TheGrio's 100: Mara Schiavocampo, digital journalist

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To look at digital journalist Mara Schiavocampo’s career, you’d think she had a crystal ball for the past decade. While the media world struggles to deal with a drastically changing market — about half of Americans are getting their news off the internet now, the second most popular source behind TV — Schiavocampo looks like one of the only people uniquely suited for this newest phase in journalism.

Bored with sitting on the sidelines as the tumultuous 2000s unfolded, Mara Schiavocampo jumped into action and headed overseas to cover stories that stretched her as a journalist. Not seeing news media presented the way that she wanted to consume it herself, she was prompted to shoot, produce, edit, and report stories herself, forging an intimate digital story-telling format, which resembles the documentary style as much as traditional news.

Schivocampo serviced the emerging news websites as well as more traditional outlets, including ABC News, Current TV, Yahoo, NPR and Ebony. Fluent in Italian and functional in Spanish and French, Schiavocampo, a dual Italian/American citizen, has made her mark covering global stories such as post-war activity in Beirut and the surge of racist attacks in Russia.

A celebrated pioneer in new media journalism, Schiavocampo became a digital correspondent for NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, a first for network television, in 2007. In this capacity, Schiavocampo produces, shoots, edits and reports video pieces, blogs and shares her still photography with the NBC Nightly News website and other NBC platforms, including The Today Show, MSNBC.com and TheGrio.com.

WATCH THIS STORY MARA FILED FROM HAITI FOR NIGHTLY NEWS:
[MSNBCMSN video=”http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640″ w=”592″ h=”346″ launch_id=”35068027″ id=”msnbc14f74b”]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Long a shining star in the field of journalism, Schiavocampo graduated from UCLA with honors and completed her M.A. in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Maryland, where she earned a perfect grade point average on a full fellowship. Hitting the ground running, Schiavocampo served as an anchor and reporter for CBS News on mtvU while also filing reports for CBS Newspath, a satellite news gathering service, and BET Nightly News. She also produced for the CBS News broadcast wire service. Moving on to ABC News as a producer, Schiavocampo worked with ABC News Now, a 24-hour digital and cable news channel, and helped launch Exclusiva, a groundbreaking Hispanic news resource, before dedicating herself to freelancing.

Schiavocampo received the National Association of Black Journalists Emerging Journalist Award in 2007, the first presented to a broadcast journalist. In 2008, the New York-based Telly Awards, which honors the best in local and regional productions, including non-broadcast, bestowed an impressive seven Telly Awards upon Schiavocampo, including the Silver Telly, their highest honor, for her exposé on New York’s black market for cigarettes in 2008.