In her first job in television news, Maya Sargent, a multimedia journalist for E.W. Scripps’ WTXL, is covering a neighborhood in Northwest Tallahassee.
Originally from the U.K., Sargent said her British accent has endeared her to the Floridians she now lives with and reports on and makes them more inclined to talk to her.
“It’s been great to kind of learn more about my neighborhood through the lens of my neighbors,” Sargent told B+C Multichannel News . “They’re telling you what’s important to them, what they want to hear.”
From a message on Facebook, she learned that the food pantry at the local Veterans Village for homeless former servicemen was empty. Sargent did a story on that for the station.
A few days later, she got an email from a teacher in a school on the other side of town.
“They said they were so moved by the story,” Sargent said. The elementary school held a food drive and delivered what it collected to the Veterans Village. Sargent did a follow-up story.
“To call attention to a problem and have a viewer react and encourage a whole school to do a food drive then deliver that food to fill the pantry was the most unbelievable display of what local news can do,” she said.