Pete Paguagu, SCSU JRN ’12, is a senior sports producer for GametimeCT.com, a publication of Hearst Connecticut Media.
Whether he’s writing about athletes, editing videos of game highlights, or interviewing coaches on his podcast, Paguaga is immersed in local sports and technology at his job as a senior sports producer for Hearst Connecticut Media Group. Paguaga graduated from Southern with a B.S. in journalism in 2012, and now also teaches digital media and sports reporting classes at Southern.
How do you use technology in your work?
When I went to school here I wanted to be the next great sports writer. And now I’m working with video cameras, taking photos, doing podcasts. A lot of that didn’t really exist or wasn’t really mainstream when I went to school.
Coming to Southern, taking the classes at Southern, it gave me the tools to have the ability to do those things if they ever became an integral part of my job, which they have. Being able to learn how to edit video before reporters were actually editing their own videos put me at an advantage when I was looking for a job or looking to grow at my job.
How did Southern prepare you for the journalism field?
They were always ahead of what was next. You want to be a writer? That’s great: You’re going to have to learn ow to take photos. You’re going to have to learn how to edit audio.
Southern was always on the front of what was coming in the industry and though we just touched on each of those subjects, when you get to the field and you know how to do that, it makes you way more valuable.
How did you become involved as an adjunct instructor at Southern?
The way I figured I could give back was to get in the classroom and teach the next generation of journalists. You look around the state of Connecticut, there’s a lot of great journalists who did go to school there. And I want to be a part of that process.
I want to help students get jobs. I want to help prepare them for the field in a lot of different ways. And, if me teaching a couple of classes a semester helps one student, it’s a win.
If I could help get students in this field and help them achieve their dreams, that’s awesome because that’s what they did for me here.
Do you see yourself staying in journalism?
God, I hope so. I mean, journalism has always been really important to me ever since I was a little kid. I always loved reading the newspaper. And, even to this day, I focus on the digital, but whenever I see my name in a byline or photo credit, I still get butterflies inside. I just think it’s so cool.