For this week’s Media Monday, we’d like you to meet Kierra Elfalan, evening anchor and reporter at KAPP-KVEW Local News.
1. How did you find yourself as a journalist?
By exploring, covering many different types of stories and figuring out which ones mattered to me at the end of the day.
2. Which of your stories are you most proud of?
A story I did on a disabled man who was being discriminated against. The officials for the city he lived in were not allowing him to keep his service horse even though he is dying of cancer. It was my favorite story because telling it was helping this man, brining many people on board to help.
3. What is your favorite thing about your job?
Telling stories that matter and having the subject of you story tell you just how thankful they are.
4. What is your interview style?
I wing it, I know what I want to hear and I ask those questions as they come but I also just like to let the subject talk. I form the story around what matters to them.
5. What do you look for in a story?
How many people does it affect, will this help those people, will people care?
6. What is your day like at your job?
Very busy, I go in early and look for story ideas, then I pitch my stories, then I shoot video and conduct interviews, then I write and edit stories and then I anchor a newscast. No time for messing around. I need constant concentration.
7. Who do you most look up to in the journalism industry?
One of my mentors Joyce Taylor, she is an anchor at KING 5 News in Seattle. She does a great job of story telling and she feels very comfortable doing it and many people in the community admire her because she cares, she’s good at her job and also a good person.
8. What is your favorite news outlet?
TV news.
9. Fill in the blank:
- If I am not reporting, I am…spending time outdoors exploring or making time for family.
- If I could interview anyone, it would be…Gary Ridgeway (The Green River Killer). I am not morbid or weird, I just want to understand him and I think how his mind works would interest many people who like me, don’t understand.
- My favorite thing about the Pacific Northwest is…the beauty, the trees, the beaches.
10. What is your guilty pleasure?
Binge watching my favorite TV shows.