I was recently asked whether I’m tired of television and had to wonder whether that would ever be possible. Is it possible to tire of something that’s your passion and love?
I fell in love with television when I was a little girl. It offered content back in the ‘80s, when I was growing up. I remember my happiness when I saw the words ‘mali program’ [little programme] appear on the screen. That was the sign that the minutes reserved for us children were about to start. Diving into that new world was the start of my fascination with the “magic box” that allowed me to see beyond the confines of my childhood. My games soon began imitating television shows, while my teen years also brought the revelation that this was the profession I wished to pursue.
Next came studying television production, then also journalism, and then also came a series of opportunities to experience television as a producer and as a journalist. Journalism proved victorious and I’ve been working in it for almost two decades to date. Those 20 years have flown by, while it seems that the feeling has remained the same as it was for that little Nevena.
I experience each new show, interview or report as a new thrill, but also as a new lesson. This is also perhaps the greatest privilege that we receive from journalism – the opportunity to continuously learn and meet new people.
The team of the “Probudi se” [Wake up] morning programme shows Serbia as it really is, with all its beauty and problems. That’s the only way we will make it a better place
Journalism also provides you with the opportunity to bear witness to history and be part of it. I had just one such precious experience in 2018, when the centenary of the signing of the armistice that ended World War I was being commemorated in France. All the world’s great statesmen were in Paris on that 11th November, and I was also there. I reported on their meetings and current relations around the world, but I also created a feature on the story of the Serbian schoolchildren who’d received scholarships from the French Government during the Great War to attend the University of Poitiers. I discussed that period and Franco-Serbian relations, both then and now, with an academic and writer who was living in that city. Milovan Danojlić enabled us to better understand the current moment in which we find ourselves by considering history. And that is also our mission: not to merely report on what is happening, but also to explain why it is happening. Placing events in an historical context provides our viewers with the ability to understand and see the bigger picture.
We also provide viewers of TV Nova S with that bigger picture every morning from 6am to 9am. The team of the “Probudi se” [Wake up] morning programme shows Serbia as it really is, with all its beauty and problems. That’s the only way we will make it a better place.
Returning to the start of the story, perhaps the answer to the question of why I’m not tired of television can also be found in the fact that I experience journalism and television as a profession that provides me with opportunities, and not (as it is seen by many outsiders) as a profession that’s demanding.
And maybe that has something to do with my nature – because my glass is always half full!.