right.

5. As a journalist, I’m sure you are prepped and prepared to deal with all kinds of situations. Has there ever been a time when you were confronted with something completely unexpected while you were reporting? If so, how did you deal with that situation?

I think for me, the most challenging parts are not riots or rockets over the sky because that's something that you kind of prepare [for] depending on the story, but the emotional part, especially covering the border, a lot of times you end up at places or meeting people, they honestly and genuinely touch your heart.

And I think that's one of the things that has happened, over fifteen years covering [the] border, especially with people that you see coming with little kids. I think that's one of the most challenging. I was able to work with them and try to help them as much as we could. Of course, journalists are not to interfere in people's lives, and that's something that you also have to keep in mind.

But I think that's the most challenging part for me personally. It doesn't matter where it is. You're still human and that humanity will always touch you. When I work in local news, I think it's a little harder and people don't realize that when you do local news, you cover more crime and more stories of that nature, and so having to find families of kids that have been shot or run over by a drunk driver and things like that is a story that I had to cover, and I think that's when you start learning how to face those stories, but also how to put the humanity before the story.

6. What has been the most memorable moment from your career at VOA so far?

Oh, so many memorable moments, but I think for me personally, beyond meeting world leaders and [covering] high-level summits such as Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump in Singapore or even Finland when Trump met Putin or Biden meeting in Geneva with Putin, I think the most important and memorable stories to me is recently, I was able to do a documentary about Ukraine and the people in Ukraine, and I think that's one of the most memorable experiences in my career, to be able to spend the time within Ukraine, with the people, to be able to talk to them and to build those relationships that allow the story to be not only told, but understood by the audiences.

7. Have there been any particularly challenging moments throughout your career? How did you get through them?

Yeah, this is a career in which you must also balance personal life and career. I have made decisions that have delayed my family life, but it's something that you do with that commitment that you have to journalism. So I think I have been able to manage it, trying to balance a family life and a work life.

But as I mentioned, this is, to me, a calling and it is something that you're passionate about and that pays off for a lot of the sacrifices: to be away from family and friends, to travel within a moment's notice, and so you spend your birthdays and sometimes holidays away. So I think that's one of the things that sometimes you don't think about, but eventually after many, many years in this career, you kind of understand that it has to be a balance.

8. Taking a potential story from being an idea to a full-fledged news report can be quite the process. What is that process and what is your favorite part of said process?

Yeah, I think it depends on the stories and depends on how in-depth they are. Day-to-day stories are a little bit more simple. You identify the story, a lot of times your editor directs it, stories of the day, and then you just go through the process of identifying characters, either who's going to be the voices in this story, develop the story, produce it, and airs.  But then, what is more exciting is when you have enterprise stories where you do research, you identify the subject, and I think the most exciting part is producing the story. The research lot of times is a little bit more tedious, but when you're able to talk to the subjects, go to the places, do the shooting of the story, and finally a lot of times because you might have a thesis or a theory about something, but then the story surprises you, it changes as you go is one of my favorite parts.

Then, put it together and be able to present it as a final product, of course.

9. Do you have any favorite journalists that you look up to?

As I mentioned, I'm Colombian-born, so Gabriel Garcia Marquez is very well-known as a writer, but he started as a journalist in Colombia.  Juan Gossaín is also a local Colombian journalist who is more colloquial. I love his storytelling and writing. But as I moved to the United States, and of course, being a female journalist, I loved Maria Hinojosa. She is an example of not only adaptability, but being able to bridge her Hispanic roots to the U. S. and be able to present a platform for unique stories with a unique perspective, being able to represent not only females, but Hispanic females within journalism in the United States, and being part of the whole group of journalists in the United States, I think it is wonderful. I love the way she tells stories, and the depth that she gives to the stories, and is someone I look up to.

10. What advice would you give someone interested in becoming a professional journalist?

I think the most important thing is to be able to understand the “why” you're doing this, because that's going to define your career, to learn a lot of things not only the news but as a journalist you have to have more to say and more to understand history, culture, to go beyond the story.

I think context sometimes is lacking nowadays because things are so quick and fast but being able to see journalism as a career that has more in-depth, it is important. And just to be happy to do what you do, and I think if you have that, if you know that doing this job makes you happy, then you're on the right path.