For Nina Sen, Hunter professor and director of standards – race, class, and gender at NBC, rules are the least important aspect of journalism.
“It’s innovation and impact,” she says.
In Sen’s view, journalism is not defined by restriction, but by adaptability, creativity, and reach. Whether working with AI or navigating how different countries set their own journalistic standards, she is drawn to the complexities of the field.
“A key part of working in new standards is that there’s a team of people, they each have specializations,” she says.
Sen’s path into journalism was not a traditional one, but she says it ultimately strengthened her approach to the field.
“I fell into it,” Sen says.
She attended Washington State University, a school with a student newspaper but no city publication.
What began as a college reporting job eventually expanded into a career that included an internship at The Washington Post. Looking back, she describes her path as a mix of effort and timing.
“It was probably like 80% hard work, 20% luck,” she says.
Sen did not always imagine herself working in news standards.
“I barely knew what that was,” she says.
Early in her career, she worked at The Associated Press, where standard roles were limited in scope. At NBC, however, she found a much larger and more specialized team.
At NBC, she works on a 13-person standards team focused not only on rules, but on evolving ethical questions in journalism – from AI to social media to legal risk across countries.
“It’s not like, here’s what we can and can’t show,” she says, but rather, “How do we protect our reporters in the field? How do we use AI properly? And how do we respond to crises?”
For Sen, standards work is ultimately about impact and clarity – not jargon or internal language.
“The answer to every question is to do more reporting,” she says.
She also emphasizes that journalism must translate information for audiences in a meaningful way, or as she puts it, “How does it matter to the everyday person?”
Her understanding of journalism has also been shaped by moments where she observed what not to do. She recalls watching an interview in which a grieving woman was asked to continue describing her trauma before being abruptly dismissed. “This was a what-not-to-do,” she says.
That awareness, she says, connects to a broader shift in journalism toward empathy and inclusivity.
Teaching, she explains, reinforces many of the same skills required in journalism: clarity, communication and managing people under deadline. “Soft skills matter for both,” she says.
Sen came to Hunter to teach News Literacy in a Digital Age, a course she believes is increasingly essential. She emphasizes focus over constant consumption and awareness overload.
She acknowledges concerns about social media and misinformation, but sees it as a tool with both risks and value. “It gave us videos like [the murder of] George Floyd,” she says. “People collaborate better.”
Ultimately, for Sen, the ability to connect – across platforms, classrooms, and newsrooms – is what sustains both journalism and teaching. “It hasn’t been lost,” she says. “That level of empathy and compassion is still there.”
