{"id":3317,"date":"2014-02-13T21:29:38","date_gmt":"2014-02-13T21:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/?p=3317"},"modified":"2014-02-13T21:29:38","modified_gmt":"2014-02-13T21:29:38","slug":"veteran-sports-journalist-stephen-a-smith-inspires-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/2014\/02\/13\/veteran-sports-journalist-stephen-a-smith-inspires-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran sports journalist Stephen A. Smith inspires students"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Stephen A. Smith was the guest speaker at the 16th Annual National HBCU Student News Media Conference. Photo: Avi\u2019Yam Jordan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mark Braboy
\n<\/strong>News Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Veteran sports journalist and ESPN First Take host, Stephen A. Smith, gave aspiring student journalist words of advice during 16th Annual National HBCU Student News Media Conference, held in Houston, TX. In a one on one interview with The Blue & White Flash news editor, Mark Braboy, the Queens, N.Y. native shared a goldmine of wisdom to aspiring journalists and how First Take often touches on controversial social issues in the world of sports.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mark Braboy:<\/em><\/strong> What are some of the adversities you faced as a young black male entering the journalism industry?<\/p>\n

Stephen A. Smith: <\/em><\/strong>Well number one, the first opportunity is always the toughest opportunity. You\u2019re working to get somebody to believe in you, because the reality is that before you get your first job, you ain\u2019t qualified for nothing. It\u2019s really about somebody giving you a chance to showcase whatever skills you have and then taking you under their wing, to nurture you enough where you would be qualified for any job in the future. That\u2019s really what it is. So that hard part is really finding somebody that believes in you, that has faith in you enough to want to give you an opportunity to shine and that\u2019s always the toughest path. You\u2019re going to earn internships, you\u2019re going to class, you\u2019re taking a lot of hours and working on your degree, you\u2019re doing all those different things. In the meantime, try to have some resemblance of a life because tomorrow is not guaranteed and you want to be able to have a good time whenever you can. In combination of all those things, there are roadblocks. For me, my brother dying was a roadblock. My mother falling ill was a roadblock. Before she got better, just having the pressure of needing to produce because my mother did so much to sacrifice for all of us. She\u2019s doing better now.<\/p>\n

Mark Braboy:<\/em><\/strong> I remember you talking about that on First Take a couple of months ago.<\/p>\n

Stephen A. Smith:<\/em><\/strong> Well she\u2019s battling cancer. She\u2019s won her first battle, but you know it\u2019s never ending. But at the same time, she went through so much to put me and my five siblings in the position to succeed. To fail is to let her down and I ain\u2019t trying to let her down.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mark Braboy:<\/em><\/strong> What are some of the most important aspects that can make or break a journalist?<\/p>\n

Stephen A. Smith: <\/em><\/strong>You need to read everything. You need to make sure you network as much as you possibly can, who you know matters. Who can connect you to information matters. That\u2019s work ethic and understanding the pulse of the industry.\u00a0 Once upon a time, newspapers were \u201cit\u201d. Now it\u2019s almost extinct. Now the digital age is taking over with radio and television and newspapers are fading from the scene. You got to be mindful of things, you got to see the forest from the trees. You can\u2019t wait until it hits you. You got see beforehand that the newspaper industry is dissipating in its popularity. You got to monitor that, you got to know what\u2019s coming down the pipe because the world is ever evolving and our nation, particularly our job market\u2019s, constantly changing. You got to pay attention to what\u2019s going on so you can understand what\u2019s going to be beneficial and potentially profitable for you. Because if you don\u2019t you\u2019re going to get lost in the shuffle.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mark Braboy:<\/em><\/strong> Do you think that some commentators in other arenas are afraid to speak on social issues the way that you and Skip Bayless do?<\/p>\n

Stephen A. Smith:<\/em><\/strong> Well first of all, I don\u2019t think that they\u2019re afraid, I think they\u2019re cautious and I think they\u2019re justifiably cautious because, especially if you\u2019re white, you constantly have to be worried about coming across as racially insensitive. But sometimes I think it\u2019s excessive. Sometimes we as black people get too emotional about what people of different ethnicities have to say. Yet we want to know what they feel. Well if you want to know what somebody feels, you have to give them the freedom to express themselves, just like you would want the freedom to express yourself.\u00a0 Now that doesn\u2019t mean they get to go overboard and get to say some outrageous, obnoxious things, but it does mean that people have a right to think differently than us, to express a different cultural perspective than us, and they shouldn\u2019t have to worry about offending us. We should be able to stomach that [and] I think that you have a plethora [of] white folks that dominate this industry. I think their fear of speaking out is based on that. People are losing their jobs because of things that are misconstrued and taken out of context or misinterpreted or whatever the case may be.<\/p>\n

Mark Braboy:<\/em><\/strong> In the midst of people losing their jobs because of things they say, how do you keep yours?<\/p>\n

Stephen A. Smith:<\/strong> I\u2019m careful about what I say and what I do, but I don\u2019t think about it. I pride myself on being a fair minded individual. I say what I mean and I mean what I say, but at the same time I\u2019m very fair. I don\u2019t think that my perspective is the only perspective that\u2019s true and it\u2019s the only perspective that matters. I just know that I\u2019m real with mine so if you realistically and legitimately disagree with it, then I\u2019m open to hearing what you have to say. And I think there is an advantage to it, why I\u2019m successful in terms of touching on issues most people won\u2019t talk about is because I open the floodgates to fear diving. I have no problem whatsoever with somebody who\u2019s different than me, thinks different than me, feels different than me, culturally different than me, expressing themselves. Doesn\u2019t bother me at all. And they don\u2019t have to worry about offending me because I don\u2019t think about it. I think that helps me because I\u2019m receptive to what they have to say so they\u2019re more receptive to what I have to say.<\/p>\n

Mark Braboy:<\/em><\/strong> What\u2019s something you wished someone would have told you when you were coming up that you would like to tell students now?<\/p>\n

Stephen A. Smith<\/em><\/strong>: How important networking is and interoffice politics. Everything ain\u2019t about your ability. Sometimes it\u2019s about being liked and it\u2019s about finding people who want you to succeed who are in positions of influence and decision making.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Braboy News Editor Veteran sports journalist and ESPN First Take host, Stephen A. Smith, gave aspiring student journalist words of advice during 16th Annual National HBCU Student News Media Conference, held in Houston, TX. In a one on one interview with The Blue & White Flash news editor, Mark Braboy, the Queens, N.Y. native […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-campus-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}