Álvaro Roldán is an Alumni of the Master in Audiovisual Content Creation and Management (Mediaset) at Universidad Europea de Madrid. Now, he works as part of the El Confi TV team.
Please tell us when you studied and which faculty and campus you were at. How was your journey after completing your studies at Universidad Europea until the creation of your project?
I graduated in 2015 after studying the Private Master’s Degree by Mediaset Spain in Audiovisual Content Creation and Management. I studied at the Xior Campus at Universidad Europea in Villaviciosa de Odón.
The journey was intense. It enabled me to delve deeper into my greatest passion, which is the world of communication and television. I was able to carry out one of the jobs I had always wanted to do, which was to be part of the programming and promotion team of various theme-based channels of the Mediaset group.
Tell us a little more about your work. What do you enjoy the most? What challenges do you face on the daily? Do you have an anecdote you would like to share?
Now, after a period of working for one of the most popular TV channels in our country, the setbacks that are always intense and ever-changing in our industry have brought me to the El Confidencial newsroom, where I also deal with the world of the small screen, but now through the keyboard. For the last four years I have been part of the El Confi TV team where I analyse, report and write articles about what appears and is going to appear on our screens.
My passion is television in all its aspects and I’ve been so lucky to deal with all sides of it: talking about it on the radio, being on it, contributing towards television programmes, flirting with the world of journalism, being part of it from the inside, and now writing about it from the outside.
The most common challenge I have to deal with on a daily basis is the issue of timeliness and constant change: television changes almost daily and you have to adapt everything to all the programming demands that come up. Taking into account what is attractive, different, what the viewers and readers are looking for, avoiding repetitiveness and above all, not resorting to the dreaded ‘copy and paste’.
An anecdote about this daily challenge comes to mind. Working for an online newsroom, with the possibility this allows for rectifying and restoring possible changes, you get used to having to keep an eye out for any changes that might need to be made to the content you have just published, that you have just told the public about. You have to immediately update it, and sometimes even reframe topics that are suddenly no longer valid. There’s no rest for journalists, or at least there shouldn’t be.
Why did you choose Universidad Europea? What values and characteristics do you think it has that have contributed to your professional development?
I chose Universidad Europea because I see it as an institution at the forefront of the subject in which I wanted to complete my studies. Its collection of professionals, immediate assistance, and its modern learning model were successfully vouched for when I studied my master’s.
What stood out the most was the perseverance, rigour, professionalism and daily dedication shown by the teachers, who also worked and still work in the industry. All this contributed even more to my enthusiasm for shaping my own professional project that I had already started to pursue, and that has served my way of working to this day.
What is your best memory from Universidad Europea?
The direct contact with the profession, immediately putting into practice what we were being taught in the classroom. Theory is necessary, it’s compulsory, but at Universidad Europea that transition into experiencing first-hand what you’re learning is surprisingly special. Without a doubt, what resonates with me is the quick application of knowledge, both at the University itself and in the company where, shortly after, I was able to realise one of my dreams.
Be determined, put up a fight and stay enthusiastic. With the combination of these three actions, you’ll surely reach your goal. Create your own project, stand out, don’t work for money, but for passion, and let your enthusiasm and desire to be in the place that’s waiting for you spill from every pore.