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Broadcast Journalist Stephanie Bertini: From Toronto to Miami to the National Stage

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Broadcast Journalist Stephanie Bertini: From Toronto to Miami to the National Stage

 

 




Introduction to Stephanie Bertini.   1:31 min.  Interview:  Raymond Elman.  Post-Production:  Lee Skye.  Music: Tony Succar,  Recorded via Zoom:  8/23/2021, Miami.

 

Stephanie Bertini is the Miami-based correspondent for the Black News Channel (BNC). Her coverage area includes Latin America, the Caribbean, Central and South Florida. Over the course of her fourteen-year career, Bertini has covered crime, culture, politics, social justice issues, humanitarian issues, major weather events, immigration, and border security. Her range of experience includes investigative reporting, feature reporting, and anchoring.  She also has experience hosting entertainment, weather, and traffic segments.  

 

Bertini stepped onto the national stage in April 2021 after six years with NBC Miami.  She knows the South Florida market well and has deep ties within the community.  Bertini also reported, at the local level, in central Florida for ABC affiliate WFTV. Before that, she spent several years covering the U.S – Mexico border for ABC affiliate KRGV-TV. Bertini got her start in news at Canadian television station CTV News Northern Ontario. 

 

Throughout her career, Bertini has received recognition for her reporting and storytelling, including a National Edward R. Murrow Award. She is also committed to mentoring the next generation of journalists and giving back to the industry.  She has been a guest lecturer at various educational institutions, a seminar leader at industry conferences, and a guest faculty member at the Poynter Institute. 

 

Bertini serves as a judge for the Emmy awards and the Murrow awards and writes for RTDNA’s digital newsletter.  She sits on the Leadership Council at the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication.   Bertini is an Adjunct Professor at Barry University where she teaches in the Department of Communication. 

 

She earned a Master’s degree in Journalism at the University of Miami. She is originally from Toronto, Canada, where she completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in History at York University and studied Broadcast Journalism at Seneca College. She is multilingual, speaking Italian, Spanish, and some French. 

The videos below were recorded via Zoom, are organized by Success Factor, and run between 30 seconds and 8 minutes. Click on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.

 

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:   0:44 sec.




Where did you grow up and what was your first awareness of art of any discipline?

 

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND:   1:17 min.




Watching you on TV, you appear to speak Spanish with a Spanish accent, despite having grown up in Toronto. Do you speak Spanish?

 

UNDERSTANDS THE AUDIENCE’S PERSPECTIVE:  0:49 sec.




Did you have to work at developing a proper Spanish accent or did it come naturally to you because you already spoke Italian?

 

PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS:  7:17 min.




When did your interest in reporting the news first start to develop?

 

EXPOSURE TO BROAD INFLUENCES:  2:40 min.




Who are some of the journalists who have been role models for you?

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:  1:49 min.




What are some of the ways you find a world in a raindrop?

 

COMMUNITY VALUES:   2:45 min.




On “CBS Sunday Morning,” Steve Hartman reported a story about a 104 year-old lobster fisherwoman in Maine. Hartman’s last sentence brought me to happy tears — as he always seems to do.

 

UNDERSTANDS THE BUSINESS OF ART:  2:09 min.




I mean this as a joke. I can’t imagine you being “trapped in traffic.”

 

OVERCOMES CHALLENGES TO SUCCEED:  2:14 min.




Journalists have to be “quick-studies” or “instant-experts” so they can interact intelligently with their interviewees. Is that something you learned in school or on the job?

 

VALUES FIRST-RATE EDUCATION:  1:30 min.




Are you a continuous learner?

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:  4:43 min.




You reported on the 5th anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre. Were you working in Orlando when the mass shooting occurred?

 

STRONG DRIVE FOR ACHIEVEMENT:  1:45 min.




How did you make the move from Canadian TV news to the U.S.?

 

DEVELOP A VOICE:  3:20 min.




Explain why you have avoided being a multimedia journalist (MMJ).

 

CRITICAL THINKING:  2:10 min.




Once you either get approval for a piece you pitch or you are assigned a piece, what are the next steps?

 

STRONG DRIVE FOR ACHIEVEMENT:  5:36 min.




Why did you make the transition from the Miami NBC affiliate to the Black News Network (BNC)?

 

CREATIVE FLEXIBILITY:  1:09 min.




Looking at the news stories you sent me, I noticed that they are pretty long. Are they for a news magazine format?

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:  1:46 min.




Your story for BNC about a racially mixed couple, with mixed citizenship and kids, being unable to unite during the pandemic because of border crossing limits, seems to have many of the elements you love, all in one story.

 

UNDERSTANDS THE BUSINESS OF ART:  0:57 sec.




Where is the Black News Channel headquartered and where are their bureaus?

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:  1:52 min.




In 2020, more and more White people started realizing how much history of Black and Brown people has been suppressed; which is a great opportunity for BNC to attract a broad diverse audience.

 

COMMUNITY VALUES:  3:04 min.




How did you get involved with the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication at Florida International University (FIU)?