#MediaMonday – Rebeka Diaz-Smith

Rebeka Diaz – HMA Public Relations Media Monday

Each and every Monday, we post a blog to help our readers get to know the media just a little bit better. With a TURN and maybe a TWIST! No, we aren’t posting pitch tips or media lists, but instead great stories from the media themselves about their lives, their work and other little known facts! Think of it as your first “networking” opportunity of the week!

Today’s #MediaMonday comes to us from Rebeka Diaz-Smith, a news anchor at NBCUniversal’s news station in Phoenix, KTAZ, which is the local Telemundo news channel.

Rebeka, what do you want to tell the blogosphere about yourself today?

Hola!

My name is Rebeka Diaz and I am a weekday news anchor for the 4:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts at Telemundo Arizona. As part of the Telemundo team I focus on breaking news, special reports, with particular interest on the vulnerability of individual character development stories.

I am a dual nationality Mexican/English, born in Cuernavaca Morelos, Mexico in 1986 and while I have lived most of my life in Mexico, I have also lived and worked in England.

[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=”-@RebekaDiazTAZ #MediaMonday”]My passion for journalism began when I enrolled @inspiredAUB in Bournemouth[/inlinetweet] to study photo journalism. I then returned to Mexico to study communication sciences, specializing in journalism at the University Anahuac del Norte in Mexico City, where I graduated in 2010.  In 2012, I also received my diploma from the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, at the “Media Executive Leadership Program.”

I began my professional career while completing my bachelor’s degree working for two years at the United Nations Information Center (UNIC). Then in 2008, I joined the CNN bureau in Mexico City as a trainee. During this time I received several journalism awards including the “Micrófono de Oro” given out by the National Federation of Radio and Television as well as “Gaviota” which reward news anchors in the industry.

In 2009, when Efekto Noticias, a new television station, was launched in Mexico City, I was lucky to be part of the new team, and was able to experience multiple positions from working at the news desk and on the news and sports each day. I was quickly promoted to the afternoon news anchor and then not long after that into the anchor roll for primetime nightly news, an hour long program that dealt with current and global affairs, weather and sports. I later became the strategy director and then the general manager.

Later, I was contacted by the local Telemundo Mexico news station, informing me of the news anchor position at Telemundo in Arizona and as they say…. the rest was history!

[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=”@RebekaDiazTAZ #MediaMonday”]I am personally interested in empowering women[/inlinetweet] and I work with nonprofit organizations like “Hoja en Blanco/White page” which works on fighting to eradicate human trafficking.

Please reach out to me on:

Facebook: Rebeka Diaz Telemundo Arizona

Twitter: @RebekaDiazTAZ

Instagram: @rebekasmythdiaz