Bianca Graulau, from traditional TV, to becoming a Media Freelance Entrepreneur from Puerto Rico
Kennedy Vincent reports on a journalist who left salaried jobs in California to pursue more personal and investigative work from Puerto Rico, where she’s from, while also becoming a social media news entrepreneur.
“Leaving traditional t.v. was a long time coming,” says Bianca Graulau. After working in that industry for several years, Graulau answered her calling to go back to her home in Puerto Rico and report from there, on local issues such as land rights, food sovereignty, politics and more. Her investigative journalism has attracted the attention of many people around the world. With over 25,000 followers on TikTok and 17,700 on Instagram, Graulau has been able to monetize her videos and set up a Patreon.
Q:What first sparked your interest in journalism?
A: It’s not that much of an inspiring story. More than anything I just wasn’t great at science or math. I was trying to figure out what path to take and I love speaking, history and politics. Once I was in college, I started taking my journalism classes and participating in my school’s student news stations. I just fell in love with it and I knew that this was what I wanted.
Q: What does a typical day of reporting on the island look like for you?
A: Every day is different. Some days I will go on a one hour drive to the mountains and interview someone over there, take beautiful drone shots of the beautiful landscapes and just get lost. Other days, I’m just glued to my computer, researching, looking up documents or reading information, making a bunch of calls following up to try to get the information that I requested from government agents. Some days it’s just editing all day long, it’s just 10 full hours of me going at it on Adobe Premiere trying to finish my story to meet the deadline that I set for myself.
Q: Growing up on the island and having a connection to the land, how do you document the life of Puerto Rico without it being biased?
A: So I just had a big dilemma with that, I’m used to having that separation. I never hide the fact that I am Puerto Rican and that a lot of these issues are personal too, but I’m always focused on someone else and how it affected other Puerto Ricans and what that meant for them.
For the first time I kind of walked over that line when I found out that the land behind my house was being sold to a company that develops luxury apartments. When I found out I cried and in the past, I would have cried privately. But this time I decided that my two worlds were merging and I was already working on this story while it was happening to me personally. I thought it was important to share that. To be honest, transparent and strict with my reporting is something I will always do. I’m still going to be fair with my reporting and stick to the facts, but I thought it was important to show that I’m part of it too, being Puerto Rican. I am open about the fact that it affects me too, but I keep people posted on the process of how rigorous I’m being with my reporting. I also try to make all that information available so that if anyone wants to verify it, they can so that they see all I’m reporting is the facts.
Q: How do you feel about being able to produce and create your journalism work on multiple platforms without having limits? Or do you experience any limits?
A: The limits I experience come down to what I am humanly capable of doing. Like today I’m writing my story and doing three things at the same time. I am tweeting, posting on Instagram, writing my story and editing as I go. Then I want to do content for TikTok, which means I have to edit a video, put the captions and respond to comments. So my limits are really what I am able to do, give my energy and attention span to whatever’s happening in my life.
Q: How do you see your field of work evolving, what are some of your future goals?
A: I’ve been able to slowly grow my platforms. It was a huge gamble, there’s so much information out there on social media that it could have gone much worse and I could have gotten a fraction of attention that I’ve been able to get so far. I see myself putting out more content, fostering that relationship between me and the people who have been supporting me and continue to do investigative pieces. Creating bonds with people who want to do the same work so that we can work together, grow and collaborate is something I want to do.
Q: What are your “soul passions” that you tend to do outside of your freelance work?
A: Now that I am living back in Puerto Rico, I want to dedicate some time to growing my own food. I love just nature, walking down to watch the sunset at the beach. Hanging out with family, being active and I like to just disconnect, to go work out.
Note: Some of the questions and answers were trimmed for conciseness.
