Learning to swim in the Ocean: Experiences of a Brazilian Young Reporter in Russia

FISU Young Reporter Ana Verotti

KAZAN – Going to a place you have never been before is a great experience, especially when it is a wonderful city, in another country and when it is hosting a big event. That’s the case of Kazan for a Brazilian Journalism student that is participating in the FISU Young Reporters’ Programme, for instance.

Such great moment in the beginning of someone`s career has its own challenges, successes and fails. Writing articles about it requires research not only about the teams and matches themselves, but also about the places where the games will take place and, most importantly of all: how to get to these places.

Being part of the media staff has pros and cons, like everything else in life. One of the good parts is that every accredited journalist has transportation granted in one of the 525 busses that were especially reserved for the event. However, being a foreign journalist who doesn’t speak the local language has the power to transform any kind of information, for as simple as it may be, into a nightmare, due to the language barriers. Which is a huge problem if you are the foreign journalism student that has to walk around a city you’ve never been before.

Transportation is one of the most essential things to mind if you are part of the mass media, and it seems really obvious to say that, until you become the one who can’t write an article about a match because you didn’t see the match. And why is that? Because you went to the wrong place …

Learn with the others’ mistakes and double check every information before going to any place, especially under the circumstances described above. Even when you are sure of an information because it was a local person who told you, always have a map of the city you are visiting, a guide of the games you are covering and a little bit of luck to find the right information and go to the right place at the right time – to watch the right match …

Ana Verotti (BRA), FISU Young Reporter