Radio and Television from a Brazilian Journalist

On November 5th, 2020 we were visited by an amazing guest all the way from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Lenize Villaca is a radio professor at Mackenzie Presbyterian University and has over 20 years in the journalism field. She has been a professor since 2000, and enjoys sharing her knowledge with upcoming journalists. 

She stopped by CSUN’s RTDNA to discuss radio and news anchoring in different countries. 

Lenize shared with us how she got her start in journalism. “I grew up liking radio and I wanted to know how it worked,” she said. She shadowed a radio station for a day at age fifteen to learn about the inner workings of radio. That experience ignited her passion for working in some type of communications field. She explains, “It's my life and it couldn’t be different.”

Villaca also worked for some time as a news anchor and reporter. “I’ve worked many different positions which I’ve learned a lot from,” she explains when we asked about her experiences working. Lenize explains that news anchoring is definitely not an easy job and she purposes that most of the pressure stems from being on camera. “ Radio, when I first started, was just your voice. Nowadays, it’s harder because you need to always be dressed up. You need to have makeup and be camera ready. On the radio, we did not care so much about that,” she says. 

She explains that she became a news anchor due to her love of speaking. Villaca explains it’s a great working experience especially when anchors have a co-anchor. 

Villaca also holds a Ph.D. and we asked her about her journey to getting her degree in the US. “As a professor, you always need to gain new knowledge,” she says, "When I was getting my masters, I got involved in college radio stations.” She explains she traveled all over the US to places like Georgia and New York to study college radio stations. Lenize wanted to gain knowledge and ideas from progressive American college radio stations. 

Lenize also explained the similarities and differences between radio in the United States and radio in Brazil. “ People on radio share a passion for radio. In Brazil, it's the same,” she explains. She mentions that the differences between the two is how it is common for there to be student-run radio stations in the United States unlike in Brazil. “It’s very different in Brazil. My students can’t make decisions like students in America. It’s a very big difference,” Villaca explained. Lenize believes that college radio stations should be a joint effort between students and faculty. She wants students to be heard however, she wants structure for the radio programs.

We also asked her about the difference in regulations for radio in both countries. Lenize agrees that radio stations in the United States have more freedom than those in Brazil. In Brazil, she explains, there is a freedom to report whatever story, it is not as socially open as the United States. 

Lenize also gave advice for students to gain practice while students are not on campus. She encourages students to participate in their Zoom classes. “At the start, my students were shy,” she said, “but as they progressed they improved and their presentations were like they were in the studio.” She explained that even without the nice equipment that how you present your information is what matters. 

Lenize was an amazing guest speaker and we are very grateful for her stopping by and speaking with us. It was an incredible experience learning about journalism in another part of the world.