RCHS teen videographer appears in PBS special

Nov. 10—By Travis Hairgrove

Herald-Banner Staff

Last week, Royse City High School junior and budding videographer Vion Gashi was featured in a special for PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs (SRL), titled "We the Young People: Moments of Truth."

With an estimated 8 million 18- and 19-year-old Americans being newly eligible to vote this midterm election, the special covered topics ranging from simply explaining how the voting process works to tips on how to be more social media savvy and how to better spot misinformation.

"Before I started working on the PBS special, I wasn't really interested in politics, but after producing my video, I realized that it is vital to get your voice heard and stand up for what you believe in," Gashi said.

In Gashi's segment of the special, he explained how using web apps like Google Lens could be used to identify altered images. In his example, he discussed a photo from one of Mehmet Oz' campaign stops while running for U.S. Senate in which he's posing with a group of restaurant workers, one of whom appears to be holding one of Oz' campaign signs sideways, so that it appears to say, "No." After doing a reverse image search with Google Lens, news stories using the original photo popped up in which the sign was held correctly.

Gashi got the opportunity to contribute to the SRL special through his work with MediaWise, a division of the Poynter Institute that works to help young people be more critical of what they see in both traditional media and on social media.

"I work with a company called MediaWise and we are partners with PBS, and they requested us to submit a couple of short-form videos (for the special)," Gashi said. "MediaWise empowers people of all ages to be more critical consumers of content online by teaching essential digital media literacy skills."

Long before his involvement in informational media, Gashi became interested in videography and started his own YouTube channel, called Laturals, in which he shares mostly humorous short films.

"I remember in sixth grade, we had a video project for English class, and I wish I still had the file, but everything I wanted to convey was conveyed in those two minutes of video," Gashi said. "Then, I got into video production because you can use creativity to show what you are thinking.

"Youtube is the perfect place to show your storytelling while meeting new people and experiencing new things you would never think of doing," he added. "Laturals is where I can connect with others in a more significant way."

Currently, as a student at Royse City High School, Gashi works closely with video production teacher Sherri Duggan and is one of the producers for the school's monthly news show, RCTV.

"Vion just completed a video contest with my RCTV team in Springfield, Missouri," Duggan said. "We produced videos straight from noon, Wednesday (Oct. 26) to 6:30 p.m. Sunday 6:30 (Oct. 30)."

Of his work with RCTV, Gashi enjoys how he and the members of his video production crew learn from each other and grow in their visual storytelling skills.

"The amount of knowledge I have acquired from RCTV is simply just incredible, because it is the perfect opportunity to learn and pursue this growing industry," he said. "The advisor Mrs. Duggan is an excellent teacher and really pushes you to become great, so that is a reason why RCTV is such a great program to join."

After graduating, Gashi plans to work toward being a professional videographer.

"Whatever goal I have inside of my mind, I will get it done no matter how long it takes," Gashi said. "In order to succeed, you must constantly be learning, networking, preparing and just giving it your all, because it is so easy to fall into the 99% of people who give up on everything they worked so hard for.

"To become that 1% you must realize that you have to work 10 times harder, and any doubt you start to get, you must throw it away and keep going," Gashi added.

"Sooner or later, you will succeed, and I am 100% sure of it."