Rebekah Hood
The Gist Network founder, Rebekah Hood
Rebekah Hood is the founder of The Gist Network, and the Web Producer for an Austin TV station.
Journalism has long been Rebekah’s passion and she is thrilled to be on the cutting edge of the business as a multimedia journalist (a.k.a. jack-of-all-trades).
She graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism from the Texas Christian University Schieffer School of Journalism, and a minor in history. While at TCU Rebekah reported for TCU News Now, the campus cable TV station, and worked as the station’s Executive Producer and News Director. As News Director she initiated the creation and launch of a new website for the channel and then co-anchored a live, streaming webcast during the 2008 Presidential Election on that website. Rebekah shot, wrote, produced, edited, reported and even anchored her own work; several news packages aired on KDAF-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Rebekah also has extensive experience with social media: blogging, Twitter, Facebook, and multiple content management systems.
In conjunction with her job as TCU News Now New Director, Rebekah worked as a reporter for UWIRE.com (formerly Palestra.net), an online college news network formerly affiliated with FOX News Channel. Because of Palestra.net, some of Rebekah’s work was used in a story on FOX News Channel’s show, “FOX & Friends.”
In 2008 Rebekah interned for “The FOX Report with Shepard Smith” at FOX News Channel in New York City, an experience she deems priceless. In addition to learning from some of the most seasoned anchors, writers, and producers in the business, she served on a select team of interns who created the FOX News Channel’s intern website from scratch.
Rebekah was hired as the Web producer and a reporter at KCEN-TV in Waco, Texas just months before the Fort Hood massacre occurred on November 5, 2009. The historic, tragic shooting provided Rebekah with the opportunity to put all of her experience to the test, reporting via telephone to radio and television stations all over Texas and even, the world. She announced the name of the shooter, MAJ. Nidal Malik Hasan, to a large portion of Texas listening to the “Joe Pags Show” on WOAI, and was interviewed twice by BBC Radio in London. Also while at KCEN, Rebekah helped cover the high-profile murder case of Matt Baker, a former pastor charged with killing his wife.
When Rebekah is not Web producing or reporting she enjoys reading a good book, cycling, exploring her city, contributing to her sorority’s alumna society, or going back to Fort Worth to cheer on her TCU Horned Frogs!
Please feel free to email Rebekah at rebekah@thegistnetwork.com with any website ideas, story ideas, tech tips, job opportunities or anything else you’d like her to know.