Talk:Georja Calvin-Smith

Notablility of Subject

This individual came to my attention by her constant and conspicuous presence on France 24 -- itself a global media colossus, and increasingly influential throughout the English-speaking world, as its English-language broadcasts begin to match and exceed BBC's global news coverage.

Got curious about her, and found nothing about her on Wikipedia (though a couple of her colleagues have their own Wikipedia articles). Given the amount of air time dedicated to her by France 24, she's obviously one of the network's principal stars. And doing my own research online, it became increasingly evident that she is a dominant European media figure throughout Africa, as well some notability across other continents -- leading discussions of world leaders at a surprising number of high-level forums (see the article).

~ Penlite (talk) 09:22, 6 June 2023 (UTC)

Further info needed

In researching online, for details and references, could not find a number of key details that would normally be incorporated into such a BLP article, if available, including:

a.) Specific dates of major events in her life: Birth, schooling, dates of hire at specific employers, dates of change of specific positions/programs at those employers, dates of honors.

b.) Specific schools and employers: Although I documented her hiring at Channel M, ITV, HBO, BBC and France 24, I could not get more clarity on her early employers, and no idea where she went to school, nor whether she was awarded any degree (though that's obviously not disqualifying, as major news media stars -- Brian Williams and Chuck Todd for instance -- often have none). Her stunning depth and range of knowledge, however, strongly suggests extensive formal education.

c.) Family info: No indication of marriage (her hyphenated last name is inherited, according to an obit for her father, in Trinidad), or children, or any relatives or close friends in notable roles, that I could find (not unusual, but still unclear).

d.) Media awards: I searched carefully for any indication of awards -- common among notable journalists in the U.S. and U.K., which are awash in awards programs. However it appears that most French awards programs for television news programs have been discontinued some years ago (apparently concurrent with the exploding glut of news programs arising from the development of cable and satellite TV). However, if anyone knows of any such awards that she has earned (and surely she's earned some; they're probably just in a non-English language), they should post them here (with ref cites).

e.) Audience numbers: It's probably relevant, with global news organizations -- like BBC, France 24 and CNN -- to make note of the volume of their audience (undoubtedly in the tens or hundreds of millions). I couldn't find any audience data for France 24, generally, let alone for Calvin-Smith's programs, specifically. (In the U.S., such audience numbers are discernable from published data, on commercial networks at least, particularly from the Nielsen ratings; not sure where to get that data for European broadcasters.)

Any editor who has any of these items of info, and can DOCUMENT it -- from sources other than her -- is encouraged to post it to this article. ~ Penlite (talk) 09:44, 6 June 2023 (UTC)

What improvements are needed?

@Spinster300: I've noticed your tag indicating improvements needed to this article, but no explanation here in the Talk page. What do you believe needs to be added/changed/improved to make this more than a "Start class" article, and how?

~ Penlite (talk) 02:40, 29 October 2023 (UTC)

Dear Penlite, thank you for reaching out! It is essentially just some clean-up and maintenance work – cleaning up templates, wiki-links, formatting, and minor rephrasing for better neutrality. This is quite common for brand new articles, and will be fixed eventually. I am happy to look into them for you, if you like. Kind regards, Spinster300 (talk) 10:47, 30 October 2023 (UTC).

@Spinster300:: Please do "look into them" for me. I put a lot of work into this project, and want it to be right (though I don't have much more time to give to it). Note that I am absolutely NOT connected in any way to Calvin-Smith or any of her employers or affiliates.

My motive for this article

As a former journalist and international affairs scholar, I simply have a keen interest in influential and prominent journalists and obscure-but-significant media outlets (especially those oft-cited in Wikipedia), in the U.S. and abroad. I'm keen to provide basic information about them so that their articles (especially those cited in Wikipedia) can be evaluated in the context of their background, affiliations, their standing in the field of journalism, and any notable potential bias or conflicts-of-interest.

So I've developed or edited articles on such diverse sources as Channel M News, Punchbowl News, JusticeInfo, Wausau Pilot and Review, Chuck Todd, Anne Garrels, David Rosenbaum and Dmitry Muratov -- particularly at times when they achieve increased notoriety (owing to increased prominence as a source, or major changes in their own status) -- especially those important beyond the confines of the Anglophone world (and thus under-reported in English-language Wikipedia.)

Hopefully this work is comparably relevant, as well, owing to Calvin-Smith's conspicuous meteoric rise in prominence in one of the world's most widely distributed media outlets (France 24), and very obviously in Africa's public affairs.

The challenge of finding WP:RS on media, itself

Please note that articles on media outlets and personalities, other than the biggest and most prominent, are very hard to do well, as the custom in the media industry is to NOT report on rivals (positively or negatively). Thus, the traditional WP:RS standards are especially hard to apply to articles about media.

For instance, traditionally, the New York Times does not usually report on the Wall Street Journal, and vice-versa. It's even more true that neither reports much about lesser media outlets, especially if rivals. This practice of mutual silence about each other is customary even by media at the local levels.

And English-language major media and Anglophone academia (our traditional, principal WP:RS) hardly ever cover foreign-language media, sadly -- no matter how important in world affairs. So if my sourcing seems a bit weak, believe me, it's not for lack of trying (dozens of hours of online searching). I encourage you to try topping my sourcing on this very important subject, and KUDOS to you if you succeed!

~ Penlite (talk) 07:31, 17 November 2023 (UTC)