Monday, October 15, 2012

Sandra Knispel


Sarah Douglass
Jour 271
Oct. 16
443 Words








      
Sandra Knispel, alumni from the University of Mississippi, talks candidly with students about integrity, flexibility, and determination with journalism students.


  Sandra Knispel

UNIVERSITY, Miss. - Tucked away in a sound proofed room in her Mississippi home, Sandra Knispel sits weaving heart wrenching clips with colorfully narrative soundbites creating award winning broadcast reports. 

After years of work as a multi media reporter, Knispel views herself as just “another human-being who is interested.”

As a native German, Knispel’s accent isn’t the only thing that separates her from other journalists on the job. Her loyalty to the principle of do no harm has proven she embodies what journalism was intended to be. 

“I found out in the field that so few journalists know that principle, adhere to that principle,” Knispel said. 

With recent displays of dishonesty in journalists, people have grown to value the importance of honesty in reporters. 

“I’d rather a journalist be upfront about what they are doing and give me just a few facts rather than a journalist go undercover and be sleazy about getting the full lowdown on what’s going on,” Camille Edlen, sophomore pharmacist major at the University of Mississippi, said. 

Along with upholding her integrity as a journalist, Knispel has found a way to gracefully balance the desire of positive outlooks after a disaster with the truth in her reports. 

“It is your job as a reporter to overcome that feeling of saying ‘O, it will all be okay,’” she said. “That’s natural, it’s human, but it’s your duty to report the facts.”

After graduating with a B.A. in politics and Russian studies from the University of Wales, Swansea, she continued her education at the University of Mississippi where she earned her M.A. in journalism 

With experience ranging from a national television anchor in London for Bloomberg TV Germany, regional German newspapers, to a freelance reporter for Mississippi Public Broadcasting and NPR she has mastered the art of multimedia journalism. 

Journalism student, Megan Hauglid referred to Knispel’s range of work as “inspiring”.

Stressing the importance of being able to juggle all platforms of reporting she joked “do you want to eat?”

Balancing professionalism with sincerity is one way Knispel has gotten ahead. 

“I cry my way through some interviews, and it is okay,” she said. “In the beginning as a young reporter I thought I had to suppress that, I thought it made me look unprofessional, and you know what? It doesn’t.” 

By valuing “human decency” she has excelled in the life as a journalist. 
“By crying a lot, it tells the interviewer you know what? You’re only human and you’re taking their pain seriously,” she said. “And I find that after that people do open up and tell you more things because they don’t perceive you as that hard nose reporter.”

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