Megan Mackander usually shares other people's stories.
High profile people like 2024 Australian of the Year Professor Richard Scolyer and comedian Celeste Barber are among her favourites.
And remarkable everyday Australians too, like Deirdre Croft who has devoted her life to caring for her intellectually disabled son Richard.
Megan's a journalist and digital producer with ABC TV's Australian Story, an award-winning documentary program which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2026.
Now the UniSC graduate is telling her own career story.
Megan MacKander with Australian Story host Leigh Sales
For the past decade, she's created digital and social media content, bringing the show to a new - and younger - audience.
"Australian Story is a much-loved program," Megan says. "People connect with the show. They connect with the stories. To be able to give TV content a new life in the digital space is pretty special."
The program premiered in 1996, and its format was considered groundbreaking at the time.
There's no narrator or TV reporter on screen. Rather, the subject of each episode, and their family, friends, colleagues and experts, tell the story in their own words.
Over the past 30 years, more than 1,400 episodes have been aired.
In her role, Megan converts interviews and footage gathered in the field into social media content, distributes it across the ABC's platforms and then reviews audience analytics.
"I watch each 30-minute episode of Australian Story to work out how to create standalone content that's 90 seconds max," she says.
"I put my social media lens on and decide what's going to capture people's attention in the first three seconds.
"I then script and cut reels for socials. We live on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube shorts and LinkedIn.
"Our reels can reach millions of views, which is incredible."
"I see social media as another way of telling the story. It's just telling it in a different way and exposing our content to new, younger audiences who otherwise might not find us.
"Even if they never watch the full documentary, they've still experienced the storytelling as a standalone piece. It's about reaching people where they are."
She also oversees the digital news story that's published to accompany each episode.
So, what makes a compelling Australian Story?
"A great story makes you think or feel. It's a story that sticks with you for a long time," Megan says.
'We tell stories that ebb and flow. People facing difficult challenges in their life and overcoming them. Resilience and redemption are among our key themes.
"And that's where the long form storytelling comes in because you can actually unpack all of that."
Pioneering cancer researcher Professor Scolyer, whose last in-depth interview was with Australian Story in the months before he died from an aggressive brain cancer, evoked a particularly strong audience reaction.
"He's the epitome of live life to the fullest for as long as you can and make a difference and leave behind a legacy in this world. A lot of people resonated with his optimism, his fight and his kindness. For me, that was a powerful story."
At university Megan's first love was print journalism.
"A lot of my lecturers had industry experience. They were working as journalists or feature writers. So, they were able to offer practical advice.
"They knew my name. They knew my goals. They knew where I wanted to work and what I wanted to do."
One of her former lecturers Dr Jane Stephens says Megan stood out from the start.
"She was breathtakingly self-motivated and she took up every opportunity that presented itself. She even spent the breaks between study periods from the start of her degree chasing work experience.
"I have rarely seen such dedication to learning and engaging and getting her foot in a door, any door."
During her degree, Megan also studied at the University of Mississippi in the United States under the then Study Abroad program.
"I wanted to see what it was like to live in a different place. And the fact that I could incorporate that into my degree was perfect.
"The university, which was nicknamed Ole Miss, has a rich political history and hosted the first US presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain when I was there in 2008."
Towards the end of her degree, she did an internship at the Sunshine Coast Daily, organised with the help of UniSC.
Soon after graduation she landed a cadetship at the then Caboolture News - an offshoot of the Daily. She later covered the police round for the Daily and began publishing stories on the paper's website.
"I never thought I'd be in television. I always wanted to work in newspapers. It was an excellent base for me, but I could see that the future was digital, so I pivoted into that space.
"But working in newspapers taught me foundational skills - building a contact book, coming up with story ideas, interviewing, writing and taking photos. All the basic skills.
"The world has changed so much since my degree. The job I'm doing right now didn't exist when I was a uni. It wasn't even thought of, but the foundational skills have never gone out of style."
A stint as a casual digital producer for ABC News Digital in Brisbane led Megan to a role at the ABC's national agricultural program Landline and then her current fulltime job at Australian Story.
She has this advice for journalism students aspiring to break into the industry.
"Get internship experience or work experience where you can outside of the course that you have to do. Any chance that you have for extra experience just go for it.
"It'll add to your resume and put you a step above. You'll be graduating with a whole group of people, and you need to stand out."
Just like she did.
