Xue Yu finds her passion in storytelling

By Thais Ackerman

Xue Yu said she was drawn to journalism because of the intensity of the American breaking news cycle. She came to the United States from China and began her undergraduate degree in communications at Purdue University with the intention of pursuing a career in traditional broadcast news.

During her years at Purdue, she interned at local TV stations and by the time she completed her undergraduate degree, she knew something was missing.

“I was thinking, ‘Oh this is too quick of turn around for me’,” Yu said. “You’re basically telling the audience what is happening. You’re not really diving deeper into like the implications or giving them a deeper perspective.”

Yu knew broadcast television production was not where her heart lay; however, she did not know how to harness her passion. She wanted to deliver “more insightful” longer form content to the public so she chose to pursue graduate school at New York University to study news and documentary.

“I decided to look into documentary and that’s kind of how I saw ‘Oh there is this other way of storytelling’,” Yu said.

She interned at CNN during her time in graduate school, then landed a freelance position there and eventually worked her way up to her current position as a producer for CNN’s Digital Productions. In her role, Yu oversees projects from start to finish for CNN’s off-platform audience — creating longer form content for platforms like Youtube or CNNGO.

“I didn’t necessarily want to spend like three years doing one story,” Yu said. “Longer form for a Cable News Network is kind of in the middle of working news versus true long-form documentary.”

Yu’s career requires her to travel and meet new people on a regular basis. It’s her favorite part of the job, she said. To her, one of the biggest perks of being a journalist is getting a chance to connect with others.

“I enjoy meeting people and learning about different perspectives and seeing the world from their perspective,” she said. “You get to be like you know someone for a day. You do like a day in the life, follow them around and then you get a piece of their life.”

Over the years she has contributed to countless projects.

“They’re all my babies. They’re all my story,” she said.

Though, she is most proud of is being a connection for culture at a major American media outlet. Yu recently traveled back to China for a Beme News piece about the country’s new multi-billion dollar live stream shopping industry.

“I was kind of like a bridge between what’s happening in China and you know their voices versus what’s happening here in America,” Yu said. “I think I provide like a unique perspective to exchange information between cultures.”

The most valuable skill one can have in this career is an eye for a good story, she said.

“Nowadays everyone can shoot like everyone can edit. But it’s like how do you find your own voice,” Yu said.

Yu’s advice for those who want to pursue the work she does is to make sure they find their passion and to connect stories in the field to their background. Every journalist has an individual voice with a unique perspective to bring to the table, she said.

“I think that’s like what journalists can do is to start a conversation and make people think,” Yu said. “Hopefully some change will come out.”