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Recess Interviews: Becky Davis T'14, National Geographic

Becky Davis graduated from Duke in 2014 and is now an associate producer for National Geographic’s digital travel website. The Chronicle’s Jessica Williams spoke with Davis, weekend for the Duke Women's Weekend and an Artstigators coffee chat with students, about following creative passions after Duke. 

The Chronicle: What do you do for your job?

Becky Davis: ....I’m basically a glorified project manager. Part of my job entails social media; I’m in charge of the NatGeo Travel Twitter account, and we sort of break up the social media accounts by producers, because there’s three on my team. The project manager side of my job is creating content for clients, or just pure editorial content from us, based off of authentic travel—more off the beaten path places that we’d like people to go. As a producer you work from the creation of an idea all the way through when you’re creating the content then putting it out. That means figuring out who the writers are going to be, who the photographers are going to be, and then physically building the pages yourself and then putting it out on social media, tracking it and then sending it to the client.

TC: When did you first become interested in journalism?

RD: I don’t know if I would necessarily call myself a journalist. I was very passionate about studying media in general. I started out as a Psychology major, and then halfway through my Duke experience I switched over to Visual and Media Studies. I just ended up loving the classes way more—I couldn’t get enough of video, photography, the whole nine yards. So you could call me a journalist now even, but I like to use the term producer more often because I’m not necessarily writing full articles—it’s more like having your hand dipped in what everyone else is doing and then putting it together for a polished project.

TC: How did you become involved in travel journalism specifically?

RD: I’d always been an avid traveler—I was fortunate enough that my family saw it as a priority. So, for spring breaks and for one trip over the summer we would have that be our thing and we would go travel somewhere. We’d try to experience a different country or a different part of the world. And, for me, I just found that vitally important to having a global concept, or thinking more globally. So I saw that as a passionate outlet to channel my journalistic background or media creation.

What’s the most challenging part of your career so far?

RD: I’d say the most challenging part is making sure you’re on top of every plate you’re spinning. You’re working on multiple projects at one time, and they may not necessarily seem like high stakes when you’re working on them in the office, but if you send out a Tweet that has the wrong message in it that’s going out to millions of viewers. You want to uphold the brand, and because National Geographic is so highly respected by a lot of our audience, we want to make sure we don’t let our audience down.

TC: Because media is changing so much due to technology, how do you think today is different from the past with mostly print content?

RD: I work pretty closely with the print magazine in order to repurpose the content that would be in the Traveler magazine into digital. I find it really interesting figuring out what works. It’s the same copy and the same photographs that are in print, but you’re reimagining them in a completely different way to be consumed on digital. And if you don’t do that then you’re going to lose an entirely different audience that’s looking to consume this digitally.

TC: Do you think that’s hard to do? How do you go about that process?

RD: I would say there’s some trial and error involved—I would also say it’s a lot of looking at analytics about what works and what doesn’t, and listening to our audience. The beauty of social media is that we’re constantly getting feedback. If somebody retweets something, that’s a pro for us. People might send us back comments that might be more negative. It’s all positive in the end for us because it’s information on which we can go forwards from.

TC: Did your time at Duke impact your career goals?

Most overarchingly, I’d say Duke really taught me to reach much higher than I thought I was capable of. I started out as a psychology major because I wasn’t really sure what I was passionate about, and then Duke helped me define what it was I was passionate about and how to go about creating a career out of that and how to feel I could channel my passion into a job that was worthwhile. Part of the reason I got my current position was through a Duke professor that I took photography courses with and ended up getting close with. I had many chats with her and other professors where we’d sit down and they would help me and talk me out of my existential crises about what I was supposed to be and what I thought I was supposed to be doing. There’s advice I got that, if I didn’t have it, I don’t think I’d be where I am today.

TC: How did you discover what you were passionate about? Was there a moment you decide?

RD: It was probably the moment at which I decided I needed to switch from being a Psychology major to a Visual and Media Studies major. It was just one day in the summer I was thinking about going back to school for my junior year. I was already a declared Psych major, and I remember looking through my courses trying to see what I wanted to bookbag for ACES, and I just remember thinking I was so interested in everything that was under Visual and Media Studies, and that I was trying to figure out how to take all those classes while still getting in all of my Psychology req’s. Eventually I was like I need to make the switch, bite the bullet, be a VMS Major and then I’d let the chips fall where they may after that.

TC: As a relatively recent graduate, how did you set yourself up for success after graduation while still at Duke?

RD: I tried to do quite a bit of networking with Duke alums, which is another reason I feel passionately about coming back and being in contact with current students. I had a lot of coffee chats with my professors because they’re so valuable in knowing what’s going on in the media world. It’s easy to be bogged down with Duke bubble, so you’re not totally sure how to reach out into the media world and connect with people. But I found Duke Connect as a wonderful resource, DEMAN weekend, ArtCon—really all of the pushed Amy Unell has been heading up around Duke with Artstigating and all of that are such a blessing for anyone who is interested in translating the arts to the real world.

TC: Do you have any advice for other women hoping to pursue a career in journalism?

RD: I would say don’t get discouraged; there are plenty of jobs out there. I currently work with a team of eight, and seven of us are women.  All of the print staff, except for the editor-in-chief, are also women. So you can definitely achieve the ideal jobs that you deserve and that you can get. Don’t be intimidated.

It’s hard for me to give advice because I am still constantly reevaluating whether I am doing what I want. I think that, if you end up feeling really comfortable where you are, you’ve almost sort of lost at that point—it’s good to reevaluate and not necessarily have the next five steps planned, but have a potential one or two.

Something I definitely learned during my time at Duke in relation to my career was listen to your gut, because that feeling is probably not going away and it means something to you. I took a Visual and Media Studies class my freshman Fall with my roommate and we loved the class. But it took me until before my junior year to finally switch over to the major. But that was something that nagged at me ever since I took that first class. I crammed all of my requirements in to barely graduate on time, with overloading. I would have had less of a full schedule had I listened to myself originally. I know it’s easy for people to come back and give these recaps of how their time personally panned out, but if you can take those little anecdotes and put them all together and see what central themes could work for yourself, I feel like that ends up being very beneficial.

TC: Were you scared that you were interested in something you weren’t originally interested in?

RD: I was definitely scared. My parents didn’t really understand why I wanted to do it—they’re both doctors—so having a job in the media world and trying to explain to them that I might be working with different digital elements that might haven’t even been invented yet was way above their heads. But thankfully they just trusted me and knew I had the support and network of Duke behind me.

TC: What’s your favorite part of your job?

RD: I love that I get to be creative every day, but I don’t feel that’s necessarily specific to this job. In terms of what I do now, I love the people we end up getting to work with, because it’s such high quality content and he skill level of these writers and photographers is so much higher than anything I’ve been around before. It makes me feel really humble to be working with such skilled professionals. I feel like I’ve learned a lot in turn.

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