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Stevenson Selected For NABJ Student Project |
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WRAL-TV Editor Taunia Stevenson recently received an honor from the National Association of Black Journalists. The NABJ invited her to take part in the NABJ TV Student Project at their annual convention in Phoenix, Arizona, on August 16 – 20.
Stevenson was selected from a field of hundreds by the NABJ board members. She traveled to Phoenix, all expenses paid for the entire five days of the convention. She became part of a student group that produced three newscasts to cover the event. Stevenson headed up the entertainment part of the
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Taunia Stevenson
WRAL-TV Editor |
newscasts; her title was that of reporter. She covered the surrounding areas of Phoenix and featured local hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues.
Now a junior at NC State, Stevenson began her career at CBC as an intern for the North Carolina News Network (NCNN) last summer. She later transferred to news clerk at WRAL-TV and was recently promoted to editor. She works at WRAL part-time while finishing a degree in mass communication. She expects to graduate in May.
The NABJ has approximately 3000 members, including WRAL-TV weekend anchor/reporter Ken Smith and FOX 50 Station Manager Paul Pope, has 74 affiliated professional chapters and 51 student chapters, making it the largest media organization for people of color in the world.
Founded in 1975, the organization strives to strengthen ties among African-American journalists, promote diversity in newsrooms, honor excellence and outstanding achievement in the media industry, expand job opportunities and recruiting activities for established African-American journalists and students interested in the journalism field, and expand and balance the media’s coverage of the African-American community and experience.
Andrea Parquet-Taylor
WRAL-TV News Director |
The convention boasted a wide array of special appearances; including U. S. Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr., actor Robert Guilliame, ABC News Anchor Carole Simpson and music group Boyz II Men. Stevenson did not get to attend many of the seminars and workshops during the convention because she was hard at work on assignment. Her schedule while in Phoenix was as grueling as normal news work. The project participants had to be in the “office” by 7:30am and usually didn’t leave until after 10:00pm. She did several features and says she learned a lot even though she missed out on the convention itself. She said that although she already knew a lot about what goes into creating a newscast because she works in a newsroom, this project gave her the opportunity to do some on-camera work. Stevenson eventually wants to be a reporter or anchor. She believes that learning the behind the scenes work is crucial to being successful on-camera.
Stevenson’s road to Phoenix started with News & Observer columnist Barry Sanders. He saw potential in her and forwarded her name to NABJ president Will Sutton who also works at the N&O as is Deputy Managing Editor. Sutton sent her name forward from there, and she eventually received a call to ask her to participate.
Other CBC’ers joined Stevenson in Phoenix, including Pope, Smith and WRAL News Director Andrea Parquet-Taylor. Human Resources Director Jan Sharp and Benefits Administator Van Williams attended the job fair portion of the event.
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Ken Smith
WRAL-TV weekend
anchor/reporter |
Paul Pope
FOX 50
Station Manager |
