The field of journalism is a field that has been around for a long time. Many influential professionals came from a journalism background. Journalism is not just one job listing; there are different forms of journalism around us. Some of these include:
a. Broadcast journalism
b. Investigative journalism
c. Photojournalism
d. Sports journalism
This blog post is going to primarily focus on broadcast journalism but we will delve briefly into journalism as a whole.
Just like with any job that you start out with, there is a list of requirements that those going into the journalism career need to fulfill. The biggest requirement is that you have a Bachelor’s Degree and some form of work experience, whether it is from interning or working at small companies. According to study.com, “Journalists, also referred to as reporters and correspondents, have bachelor’s degrees in either communications or journalism.”
Photo Credit: http://nycnewswomen.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html
Another way to gain experience is through the courses you take in college. Journalism students or those looking to go into broadcast journalism take classes in anything from editing to reporting. For broadcast journalists, it is important to realize that you need to have experience in front of the camera but also behind the camera. Study.com goes on to say, “All journalism majors take courses in editing, journalistic ethics, reporting, feature writing, photojournalism and communications. Additional coursework is determined by whether a student is focusing on print or broadcast journalism. Students either take courses to strengthen their writing skills or to learn radio and television production techniques.”
Photo Credit: http://wildhunt.org/2012/08/the-power-and-responsibility-of-movement-journalism.html
Journalists work long hours due to the fact that there is always something that needs to be reported on. Through researching for this blog post, an important question came up: What is the typical day of a newscaster like? Through my search, I was directed to sokanu.com, which gave some great information about what newscasters do. They also gave some videos that helped in research; one of the videos was an interview with Sue Straughn, a newscaster at WEAR-TV, where she said that, there is no typical day. This must be true because if you think about it, there is always new news story to be reported on and there is always breaking news that needs immediate reporting.
A newscaster or news anchor’s job is to report news in a manner that is relevant and that will connect with their audience. This means that they are no longer just sitting behind the anchor desk and reading off a tele-prompter. With the growing world of technology, they have to report their news in a way that goes along with the growing technology trend. Besides sitting behind the anchor desk, they have to also get out and interact with their audience. This may be through blogs, social media and actually going out and talking to them in person.
Newscasters do a lot of things and the most important thing is that they communicate well with their audience to show that they are involved in the community around them. Being a newscaster is an important job because you are reporting news that some people will never have been exposed to.
