Chris Vazquez didn’t set out to become a content creator. As a student, he loved English class. When a teacher suggested that students who enjoyed English should check out the school’s broadcast journalism program, he gave it a try — and quickly found his passion.
Producing TV news packages gave him what he described as “an adrenaline rush from chasing down sources, uncovering new information and figuring out how to synthesize it all in ways that felt digestible and creative.”
That interest led him to Northwestern University, where he began experimenting with YouTube explainers and short documentary-style pieces while also grappling with heavy questions such as mainstream media’s responsibility to cover overlooked stories, protect vulnerable sources and hold the powerful accountable.
Following college, Vazquez joined The Washington Post as a video intern during a period when the TikTok team — led by creator Dave Jorgenson — was in the midst of astronomical audience growth.
Chris Vazquez posing for his Capitol press badge while working at The Washington Post in 2022. (Courtesy)
Today, Vazquez works as an independent news content creator and MediaWise ambassador, producing videos that blend journalism, media literacy and a healthy dose of comic-book fandom.
I sat down with Vazquez to talk about his journey, what it means to work with MediaWise and the advice he has for both newsrooms and aspiring creators. This conversation has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Brittani Kollar: You started as an intern with The Washington Post at a time when the Post’s TikTok account was amassing an audience of hundreds of thousands to millions under former Post TikToker Dave Jorgenson and team. What was it like joining them?
Chris Vazquez: I faced a huge learning curve when I joined the team. Before my weeklong rotation with Dave during my internship, I didn’t even have TikTok downloaded on my phone. So to prepare, I studied the tone Dave had established on the account, and I studied Post journalism. I can definitely see how green I was in those early videos, but I like to think I eventually got the hang of it — in no small part by learning from my co-producer Carmella Boykin, too.
Kollar: What was the team approach to developing creative videos?
Vazquez: We’d meet each morning to discuss what Post article we each wanted to adapt into social video and share a loose idea of how we’d do it, then we’d each write a script and gather feedback from one another, and then we’d film, edit and send for approval — first just between the three of us, and then to our bosses. Once we got the green light from them, we’d post. I really think that process brought together a lot of what social video journalism needs to succeed: creative freedom early on to get weird without a ton of fear of your ideas getting shot down, and infrastructure to ensure editorial integrity on the back end.
Kollar: What has been most life-changing since branching out on your own as a news content creator?
Vazquez: Learning to live with the tradeoffs inherent to this career choice has definitely been the biggest thing. Sure, I spent a full business day on my taxes this year and I spent way more than that each month deep in my budget spreadsheet to assure myself that I can, in fact, do this work and afford to be alive. That gets stressful. But I also get to be my own boss, set my own schedule, ensure that I’m working with people I love to collaborate with, and pursue passion projects almost exclusively. The joy of that has outweighed anything else.
Kollar: What does it mean to you to be a MediaWise ambassador?
Vazquez: To me, being a MediaWise ambassador gives me an opportunity to not just share information with viewers, but to give them a peek under the hood at how to find and verify information themselves. I’m a big believer in democratizing the tools that journalists use; that’s an idea I’ve learned a lot from outlets like City Bureau. Journalists provide a real service by verifying and disseminating information.
But if we aren’t sharing how to do that, it creates a power imbalance between us and the people we want our work to serve. By using my role as a MediaWise ambassador to show viewers how I fact-checked something or how I stay wary of AI bias, I try to close that imbalance and empower viewers with the tools they need to stay informed and civically engaged.
Kollar: What are two things you think organizations should know before partnering with content creators?
Vazquez: First: Identify what it is about a creator that makes a possible collaboration exciting to you, and ensure that your process preserves that thing. Creators work hard to establish their own distinct niches, styles and voices that serve audiences. Second: Think through how you can align those things to your organization’s goals.
For instance, my viewers know me as a huge comic book nerd and they’ve followed my sketch-style content for a while. I’ve spent the last couple of days editing a video for MediaWise that’s a Superman parody where The Daily Planet staff learns about AI bias. It marries MediaWise’s goal of sharing AI literacy resources with what excites me (and, hopefully, my audience) about making videos.
Chris Vazquez in college, in the multimedia room of The Daily Northwestern in 2019. (Courtesy)
Kollar: What are two things you would tell someone who is thinking about launching their own creator channel?
Vazquez: It’s a cliche, but it’s one for a reason: Perfect is the enemy of good. My early social videos are, frankly, not good! At least not by my current standards. But people still found them, watched them and liked them. And the more I kept at it, the more I liked my own work. Embrace the learning process and have fun with it.
Second, just push past the embarrassment that could come with posting more. This is something I’m still working on myself; I barely ever post my videos on Instagram unless I’m contractually obligated to, because I worry about my friends judging me for trying to do the content creator thing. But the real ones actually watch and enjoy my videos! Yours will, too! And the more you keep at it, the more you’ll find an audience beyond those circles.
Kollar: I know you are a comic book fan, so let’s clear a few things up. DC or Marvel? X-Men or Avengers? Favorite comic book character?
Vazquez: I feel the urge to plead the fifth on this first one, but most of the comics I’ve read have been Marvel. I do want to get more into DC, really! Especially the Wolfman/Pérez New Teen Titans and O’Neil/Adams Batman. I’m just really busy right now reading every X-Men comic published between 1998 and 2019.
X-Men over Avengers, no question. The Avengers need more mess! Where’s the intrigue, the drama, the decadelong storylines about a hero’s clone wife falling to demonic temptation and nearly destroying the world?!
“WandaVision” was my entry point into this whole fandom, so I have to go with the Scarlet Witch as my favorite comic book character. But I’m extremely susceptible to groupthink, so as a loyal listener to the “Cerebro” podcast, Madelyne Pryor is a close second.
Kollar: Lastly, what value do you think other content creators can find in partnership with MediaWise?
Vazquez: You get way smarter at the things you’re teaching as an ambassador! By forcing yourself to explain a media literacy tool, you get better at using that tool. You get better at not falling for misinformation, understanding AI and a whole host of other skills. That helps me when I’m making all sorts of content, whether it’s with MediaWise, other collaborators, or just for myself. And it makes your content more accurate and resilient against misinformation overall, which helps your audience, too.
Vazquez is on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram at the handle @bychrisvazquez. You can also find Vazquez featured on MediaWise’s TikTok, YouTube and Instagram channels in partnered videos, including a six-part AI literacy series.
MediaWise partners with content creators to create engaging AI and media literacy videos to empower their audiences and ours with skills to have a healthy online experience. MediaWise also supports content creators with resources and workshops on journalistic best practices, including transparency, ethics and AI disclosures. You can find more here.
