Multimedia Journalist
My name is Karina Espinoza Rios and I am currently an Assignment Desk Editor and Weekend Producer at Telemundo Arizona (KTAZ). I started my role during late February 2020 during my last semester as an undergrad at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. I clearly remember being told by our then news director that everyone in the newsroom would begin working remotely from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I had only finished training as an Assignment Desk Editor, in my very first out of college experience job just a few weeks prior and I knew this was going to be a challenge, nevertheless I took ownership while learning many things on my own from home.
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I'd like to describe the desk role as the brain in the newsroom, I am so grateful for everything I know thanks to this position. From being on top of breaking news, to scheduling interviews, to news gathering stories, to pitching stories, to handling email requests, to running editorial meetings. You name it! It's definitely one that teaches you to multitask in a fast paced environment where unsurprising we understand news never stops. Most importantly it has taught me to work under pressure and stay organized. Soon I was able to prove these skills, and a couple of months later I was promoted to a content producer, which allowed me to work alongside a reporter on our community beat. This required to work on a special story once a week by coordinating interviews and gathering data. Some of the stories were related to housing resources, street vendors, and immigration. During this transition I was then given the responsibility to produce our weekend 10pm 30 minute newscast where I structured the show with local news and helped edit scripts for my reporter for that night, as well as work with the rest of my team to make sure the show has a little bit of everyone's creativeness. I been in Telemundo Arizona for 3 years and I'm excited to see what else life has in store for me as my passion continues to grow for this profession.
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Now, lets back track a little to my college education and experience. As mentioned before, I studied at the Walter Cronkite school where I was able to graduate with my bachelor's degree in May of 2020 and where I graduated with my master's in 2021, all while being a student at Barrett, The Honors College. During my undergrad years I minored in Spanish as I wanted to continue practicing my native language and knew it was essential for my journalism career. At the Cronkite school I got tremendous opportunities! I anchored and reported for Cronkite Noticias, a Spanish-language newscast that aired on Univision or UniMás four times each semester on Saturday evenings. I also anchored our Cronkite Avance which is a weekly Facebook Live that contains summarized content about our full newscasts. usually this gave me the chance to practice producing. At Cronkite Noticias I focused on covering the Hispanic community with stories about education, health, and immigration. I also covered politics such as the Phoenix mayoral elections and City Council races. Most of my work as an undergrad is in Spanish, a motive for why I decided to go for my master's degree. During the course of completing my master's I got the opportunity to be an anchor and reporter for Cronkite News PBS where I got to co anchor an evening newscast once a week and complete story packages to air during these shows. Being fluent in both languages has opened many opportunities and I continue to familiarize myself reporting in both languages and I'm humbled to do so.
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Now, lets back track a little to my college education and experience. As mentioned before, I studied at the Walter Cronkite school where I was able to graduate with my bachelor's degree in May of 2020 and where I graduated with my master's in 2021, all while being a student at Barrett, The Honors College. During my undergrad years I minored in Spanish as I wanted to continue practicing my native language and knew it was essential for my journalism career. At the Cronkite school I got tremendous opportunities! I anchored and reported for Cronkite Noticias, a Spanish-language newscast that aired on Univision or UniMás four times each semester on Saturday evenings. I also anchored our Cronkite Avance which is a weekly Facebook Live that contains summarized content about our full newscasts. usually this gave me the chance to practice producing. At Cronkite Noticias I focused on covering the Hispanic community with stories about education, health, and immigration. I also covered politics such as the Phoenix mayoral elections and City Council races. Most of my work as an undergrad is in Spanish, a motive for why I decided to go for my master's degree. During the course of completing my master's I got the opportunity to be an anchor and reporter for Cronkite News PBS where I got to co anchor an evening newscast once a week and complete story packages to air during these shows. Being fluent in both languages has opened many opportunities and I continue to familiarize myself reporting in both languages and I'm humbled to do so.
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I interned at Univision Arizona in the city of Phoenix as a producer and reporter. There I focused on editing content before it aired, I learned to produced newscasts, and reported on local news. I dedicated time to understanding everything that involves the production in the control room when it comes to down time like managing the audio level, playing graphics on air, rolling on the prompter, moving cameras in the studio, and playing video effects after each VO or story. I am highly skilled at using Avid Media now after learning to edit the shows before going live. On this editing program similar to what I used in school adobe premiere, I edited video teases or promos, voice-overs, soundbites and packages. During this experience I also helped reporters conduct interviews and shoot broll. Lastly, I was also given the opportunity to work on a few story packages that got to air. For my special project I was able to travel to the border and work on a story on an art studio that brought children together, the story was called "Arte sin Frontera".
I interned at Univision Arizona in the city of Phoenix as a producer and reporter. There I focused on editing content before it aired, I learned to produced newscasts, and reported on local news. I dedicated time to understanding everything that involves the production in the control room when it comes to down time like managing the audio level, playing graphics on air, rolling on the prompter, moving cameras in the studio, and playing video effects after each VO or story. I am highly skilled at using Avid Media now after learning to edit the shows before going live. On this editing program similar to what I used in school adobe premiere, I edited video teases or promos, voice-overs, soundbites and packages. During this experience I also helped reporters conduct interviews and shoot broll. Lastly, I was also given the opportunity to work on a few story packages that got to air. For my special project I was able to travel to the border and work on a story on an art studio that brought children together, the story was called "Arte sin Frontera".