{"id":7132,"date":"2026-05-07T14:11:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T18:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/?p=7132"},"modified":"2026-05-07T14:11:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T18:11:07","slug":"breaking-the-standards-nina-sens-perspective-on-newsrooms-and-classrooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/2026\/05\/07\/breaking-the-standards-nina-sens-perspective-on-newsrooms-and-classrooms\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking the Standards: Nina Sen\u2019s Perspective on Newsrooms and Classrooms"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For Nina Sen, Hunter professor and director of standards \u2013 race, class, and gender at NBC, rules are the least important aspect of journalism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s innovation and impact,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Sen\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA key part of working in new standards is that there’s a team of people, they each have specializations,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen\u2019s path into journalism was not a traditional one, but she says it ultimately strengthened her approach to the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI fell into it,\u201d Sen says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She attended Washington State University, a school with a student newspaper but no city publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What began as a college reporting job eventually expanded into a career that included an internship at The Washington Post<\/em>. Looking back, she describes her path as a mix of effort and timing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was probably like 80% hard work, 20% luck,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen did not always imagine herself working in news standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI barely knew what that was,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At NBC, she works on a 13-person standards team focused not only on rules, but on evolving ethical questions in journalism \u2013 from AI to social media to legal risk across countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like, here\u2019s what we can and can\u2019t show,\u201d she says, but rather, \u201cHow do we protect our reporters in the field? How do we use AI properly? And how do we respond to crises?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Sen, standards work is ultimately about impact and clarity \u2013 not jargon or internal language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe answer to every question is to do more reporting,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also emphasizes that journalism must translate information for audiences in a meaningful way, or as she puts it, \u201cHow does it matter to the everyday person?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. \u201cThis was a what-not-to-do,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That awareness, she says, connects to a broader shift in journalism toward empathy and inclusivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teaching, she explains, reinforces many of the same skills required in journalism: clarity, communication and managing people under deadline. \u201cSoft skills matter for both,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She acknowledges concerns about social media and misinformation, but sees it as a tool with both risks and value. \u201cIt gave us videos like [the murder of] George Floyd,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople collaborate better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, for Sen, the ability to connect \u2013 across platforms, classrooms, and newsrooms \u2013 is what sustains both journalism and teaching. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t been lost,\u201d she says. \u201cThat level of empathy and compassion is still there.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Nina Sen, Hunter professor and director of standards \u2013 race, class, and gender at NBC, rules are the least important aspect of journalism.  \u201cIt\u2019s innovation and impact,\u201d she says. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18,253],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty-news","category-journalism-program-news","category-prof-profiles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7134,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7132\/revisions\/7134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}