Before coming to KNOM, I was working in theatre. Four things taught in light design are:
1.) The eye first goes to the brightest point on the stage.
2.) Light illuminates what the designer wants the audience to see.
3.) The absence of light hides what the designer does not want the audience to see.
4.) Lighting is not painting. It is sculpting.
This concept of selective illumination streams through my mind as I chose news stories, picking up one here, expanding one there, discarding another, creating awareness and voids of knowledge along the way.
Internet is not widespread in rural western Alaska, and where it is available, it is limited. But KNOM is available, and it serves as the nation’s northern-most news station. And for many people, the stories we chose carve the day-to-day paradigm of this vast, remote slice of the earth.
So which corner do I shine the light into? And at what intensity? Because by shining light in one corner, I do not shine light in another. How do I sculpt this knowledge? And who am I—a 23-year-old so new to this world myself— to do so?
