First past the post
BREAKING NEWS DOWN ON SOCIAL MEDIA HAS TAKEN TELEVISION’S JACQUI FELGATE IN A NEW DIRECTION
It was during the long, daily Victorian pandemic press conferences that Jacqui Felgate noticed audiences wanted their news delivered differently. The TV presenter began posting short, concise bullet points of the press briefings on her Instagram page for her followers.
“I realised that most people weren’t watching that press conference but they were really keen to know what was happening,” Felgate says.
“So that’s what I did – I just posted the three to four things that people really needed to know, and it just grew from there. The following just exploded.”
Felgate, who now has more than 200,000 Instagram followers, became the go-to social media source for people wanting to know wait times at PCR testing sites and where to find Rapid Antigen Tests during the nationwide shortage.
“People just started sending me stuff and my Instagram page became this bulletin board for news,” she says.
The social media posts became all-consuming, and Felgate admits she would spend up to 12 hours a day frequently updating and informing her followers while working at Channel 7.
After a decade reporting news with the network, Felgate departed earlier this year to spend more time with her young family.
“It’s easy to look on the outside and think my job is a dream job, but sometimes it’s not the right thing for your family and the right thing for your lifestyle,” she says.
But her passion for TV, news and social media hasn’t dissipated, and Felgate has now moved to a new role as a co-host on The House of Wellness.
“I’ve actually never done lifestyle before, and I’m so looking forward to talking about things that really matter to me and my family,” Felgate says.
“When it comes to your family, the most important thing is their
health, and to be able to broadcast that and talk about that and involve people in that, is something I’m really looking forward to.”
Felgate joins The House of Wellness TV team, which includes Jo Stanley, Luke Darcy and Luke Hines.
“They are such great people and it looks like they have a lot of fun,” Felgate says.
“That’s one of the reasons why I took this job, is after having such a stressful job for such a long time, I can’t wait to have some fun.”
She is also having fun with her social media platforms, recently partnering with Virgin Australia to interview a Perth baggage handler who had become a social media star for his kind treatment of pets boarding planes.
“The thing I love about Instagram is people are really critical of social media, but you end up with the most amazing community and the most amazing stories out of it,” Felgate says.
“People genuinely want to talk to you. I’ve really got more out of it than I’ve put in.”
The House of Wellness, Friday, 2pm, and Sunday at noon, Channel 7