21
Holding onto Your Dream
What You’ll Learn_________________________
It’s probably hard for you to figure out right now how you’re going to get from where you are today—studying broadcast journalism—to actually practicing broadcast journalism. And no wonder; there is no prescribed “perfect” path.
Some veterans will tell you to go off to a small station in a small market where you’ll write, report, shoot, edit, anchor, and sweep the floor at the end of the night. Then, if it’s too small for you, work your way up to someplace bigger.
Some will tell you to get an entry-level job (like “gopher,” which really means “go for” this and “go for” that) at a station in a bigger market, put one hundred percent of your energy, personality, and initiative into your work, and once your superiors take notice, you’ll win promotion to higher-level jobs there.
Some will tell you the best place to start your career in broadcasting is in print, because then you’ll learn the pure craft of information gathering and written storytelling before adulterating it with the demands of picture and sound.
And some will say you need expertise in the areas of people’s lives that you cannot acquire in journalism school or at a TV or radio station, big or small. And by the way, what about journalism school? You’ll find conflicting opinions on the value of that, too.
In this chapter, you won’t learn about the “right” way or the “wrong” way to become and to be a broadcast journalist, because there is no right or wrong way. Instead, you’ll learn of the possibilities, with a few recommendations thrown in to enhance your resume and your skills.
How to Get There
Internships. They’re the single best way to stand out from the crowd when you’re competing for your first job in broadcasting. When a news director is comparing job applicants, and you’ve been an intern but the other top competitor hasn’t, the news director at least can be confident that you probably know the lingo and won’t likely trip over the tripod.
That’s how I ended up with ABC News. After an internship in the news department at KGO-TV in San Francisco, I went to graduate school in Chicago. ABC News was looking for someone to fill a temporary five-month position in its bureau there. Of all the students in the graduate broadcast journalism program, only two of us ever had set foot in a working television newsroom. The other guy had a lot more experience than I had, and they offered him the job, but he decided to return to his hometown where a permanent job awaited. I got the next nod. I still tripped over a tripod or two and had to fake my way through the lingo I still didn’t know, but the internship got me in the door. It was up to me to succeed, of course, once I got that far. It’ll be the same for you.
There are several other good reasons to seek an internship.
Learning
Different stations have their interns do different jobs. You might get to do research, write readers for the anchor, operate equipment, dispatch crews, conduct interviews, shoot video, contact guests, or actually report.
In big markets, however, where editorial and technical jobs are unionized, an intern might only get to watch the professionals doing their work. But while there is no substitute for actually doing a job, even merely watching is worthwhile. You can ask questions. You can make suggestions. You can absorb the processes the professionals follow.
Exposure
The people running the newsroom are exposed to you and your talent. Of course, if they’re not impressed, you have no future there. But if they are, then when your internship is complete and an opening comes up, you might have the inside track.
Networking
This simply means getting to know people. Maybe it’s someone in the top ranks at your station. Or someone at another station who you get to know while tagging along with a news team covering stories. Or someone in politics, or business, or culture, who likes what they see and hear when they deal with you as an intern.
Networking also loosely means having an “ear to the ground,” in other words, being in a professional environment where you’re probably privy to information about jobs and opportunities at other stations, possibly in other markets, before word spreads.
College Credits
As with so many other parts of life, internships have their downside. Namely, typically you don’t get paid. (If you’re asked to do work that a paid staffer otherwise would be doing, familiarize yourself with state and federal law. Depending on what you’re asked to do, it might say you must be paid.) If you get an unpaid internship but still have to earn money, you’ll have to work extra hours elsewhere to get along.
And, when you’re an intern, you probably have to do some of the “grunt” work. If you’re with a camera crew, it might mean carrying the gear. If you’re in the newsroom, it might mean looking up telephone numbers. Or clipping articles from newspapers. Or making coffee. But it’s all worth doing. It’s a practical education. And a foot in the door.
And, if it’s approved by your school, it’s worth college credits. Internship directors and counselors in many college and university journalism programs can usually tell you what’s available, what’s required, and how to apply.
An “official” internship, where the newsroom experience helps you fulfill your school’s requirements, is best. But any credible internship, if it’s a learning experience, is useful.
What’s the Point?
Internships are invaluable. Apply for several. Hope to get one.
What to Take to Get There
I can’t count how many times I’ve been asked, “What courses should I take to do what you did?” I also can’t count how many different opinions I’ve heard from others in this business—journalism professors and practitioners—who try to answer. You’ll hear many opinions because no single approach proves to be uniquely superior or uniquely successful.
One school of thought says, focus on courses in journalism. That way, you’ll already know how to shoot and write and construct a story. There’s no reason to specialize in a particular subject, because you’ll have to be a jack of all trades.
Another school of thought says, focus on the subjects that will qualify you to write and report about them as a journalist. Like science, medicine, economics, politics, business, law, sports, and meteorology. There’s no reason to learn the specific methods of journalism, because if you bring a broad background to the task, you’ll pick up the processes easily enough by just working in a newsroom.
My school of thought says, combine the two. On the one hand, your journalism courses will give you the skills a news director wants when you apply for your first job. You’ll be a better writer, a better interviewer, a better producer, a better technician. You’ll be familiar at least with how a story is produced and how a newsroom works, and probably more.
On the other hand, if you only learn to write and report but don’t know much of anything about the subjects about which you’ll be required to write and report, you won’t be much use to anybody. So don’t focus exclusively on journalism, but also don’t ignore it.
What’s the Point?
You want to be well rounded for two reasons. First, to be good at your job. Second, to get that job. Someone with broad interests and journalistic skills more likely will be a top candidate.
Once You’ve Gotten There
If I ran a newsroom today, I’d want all my journalists to work to the standards of this book. But it’s a dream. Nor is it necessary. Other books and other professors will teach some journalistic practices differently. Just as well, only differently.
That’s why the lesson that’s important to remember above all others is this: although basic principles shouldn’t change from newsroom to newsroom, styles should, and do. All TV and radio stations want to present the news, but the style with which each presents it— the style of writing, shooting, editing, interviewing, and prioritizing what to cover and how to show it—is what sets each one apart.
So whether you learn about broadcast journalism from this and other college courses, or you pick it up from your first news director, you can safely predict that your second news director will want you to do some things—probably a lot of things—differently. What you have to do is, go with the flow. At least you start with an advantage: you already know one good way to do things, if not more.
You start with another advantage too: you know it’s not a “nine-to-five” job. Sometimes that’s because you work on an early morning broadcast and get up in the middle of the night. Sometimes it’s because you work on a post–prime time broadcast and work ‘til late at night. Sometimes it’s because you’re on a story that starts in the middle of the night and carries you all the way into the next night! That’s what coffee is for.
What’s the Point?
Each news director, each executive producer, each boss you encounter may have a different way of doing things, and try to break you of some of the habits you carry into his newsroom. Don’t resist. As I’ve tried to emphasize throughout this book, there’s more than one good way to do most things in journalism. But they’re all fun, as long as you can get that cup of coffee.
And While You’re There
Everyone who contributes to the final look, sound, and content of a newscast is a journalist. The job title might be assignment editor, graphic artist, or sound technician, but every job with input to the broadcast has the same goal: to deliver a clear, concise, full news show.
As such, no matter what kind of position you hope to fill at a station, you will be working as a journalist, and this book will be a useful guide for your performance. Furthermore, no matter what kind of position you hope to fill, you might change your mind.
Feel free to do that. You could get your first job and discover that instead of writing, you prefer shooting. Or that you love the adrenalin rush of the assignment editor’s job more than the show producer’s job. Or, vice versa.
You also might find that you prefer print to broadcast, or that you only can get a job in print, not broadcast. Nothing wrong with that, either. Obviously, the style and tools you’d use are vastly different, but the principles don’t change, because no matter what the medium is, journalism is journalism.
What’s the Point?
Those who talk into microphones aren’t the only journalists in a newsroom. Nor are they the only ones having fun. Journalism—at any level, in any medium—is one of the most interesting, challenging, diverse, rewarding jobs around. You can be a part of it. You’ll be the envy of your friends.
Exercises to Fulfill Your Dream____________________
1. Write a hundred words (no more) on the value of internships.
2. Choose a station where you’d like to be an intern. Research your school’s requirements, and the station’s. This must include the right contact people to whom you’ll apply and to whom your teachers and counselors can send letters of recommendation.
3. Choose a mentor who’ll be willing to work with you, then after getting your instructor’s approval, create a resume with your mentor’s help that you can include in your search for either an internship or your first job at a radio or television station.
4. Describe in a hundred words (no more) the best curriculum for you to pursue to work as a broadcast journalist.
5. In a hundred words (no more), describe what you think—at this point in your education— you want to do in journalism.