Faces of CGTN: Seeing a different story

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I enjoy baking because I'm good at it. It's something I can do alone, and the finished product brings happiness to others. The same is true for my work.

Don't get me wrong. I don't mean the happiness over a brownie equals that over a well-edited or salvaged script. But my colleagues will take whatever happiness comes their way.

I'm an introvert but …

I'm in my element in the Newsroom.

CGTN Newsroom copy editor Laurie Lew / CGTN Photo

My name is Laurie Lew.

Before the launch of CGTN, I worked at the previous iterations of CCTV's English News Service for more than 15 years. I've watched the channel grow and evolve as we've presented China to the world. It's fair to say that I carry a big part of the corporate memory.

I'm not on camera, but at CGTN, I do something a Chinese can't.

And my Chinese colleagues do things that I can't. The important thing is to find the right person for the job.

A copy editor is the first line of defense, and often, the last one, too.

Most of the writers and reporters are Chinese. There are language, cultural, philosophical and knowledge gaps to fill in. And a sentence can make sense within a paragraph and yet be completely wrong.

Unfortunately, too many people think it's easy for me because I'm a native speaker.

Laurie Lew interacting with colleagues / CGTN Photo

Hahahahaha.

But not every native speaker can write well or write for television.

It's not just checking grammar and spelling. It's not the same as writing for print. It's not a recitation of facts and figures. We're told all the time that it's storytelling. That's true, but that doesn't mean it's easy.

We work to an hourly deadline. But the biggest challenge is producing a story that reaches our viewers.

We want that story to engage viewers on multiple levels, whether or not they agree with it.

There are the words in the script and the meaning between the lines.

Laurie Lew and her colleagues / CGTN Photo

And what this creates when put together with the images.

When you're behind the scenes, you see things that others don't.

Television can be a messy business. I try to bring some order to my part in the process.

My work goes beyond language.

It's providing context for international audiences so writers and reporters can be at their most effective. It's providing a different – if not outside – perspective for telling China's stories.

That's important for CGTN's global mission.

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