Welcome again to one other version of my new Creator Spotlight collection — this week I’m sharing an interview from my Tuesday publication for paid subscribers. Check out my earlier Q&As with Amelia Dimoldenberg, The Drey Dossier’s Audrey Henson and AI educator Harper Carroll. Have a pitch for a creator I ought to highlight subsequent? Email me at [email protected]
Even as our information diets more and more embody scrolling social media for updates from high newsfluencers like Aaron Parnas and V Spehar, there are nonetheless instances when nothing beats a longtime mainstream journalism outlet. That was definitely the case as Americans wakened on Saturday, Feb. 28, and found their nation plunged right into a warfare with Iran. That weekend was not solely NCS’s highest-rated weekend amongst complete U.S. audiences since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but it surely additionally delivered the highest days of complete watch hours for stay and on-demand video throughout the cabler’s digital platforms. And it boosted NCS’s TikTookay by greater than half 1,000,000 followers.
Bijan Hosseini, a NCS senior producer and a member of the NCS Creators team I profiled last year, has become a familiar face of the crisis on the network’s cable and digital platforms through his on-the-ground reporting from Doha as the war in Iran rages.
A 10-year NCS veteran, Hosseini moved from Abu Dhabi to the Doha bureau at Media Center Qatar just a few months ago to join NCS Creators, a team of rising stars who report about technology, art, culture and sports with an eye for social distribution (alongside a weekly show). With NCS now deep in round-the-clock coverage of the war in Iran, the Oklahoma native and his fellow NCS Creators team members have dispersed to tackle stories only they can tell about how life is unfolding in the Middle East.
Multiplatform producer Leila Gharagozlou, a regular on NCS Creators, has shared dispatches from Iranians about how they’re communicating with the rest of the world amid sweeping internet blackouts. And Hosseini has been doing live news hits where he shares updates on how Qatar is responding to the crisis — including intercepting missiles over the Doha skies — and how people are adapting to life in the crosshairs of a major conflict.
I interviewed Hosseini, 33, final Saturday — he was simply off a weekend reporting shift — about what it’s like to work by means of a serious information occasion like this. “It’s a very busy time, but actually being so focused on work is kind of getting us all through it,” he tells me. “You just put your head down and do the job in front of you.” In our dialog, calmly edited for readability, he shared how he sifts by means of the noise, official authorities accounts and on-the-ground sourcing for the most well timed and correct narratives. and the way he’s incorporating his latest work with the NCS Creators staff to meet viewers the place they’re.
What’s a day in your life like proper now?
We’ll begin with the lack of sleep we’re getting. We’ve been getting plenty of emergency alerts all through the evening, and the first couple of nights had been form of, I wouldn’t say scared, however a bit of tension.
The mornings have been fairly early wake-ups simply to learn in. First factor I do is test all of NCS’s reporting, our newest wires, after which we’ll learn in and chat with a few of my different colleagues in the area. Then we’ll get to the place our future NCS Creators pod might be (as I reported in October, NCS is building a state-of-the-art studio for the present that may even assist common social posts). It’s below development proper now, however we’ve been utilizing that as a house base. It’s been plenty of stay hits, nearly each hour on the hour. We’ve had some 13- and 14-hour days, after which a bit of reports gathering right here and there when we’ve an opportunity to exit and speak to a few of these individuals who have been impacted.
You develop up watching NCS when it comes to these sorts of tales, and also you fall in love with NCS as a result of they’re so good at these tales. It’s cool to be a small a part of that big machine.
You’ve been at NCS for a decade in numerous roles, so I’m certain you’ve been a part of protection on different main conflicts. Does this really feel totally different?
I used to be on the worldwide desk my first couple of years at the community in Atlanta, so actually it was nonstop breaking information, not in the capability I’m in now, fronting and doing stay photographs. That is NCS’s DNA. It’s one thing that we excel at. Obviously, it’s a bit totally different this time as a result of it’s very shut to me. It’s one thing I’m not solely studying and writing about and reporting on, however one thing I’m experiencing. But having the job of informing, bearing witness and giving a voice to a few of these people who find themselves impacted helps you get by means of it.
What do you hope individuals get out of your protection proper now?
I’m simply making an attempt to convey the information out as I get them. My colleagues and I are ready the place we’ve constructed up a superb variety of contacts right here. We’ve solely been right here for 4 or 5 months, however we’re getting updates from the Ministry of Defense, from the Ministry of Interior, from the authorities communications workplace. What occurs when a serious battle or disaster like this begins to unfold, there’s plenty of noise. And it’s our job on the entrance line to diffuse that and simply get down to the information.
We went out and interviewed quite a few vacationers who had been caught right here for eight days. Obviously, a few of them are annoyed, some are scared, and a few are simply bored. Everyone has a distinct perspective, and it’s necessary to keep in mind that. To convey readability to these individuals — that is what I’ve heard from my contacts at Qatar Airways, that is what I’ve heard from the Civil Aviation Authority, that is while you may have the ability to catch a flight again residence.
Has your work at NCS Creators influenced how you approach covering this conflict?
Yeah, I think it goes both ways. Myself — and I can speak for all my colleagues, too — we’ve had experience in hard news and in breaking news. We all brought that experience to Creators, and that gave us a sort of level of comfort, not only being on air and building chemistry with one another, but also going after stories that matter. The format is different from a traditional NCS news format, but the stories we’ve tried to cover in the last four months are still important. We’ve covered climate change, mental health and a lot of other things I think are important, especially for a younger audience.
We’ve done a lot of social content just in these last eight days. We’ve put out five or six videos. That’s the mindset coming from Creators of being social first, digital first. We know that’s how people are consuming news now. The news goes out when the news goes out, and it goes out on whatever platform needs it.
You’re the child of an Iranian immigrant to the U.S. Does that make covering this story feel more personal?
Every story feels personal. When people say stories don’t feel personal to them, then maybe it hasn’t hit them the right way. Stories have to feel personal. Whether you want to put your personality in the story, that’s another discussion. For something like this, obviously it impacts me, but it’s not something I want to impact my reporting.
NCS itself has been in the news a lot, with Paramount’s deal to acquire NCS parent Warner Bros. Discovery. How do you feel about having a new owner soon?
I try not to think about it too much. I think we have a long time before that comes. So from my perspective, it’s just keeping my head down, doing the job I’m asked to do, focusing on the task at hand. And then we’ll see what happens when it happens.
Tell me about how you found out about the U.S. and Israel bombing Iran?
I saw a push alert from NCS because it was Saturday. Immediately, I knew this would affect us in Doha. It was a couple of hours later that we saw those first missiles intercepted over Doha. So we quickly got into a live position, just essential crew and essential staff. We didn’t want to put anyone unnecessarily in danger. There had been murmurs that this was going to happen for a while, so we had a game plan and we executed that game plan.
How are you getting your news right now?
A lot of it is official sources, whether that’s through contacts or confirmed channels that use Twitter and state-run media. We’ve done a lot of eyewitness accounts, and we’re reaching out to people and talking to them.
What is your toolkit for reporting?
It’s jumping on the phone, WhatsApping back and forth. Definitely Twitter has become a really powerful tool, especially when you’re trying to monitor multiple countries. All these different government channels are updating and you have to be across all of them so you don’t miss something. And that’s just in Qatar. Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have the same setup. Saudi’s Ministry of Defense has been really good at updating almost every single attack that they intercept. Iran has state-run media. Here in the Gulf, they have been using emergency alert systems, so you’ll be in a place, and everyone’s phone will start buzzing, telling you to seek shelter. Those tools have been incredibly useful for the public. It’s been a mix of different tools, but getting on the phone the old-fashioned way is always the best.
How are you decompressing at the end of the day?
Honestly, my decompression is just sleep. I really haven’t had the chance to turn off yet, and that’s OK. When I get home, I’m still on our NCS messages, I’m still making sure I’m not missing anything because things move fast.
A couple of long days isn’t the worst thing, especially when you get to do what you love. Sleep is getting me through, and the amazing team around me. I’ve been lucky enough to be working with a really good cameraman and our executive producer, Andrew Potter. They’ve been by my side the whole time, and we lift each other up.
