News From Macedonia

Sometimes when you get so wrapped up in your own country’s media world, it’s really hard to imagine how other countries run their news stations. That was the case for me, until a few weeks ago when I was introduced to Slavica. Slavica is a reporter from Macedonia and for the past few weeks I’ve been working with her to put together a project about her experiences here at the University of Missouri. Since I’ve never had the opportunity to travel internationally, you can imagine how many questions I’ve asked Slavica about her country and how her station works.

I’ve learned a great deal from her, especially about how similar and how different reporting is here in America and there in Macedonia. The thing I found most interesting was the pressures journalists in Macedonia face from the government. American’s have a bit more opportunity to cover political stories without the scrutiny of the government and having the story kept from being run. As far as social media though, we are both on the same track.

More about the project….

Throughout the duration of this project I was essentially Slavica’s “photog”. The final project Slavica will put together is a 10-minute video giving insight into what she’s learned while being here since the fall. The final video will be broadcast by her station and shown at the National Embassy. Once it is done I will definitely post it!

While shooting for this project, we also put together a few packages to air at her station back home. The first package talks about Obama’s visit to Macon, Mo. on April 28 and how students at KOMU covered the event. She also talks about how his visit affected Missourians. Much of the footage comes from the actual KOMU newscast and some of it comes from things we shot. Since I don’t speak Macedonian we worked together to edit the package. We laughed our way through it, and she told me what shots to use and I laid them down!

View the video below or click here to see the aired version on Slavica’s stations website! And if you speak Macedonian you are in luck! Sorry I don't have the translations for these videos...

Although Slavica thanked me a lot for helping her with her project, I think I can say I gained just as much from her (learning about journalism in her country!) as she did from me!