Interview: Sophia Constantine of Spectrum News 1
The following is a Q&A style interview I conducted with Sophia Constantine for my Advanced Reporting course on women in journalism.
Sophia Constantine is a familiar face to countless Ohio residents. Sophia is the morning anchor for Spectrum News 1, where she keeps Ohioans informed on regional happenings. However, she got her start in her home state of Texas, where she reported, anchored, and produced out of a small station in Tyler. A six-time Emmy nominee, avid volunteer, and extremely diligent worker, Sophia and I spoke about finding her footing, anchoring for Spectrum, and work-life balance in a career that often requires you to be on-call.
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Q: What is your earliest memory of what you wanted to be when you grew up?
A: I never really had anything in mind other than news.
The earliest memory of news for me was 9/11. I remember my parents coming home and taking me out of school, and my mom put my brother and I on the couch and we watched the TV as everything unfolded. It was wall-to-wall, all day long coverage trying to figure out what happened. I realized everybody in the country was turning on the news to get information.
That was my first “Okay, I wonder if I could do this one day.” For a long time, I thought it wasn’t within reach, I thought, to be on TV, it’s like the one in a million. It’s like becoming Michael Jordan, or something like that.
I started taking communications and journalism classes in college and realized, I can actually do this. Once I realized that everyday people do it, I thought, I can do it too.
Q: What do you think are the factors that led you to working where you do and doing what you do?
A: You generally have to start in a small market and work your way up, especially if you want to be in front of the camera.
I went to grad school, which is very untraditional for journalism. Pretty much everybody told me that it wasn’t necessary, but I did it anyway because I’m stubborn. I ended up going to grad school and I was fortunate, the last semester, I got a scholarship that paid for all of it. I was very glad that I decided to do it in the end.
My first job was in Tyler, Texas. I started reporting, and then I anchored the weekend shows. It was a very good experience because it was a small market and I was able to make my mistakes there. Like if I mispronounced a word, or just stumbled over my words from reading the prompter. I learned a lot about how to be expressive on camera.
I was there for two years, then I decided I wanted to get a Monday through Friday job. Which is hard in journalism. So, I started looking all over the country at jobs. In broadcast, it’s very common that you have to go away from home. I grew up in Dallas, so when I was in East Texas, it was very easy for me to drive home on a weekend if I needed anything.
I learned that there was going to be a Spectrum station starting in Ohio. I wasn’t sure about joining a station that was completely new, but I did part of my undergrad at the University of South Florida, which is in Tampa, and their number one station in the market is the Spectrum station, so I was a little familiar with Spectrum’s products. That made me more open to coming to a new station – a new, new station.
I applied and interviewed and I thought, really, I’m young. At that point, I wasn’t married, didn’t have kids, so I thought, “If this goes terribly, I’ll be okay.” I had to make sure that I could financially afford to take that risk, and my parents were very supportive.
I ended up moving here and my first contract was three years, which is typical on camera: Two to three years. I re-signed for a second contract; now I’m in my third contract here. Ohio’s home at this point.
Q: What’s been your favorite story that you’ve covered?
A: Probably last year, I met a group of women who are dragon boat racers, which is similar to rowing, but they were all breast cancer survivors. Their age ranged from 40 to 85, and I knew going into this story that they would be strong ladies. But when I got there, I realized how difficult the sport of dragon boat racing is, and I realized how physically strong these ladies are.
The rowing motion is very beneficial for women who have lymphedema from breast cancer- related surgeries, so it’s kind of like physical therapy for a lot of them.
I try to participate in every story that I physically can. I have a segment here called Exploring Ohio. Once a week I’ll go out and feature some outdoor activity or location, or somebody [who] has a unique hobby. For the dragon boat racing one, I got in the boat and actually rowed with them. I’m fortunate that I get to work with a photographer: Very few people do.
Q: Have you ever had to cover a more difficult topic and how did you go about it?
A: Last week we were doing 9/11 coverage. We did cut-ins [of] family members who came and read the names of those who passed, and they had six moments of silence throughout the morning where they stopped reading the list and they took a 30-second pause. They ring a bell, and it’s to mark every time a plane hit, when the buildings went down, when Flight 93 went down in Pennsylvania. We do stuff like that often and, when you hear the bell, it’s like, “Okay, this is real.”
It is one hundred percent okay to show emotion when you’re storytelling. I think it makes it much more relatable because if you’re feeling something, the viewer at home is probably feeling something. You want your stories to elicit emotion from viewers, whether it’s happy or sad or whatever.
And I would say any murder trial is very hard to cover. It’s not what you want to do every day, but it is important that people know about it.
Q: What advice do you have for women who aspire to be in your position or want a similar career?
A: There’s a high burnout rate in journalism, so my advice would be while you’re in college, get as many internship opportunities as possible. If you have the chance to tour a news station, sit down with people in the newsroom and have simple conversations like this. That helps set expectations for when you enter the real world.
The work-life balance can be really challenging. If there’s breaking news, you might be on call for the weekend once every two months. You may have to drop being at family dinner and go.
If you go into the typical affiliate world, be realistic when you’re interviewing. Ask [about] the demands, because there’s not a 40-hour work week in journalism.
I love my job. I have to wake up at 2:15 in the morning every day, ‘cause I have to be at work at three. But I wouldn’t trade my job for the world. I could never imagine doing something different. It’s the best.
Q: Do you have any goals right now?
A: Last year I received a lot of Society of Professional Journalism recognitions and Ohio Associated Press awards, and I’ve been nominated six times for Emmy awards. I’ve never won. I’ve been a nominee six times. It’s easier to get nominated than to win, I’ll say that. I’d really like to be able to say “Emmy award-winning journalist,” because right now I just have “award winning journalist.”
Personally… I don’t know. I’ve got a lot going on. My fiancé and I are both selling our houses so that we can buy one house together. We’re planning a wedding. So that’s a big focus over the next year.
I’m really passionate about healthcare. There’s a volunteer program at Ohio State where actors and everyday people act as mock patients for students. I love doing it because it gives you all the facts, and it’s up to you to ad-lib the encounter, but you have to stick to the facts at the end of the day. That ad-libbing is helpful in journalism when you’re on TV and you have to ad-lib through something. That’s something I’m really, really passionate about: I’m there three or four times a month.
I know that my life is going to become more busy as things progress, but it’s one of my goals to maintain volunteering there as much as I can, because I think it’s really neat that people like you and I can contribute to the next generation of healthcare professionals when we have no medical or acting experience.
And at the end of the day, it is storytelling. Even though it’s acting, acting is storytelling.
Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.