Journalist Spotlight | Interview with Hugh Whitfeld, National News Desk Director, Foreign Editor for Channel 7 (Seven Network)

Today, Medianet is joined by Hugh Whitfeld. Hugh shares his experience as a Foreign Correspondent for Seven Network, as well as a look at his career thus far. 

Hi Hugh! Thanks so much for participating! Could you tell me a little bit about the start of your career? And would you still recommend that aspiring journalists take up a degree in media/communications/journalism?

I studied a BA (Communication-Broadcast Journalism) at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst. At the time, it had an extraordinary reputation for graduating newsroom ready journalists. 

My first paid journalism job was at the start of my second year there, producing and reading the local news bulletins on the community radio station, 2MCE, which was based on the campus. That led to Saturday morning shifts presenting at commercial station 2BS. By the start of my third year at Uni, I was filling in on the main breakfast show and working part time at Prime News Orange, and wedging lectures in between. In the middle of third year I was offered a full-time reporting role at Prime...and had to negotiate credits from my lecturers for the work I was doing in a real news room in order to get my degree.  

Prime was an excellent training ground for me. My round was Bathurst, Lithgow, Blayney and Oberon. It was a great way to learn the art of building contacts and making television. We had a fully functioning studio, everything that went into producing and presenting the bulletin was done in Orange and Dubbo.  

I presented Prime News Central West for two years before taking up a job in Sydney with Seven News. Then in 2014 I was posted to London.  

I think journalism degrees are important, as long as they are more practically focussed than theory based (and the old journalism degree at Bathurst was just that!). But the most important thing for me was to just get stuck in. I did work experience at a newspaper and at Prime Tamworth between high school and starting university. Unpaid work isn’t new, and it remains the best way to meet the people who will shape your career, and learn the skills you’ll need.  

What does your day-to-day look like as the Europe Bureau Chief for Seven? What are your main responsibilities and how has your career thus far aided you in this role?

I started in London as a video-journalist. Shooting, writing, editing and reporting everything myself. I was the first full-time correspondent for Seven in London in a decade. We’ve successfully grown the bureau over the last 10 years so we now have full time camera operators here, and a second correspondent. We’re reporting for all Seven’s news programs from here, including Seven News, Sunrise and The Latest. Due to the time zone, it means some very long days.  

There has been a huge amount of travel over the last decade for me, often at very short notice for breaking news stories. So, every day is different. I could be at Downing Street one day and the Olympics the next! 

And I think the grounding I got at Prime—working efficiently, and effectively in a very small team—has set me up well. 

You’ll be concluding your time at Seven’s European Bureau soon. What are you most excited about for your return here? Are there any new projects/developments from you or Seven that we should be looking out for?

First and foremost, I’m really looking forward to being closer to my family. My wife and I have both been in London for many years now and it’s time to go home. Being on call for travel to anywhere in the world at a moment's notice can be quite demanding, so it will be nice to have a new routine.  

I’m really excited by what our National News Desk is going to be able to achieve. Commercial TV newsrooms usually rely on generalists to report the news, and while that is a fantastic skill to be able to draw on, making the most of specialist expertise and knowledge among our reporting team will only enhance the journalism of everyone at Seven.  

The media takes a lot of knocks in terms of public perception, but I challenge anyone to find an economy the size of Australia that is served as well as we are in terms of well-resourced newsrooms across the nation that produce outstanding products. And that's not just us but our competitors too, even in a time of media consolidation.  

How has the increasingly volatile and tense political climate affected the roles of Journalists? Did you face any particular difficulties as an Australian Journalist reporting in/about Europe?

Often, being Australian has been the biggest advantage. Particularly during volatile political situations like Brexit or gilet jaune riots in France. The BBC was particularly targeted in Britain during the Brexit debate. As soon as people know you’re Australian, they immediately relax and are usually happy to talk. Our camera operators have an Australian flag on their cameras so people don’t think we’re British or American! 

I do sense that during the BLM protests in London and in an era of Covid, there was a shift towards a general dissatisfaction with the media. But I do find that for the most part, people are projecting a general frustration with the world more than anything. Having access to the internet in their pocket is probably a big part of that. Gone are the days where you might read a paper in the morning, switch on the news at 6pm, and for the rest of the time, just get on with your life.  

At the extreme level, the political climate includes Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, war in Syria, war in Iraq, war in Gaza, all of which I’ve covered on the ground over the past decade. And they are obviously dangerous assignments. It used to be standard practice to put ‘TV’ in big letters on your car in a war zone because the theory was that both sides of a conflict needed the media to report what was going on and get their side of the story out. That’s not always the case now so it’s more of a case-by-case basis in wanting to be visible as a journalist in a war zone. 

AI has been on everyone’s mind lately. What are your thoughts on its current/potential impacts on the media industry? How has it affected mis/information and how have you navigated this in your career?

Twitter/X has descended into a mess. Anyone can end up with a blue tick, or present themselves as reputable only to report rubbish. I still think that turning to major news organisations who have the resources to go places, ask questions in person, see things for real and report back is the best way to stay informed. Do you really want to trust someone who hasn’t left their basement all day or may just be a bot in Russia? 

AI has enormous unseen potential to make all work more efficient but humans are the lynchpin of life. We shouldn’t willingly throw away the role we all play in each other’s lives.  

The AI answers that are being generated by search engines like Google should be a concern. Ask yourself, where did that information come from? Google is likely just freely scraping the answer from content online produced by an organisation who employs a person to find something out.  

Finally, what makes for a good pitch?

I already get A LOT of emails pitching stories that mean nothing to me. And often they’re blanket emails sent out en masse. They get immediately deleted. Tailoring your pitch to the organisation and journalist you’re pitching to is important. Have you ever actually watched/read/seen us? Did you watch us last night? Do you even know what city/country we’re based in? It’s usually easy to work out what the answer is.  

And NEVER send out a pitch/release/announcement if you’re not willing to answer follow up questions and put someone up for an interview THAT DAY!