March 23, 2021

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John Burnett, a Southwest Correspondent for NPR, talked about how he fell in love with his work in investigative and international journalism. He also gave advice on how to start a career in journalism and lessons he learned over time. 

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Burnett said he loves what he does, and at NPR he’s able to do “serious journalism”, which is a real gift in this difficult profession. 

“I really love what I do, and I’m enthusiastic and passionate about it,” Burnett said. “I think it’s a calling. Don’t do it if you wanna make money: do it if you wanna slay dragons and tell the truth.”

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Burnett also said developing people skills and a likeable personality is one of the keys to good journalism because then people want to talk to you.  

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“There was a writer in Vanity Fair that said ‘journalism is a seduction’. You’ve got to make people want to talk to you; whether it’s the mayor, or a senator, or a guy who just rode out a hurricane in his trailer,” Burnett said. “Be real. Be a person. This is important: use the personality that God gave you.”

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Amber Adamson, a lecturer at Baylor University, said that while her personality is on the introverted side, passion can triumph timidness.

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“I do think that if you're passionate enough about storytelling and about, like he mentioned, ‘slaying the dragons and telling the truth’, if that’s your passion then you can overcome some of your natural tendencies that would make it maybe difficult to do that,” Adamson said. 

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Another piece of advice that Burnett gave was to find a different angle on the story, and look the other direction to get a different view on what’s happening. 

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“There's so many journalists on a story that when they’re all looking [one] way, I look [the other] way. I look for a story they’re not covering. I look for someone on the edge of the crowd who’s watching.” Burnett said. “I’m a great believer that if everyone’s looking North, look South and find something different.”

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Brianna Garcia, a junior from Houston, Texas, said that she never heard any advice like this, but thought it was insightful.

“So many reporters want big stories, and I just love how he said that he’s a great believer in ‘everyone’s looking North, look South’ because I think it is tougher, but you can find probably the best stories,” Garcia said. 

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According to the KAWC website page on Burnett, he has field stories from over 30 countries, and was even the East African Correspondent in Nairobi. One of the negatives that Burnett has experienced from international journalism is the “survivors guilt” of democratic reporting. In the United States, journalists are protected whereas in Mexico, a place with a lot of corruption, their freedom of speech is limited.

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“When I cross the bridge into Texas, I have survivor's guilt that I can come back into a country where journalists are very protected, and where our voice counts and we have a say and what we say matters.” Burnett said.