Sarah Hutchins | Nov. 19, 2008
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| Photo by James Brosher |
| Asma Khalid, B.A.J. ’06, now is a producer for NPR’s Morning Edition. Visiting campus, she told students about her job duties as well as described ethical issues she faces in radio work. |
Khalid, B.A.J. ’06, visited three classes during her visit, including professor Owen Johnson‘s J410 The Media as Social Institutions class.
While Khalid said she did not focus on broadcast during her time at IU, an internship with the BBC drew her to radio.
After getting her master’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies at Cambridge University, Khalid secured an internship and later a job working at NPR. Today she works the overnight shift from midnight to 8 a.m. to produce Morning Edition, one of the network’s flagship programs.
The show’s early time slot, she said, can lead to ethical decision-making. Part of her job during the overnight shift is to edit pretaped interviews. While an actual interview might run 40 minutes, Khalid often has to cut the interview to only seven minutes.
In the rush to filter out the most important parts of an interview, Khalid often has to decide whether answers can be merged.
"It’s an interesting ethical question," she said. "I generally don’t think it’s wise idea to put two answers together. But is it something we never do? No."
Khalid said the decision often rests on if she thinks the interviewee would think he or she was misrepresented.
"You don’t want to imply that someone said something they would never say," she said.
Another ethical issue involved the use of the word "live." Because Morning Edition runs at several times throughout the country, often a guest might be live in the studio at one time, but not when the program is rebroadcast in another part of the country.
While words like "live" can be deceptive to listeners, natural sound can also pose a problem.
"When you tell a story with sound, you’re using distinctive, natural sound," she said. "It’s not ethical so say you’re one place and then get sound from somewhere else."
Recently Khalid wrestled with an ethical dilemma of her own. While working on a freelance story about sold-out hotels during presidential inauguration, she had to decide whether to use natural sound of a Ritz-Carlton lobby in combination with an interview with the hotel’s manager taped in a different part of the building.
While the ultimate decision was to use the two in combination, Khalid admitted that "it was a tossup."
By night Khalid works for NPR, but she also does freelance reporting for both NPR and other stations. While she advises freelancing, she cautioned students about using professional titles.
"Where do you tell them you’re coming from?" Khalid asked. "Can I tell them I work for NPR? Yes, but can I guarantee them it will run on NPR? No."
Khalid suggested students pitch a story and get editor approval before interviewing.
Before answering student questions, Khalid spent a few minutes discussing changes in journalism and how to get a job.
While radio has fared better than print media recently, NPR is still trying to find ways to adapt to the changing face of media, she said. NPR has many loyal fans, but younger generations prefer to listen to programs online or by podcast. However, NPR cannot put many of the most popular programs online.
"Member stations buy in," Khalid said. "Who’s going to pay for our programs if we’re giving it away for free online?"
NPR is trying to find ways to become a news organization and more than just radio. One way, Khalid said, is by hiring young people.
Khalid had little experience in broadcast when she applied for the NPR internship the summer after she graduated from Cambridge. She knew she would be taking a risk by applying for a non-paid internship instead of applying for a job. With risk came reward of a permanent job at NPR.
"I would definitely say to have no qualms about talking to your boss," she said. "I talked to my boss and asked him, ‘What is the percent chance I can get a job here?’ There’s no harm in talking to him and making it very clear that you’re interested in getting into the internship with the intent of staying."
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