Her Story
About Christina
I'm a visual artist and independent journalist who founded Christina's Lane LLC around 2018. As a visual artist, I do a lot of independent contracting work with different businesses, creating murals in the community. I've done murals in Harlem, New York, including one for a daycare and a public mural on 125th Street in Harlem as part of the Uptown Grand Central project. I do a lot of custom work when it comes to my visual art - I hand design and hand paint on jackets, sneakers, boots, all of that good stuff. On the journalism side, I run my own company called Conversations with Christina Lane, where I go and highlight different cultural figures and musicians within my Harlem community, though I don't want to limit it to just Harlem. I do a lot of independent journalism with different people, including musicians and cultural figures within New York City. I have a background working with different news stations such as News 12, PIX11, MSNBC, and BET. I've been in the journalism industry since about 2013 or 2015. I really started because my friend had a show called All Eyes On Me TV, where we interviewed people in front of a live studio audience, similar to 106 and Park that was on BET. We did this in the South Bronx and used to get about 50 to 75 people to come and attend each show, highlighting different talents, upcoming artists, people already in the spotlight, chefs, and people with all types of different backgrounds. That experience geared me towards wanting to go to college for journalism. I went to Lehman College where I got my bachelor's degree in Film and TV and Africana Studies - I double majored. I also studied abroad in Africa for about a month, which I didn't have to pay for because I got two scholarships: the Gilman Scholarship and the Chancellor's Global Scholarship. After college, I interned with BronxNet TV where I really flourished and became a general assignment reporter. Then I got hired as an intern with BET and MSNBC. My main area of expertise is entertainment, music, and lifestyle and culture. I go to a lot of different events, fashion events, and galas. I just covered the Figure Skating in Harlem Gala, which is an organization for young brown and black women in Harlem who learn how to figure skate. I interviewed Vera Wang and Marcus Samuelsson on their red carpet. My last news position was as an assignment desk editor with News 12, but I was laid off when they didn't have the budget for freelancers anymore. Right now, I'm doing a lot of editing and working on independent projects. I'm looking into furthering my education at the Craig Newmark School for Journalism here in New York, possibly starting in the spring of 2027.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Christina
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would definitely say just get out, network, and don't be afraid to ask. When I was in school and interning, I used to tell people to use social media to your advantage. If you're following people, you should be following people that inspire you, people that motivate you. Don't be afraid to reach out to those people and ask them, hey, can I shadow you for a day? I did that a lot. I actually sent A.J. Ross, a former reporter from ABC Eyewitness News, a DM and asked her could I shadow her for a day, and I got to shadow her for a day. I reached out to Lindsey Christian, a former anchor from New York One, just a DM on Instagram, and she welcomed me to come out with her for the day. I went to so many different events with her. So I'll just say don't feel afraid to reach out. The only thing they could do is say yes, no, or maybe not reply. But that shouldn't stop you from just keeping on pushing forward. Definitely just get out, network, go to these events, and remember people's names - I'm really bad with that, so try to remember people's names. Follow up with people, follow up on them emails, send a text message, even if it's just a random text like hey, this is Christina, just checking in, I hope all is well on your end. Just a simple check-in, staying in contact with those people that you do make connections with. But yeah, just get out and don't be afraid to ask. That's definitely my advice.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I feel like right now, just trying to get my foot back in the door has been kind of challenging. I know a lot of news stations have a lot of ups and downs right now with changing around different news anchors and stuff like that, so there's been a lot of different types of changes happening within different news organizations. I would say right now, that's my main challenge, is just trying to get back in the door. I have so many connections, and they always say it's sometimes not what you know, but who you know, and I have the plug, I have plugs, and it's just like, what's happening? I'm updating my resume every day. For future challenges, I would say when it comes to journalism, AI is kind of taking over how we think and just stepping in and replacing humans in certain ways. I think that will definitely be a challenge that we need to figure out how to overcome. But it's nothing like the human touch. Another thing is social media just taking over. They're not even looking for real journalists, like people that went to school for this type of stuff. They're looking to see, are you an influencer? How many followers do you have in order to give you a gig? I've seen so many situations now where they have these different influencers and content creators on the red carpets interviewing certain people, and they don't even know who it is, or they're not even respecting the person that they're interviewing. It's all about fast pace, influence, and how many followers you have. I feel like it doesn't matter how many followers you have, it's about you knowing that craft, it's about you really wanting to do this. That's definitely another thing, just with social media taken over.
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