We were lucky to catch up with Chris Chang recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Chris thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Last April, I traveled to Guatemala to document how a local school survived and rebounded from the pandemic. The Guatemala City dump, sprawling over more than 40 acres, is one of the largest open-air landfills in Central America, Amid this horrendous environment, over 60,000 people endure extreme poverty, including tens of thousands of school-age children who call the surrounding community home.

Camino Seguro is a school founded by American educator Hanley Denning in 1999 to serve children who couldn’t afford public schools, many of whom lived and toiled in the dumpsite. I was lucky enough to spend the whole week immersing myself in Camino Seguro, witnessing how education could make a difference as well as the resilience and dedication from both faculty and students.

This project is deeply meaningful to me because it reminded me why I became a video journalist, and how many mountains each filmmaker has to move to craft the most compelling, poignant stories for the audience. It introduced me to a Guatemala rarely portrayed in mainstream media – the kindness of Guatemalans who welcomed a journalist who can barely speak Spanish while helping him overcome numerous logistic challenges, so he could capture the authenticity of their world.

For me, the story of Camino Seguro is about education, about hope, and about the life-changing experiences it has made happen over the past 25 years.

Chris, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a video journalist who believes video journalism should be as informative as it is entertaining. That’s what I’ve been striving for since I set foot in the media industry, telling stories about minorities, social movements, and history with lenses and animated graphics. I’m currently a video producer and social media host for USA TODAY. Born and raised in Taiwan, I speak English, Mandarin, and French, and have used them to cover news all over the world.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

For anyone who wants to build social media presence, I’d suggest to first ask yourself why you want to put yourself out there, and what kind of content you’d like to see when you scroll through these platforms. Consider the three pillars of storytelling: authenticity, relevance, originality and keep putting out quality content – audience will come for you.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

It’s an interesting time to be a video journalist in the current media landscape. We’ve got all these amazing tools and techniques to cover news, but we’re also competing for attention with every other content creator on social media. I find it rewarding when I make news digestible to my audience by distilling the information into a 60-second social video with a creative twist, so they would understand how a new government policy or even a Supreme Court decision could affect their life. I especially enjoy reading viewers’ comments about the (hilarious) acting or cool visual effects I apply to explain the news because that’s the whole point of making news content for social media!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://chrischang32.wixsite.com/website
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrischang8304/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002371705476
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-chang-79aa39224/