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The Job

Tracking the news: Ceola Wilson at work in The Royal Gazette newsroom (Photo by Akil Simmons)

Age: 50Role: Senior Reporter, The Royal GazetteWhat is your job?Senior Journalist with The Royal Gazette, former TV and radio news anchor at Bermuda Broadcasting Co. Ltd, VSB. I was also executive producer of ccBIGG Productions, a conscious communications production entity, a three-part ‘Operation Changing Mindset’ series that began with a two-hour TV documentary: ‘Life Behind Bars’ featuring young Bermudians serving life for murder. This was the first-ever production involving a film crew allowed to shoot behind prison walls at Westgate & Co-ed in 2007.What is your favourite part?The fact that I am not tied to a desk and get to talk to new people on new issues daily.What is your least favourite part?Covering the House of Assembly especially when some members talk to hear themselves, things get really petty late at night, and frankly I think the heckling is childish, and not fitting of adults elected to manage the peoples’ business.Haven’t really had to deal with that until The Royal Gazette because in the electronic media we monitor over the air broadcast and go to record interviews during the lunch break or late in the day, usually in and out not stuck there listening endlessly to the proceedings.It is also very difficult having to talk to the relatives of murder or accident victims at the height of their trauma. I have learned to be sensitive due to the magnitude and impact of murder over the years but 28 years on it still hasn’t gotten any easier, you just get better at dealing with it. There is no good way to cover bad news, and the impact of it stays with you long after the story is done.Also, the fact that news in-and-of-itself has to do with complaints and issues that people are generally are not happy about, which means gloom and doom daily. Some days are better than others, but you learn how to deal with it over the years, instead of it dealing with you.What is your most interesting experience at work?Too many to mention, I covered the heart transplant recovery of one of Bermuda’s first heart transplant recipients, Cal Ming, who was the subject of my first documentary in the ‘80s. This was my first real overseas assignment, we flew to Pittsburgh and were given full access to the top medical representatives on Mr Ming’s case. To this day we are still good friends.I also went to New York to cover the arrival of two teenagers who were missing at sea and picked up by a cargo ship. Sadly, one died in a road traffic accident a year later, his name was Andre Whitter. Years later I still think of him and the family he left behind. And, more recently at The Royal Gazette I had the pleasure of doing a two-part series on Warwick Academy’s 350th Anniversary celebrations. As a former student I particularly enjoyed that assignment and the fundraiser hosted by the Bermuda Sloop Foundation where people walked the plank. I actually had a lot fun covering that one on the job that day.But I think overall it was most interesting to be around when there were typewriters and see the whole business evolve technologically with the advent of computers and digital technology. When I started out there was no such thing as the internet and e-mail and cellphones now you can be any and everywhere at the click of a mouse.What would you be doing otherwise?Already doing it, have quite a few television productions in the works to air in the New Year. I look forward to covering the next general election and settling into the world of print! I think at this stage of my career, with a teenaged son, electronic television news is a bit too shallow for me. There’s only so much you can do in 90 seconds, which is why I have moved on to documentaries and other productions. I was also a columnist for the Bermuda Sun which I believe brought me full circle back to where I started any journalist worth their weight is a writer first! Been in the business locally, since 1984.