KRGV-TV’s Bella Michaels speaks to comm students
On Nov. 11, a professor at UTRGV invited Bella Michaels, a news and sports reporter for KRGV-TV Channel 5 in Weslaco, to speak to students about her experiences in journalism.
The lecture, which was a part of the course “Writing for Mass Media,” was hosted by Gregory Selber, a professor in the UTRGV Department of Communication.
Michaels is a weekend news anchor and weekday reporter at the station and previously served as a sports multimedia journalist, covering high school football.
She said that, during her time in sports, the most meaningful stories she covered were those that went beyond the game and the statistics, which inspired a series on Channel 5 titled “Coffee with Coaches.”
Michaels was born and raised in Chicago and grew up going to many games, including Bulls and Cubs games.
Her love of sports originated from her family, as she grew up with family members who played soccer. Her parents met each other through soccer in Illinois.
“My dad played professional soccer growing up when he was younger and my brother played soccer, so I was always a fan,” Michaels said. “I was always going to games [and] my family was just a big sports family. If you’re from Chicago, you’re a sports fan.”
She is of Assyrian descent and described how her background impacted her both in her studies and in her career in journalism.
“[Assyrians] are a minority that still isn’t recognized,” Michaels said. “[There wasn’t] even a box to check under race; I have to put white all the time because technically I’m white but I’m not.
“Media really focuses on black and white. But what about the brown and the in-between? I’m the only Assyrian girl in sports reporting that I know of in the nation [and] that’s insane. … There isn’t much focus on the in-between and that does play a role in this job, unfortunately.”
While in Chicago, she studied at DePaul University and covered the 2020 NBA All-Star game at the United Center, interviewing NBA legends and stars such as Luka Doncic, Charles Barkley and Trae Young.
Michaels told students about her experiences in similar lectures with professionals at her alma mater and wanted to do the same for Selber’s students, telling them, “My help doesn’t end here today.”
“Just three years ago, I was in your spot,” she said. “This is what DePaul brought us, people in the field that are actually doing the work that you want to do, and that’s what I appreciated most.”
Michaels speaks five languages, including Spanish, Italian and Aramaic. She said listening to Enrique Iglesias at age 12 was how she learned to speak Spanish.
This helped her get hired at Channel 5, where she also covers stories in Spanish for the station.
Michaels said the reasons she pursued journalism stemmed from both her love of storytelling and theater.
“Since I was little, I loved storytelling,” she said. “But I was really interested in singing and theater. I was in the performing arts my whole life.”
Michaels also told students about the importance of developing connections, saying that “making connections and networking is so important.”
“You want to create an actual relationship because the people in this field will help you, because you never know where they’ll end up or where you’ll end up,” she said.
Ameera Asif, a mass communication junior, said the lecture was an “interesting opportunity” to hear from someone who works in journalism.
“I totally relate with Bella in terms of minority [status] in media, broadcasting or in entertainment,” Asif said. “As a minority [myself], representation is very big for me. She spoke about it a little bit here, and I know it’s a major thing down here in the [Rio Grande] Valley, that we represent ourselves, the 956 as a whole.”
