General Media Guide/ Journalism Career Guide
This book is mostly a basic list of news, newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations worldwide.
It's also a job book for the media industry.
Beyond the books in the employment section at the library at #331, you might find some books on journalism at #70-#71 and #384.55.
Find a list of the major newspapers in Editor And Publisher International Yearbook at the library.
The periodical directories list newpapers and magazines.
There is a list of newspaper websites elsewhere in this book.
At the library, journalism is at:
070. Journalism, Publishing.
071. In North America.
072. In the United Kingdom.
073. In Central Europe.
074. In France.
075. In Italy and area.
076. In Iberian Peninsula.
077. In Eastern Europe.
078. In Scandinavia.
079. In other countries.
Other than the main upfront so-called glamour jobs, there are many offshoot and technician jobs in these fields.
Jobs in these industries are generally on-the-job training. For instance, somebody might start out as a lowly clerk on the newsroom floor and
work up to news director.
In general, communications is considered a glamour industry because of the creativity involved so competition is fierce, even for people with advanced degrees.
I've known several people with journalism degrees who couldn't find a job so they ended up as high school teachers or something like that.
It's all about your ability with words. Newscasts have to be written everyday. They have to have fresh, new, exciting, crisp stories.
It takes a certain pragmatic skill to write good news copy quickly.
If you can get a story, summarize it down into your own words very quickly, edit news footage to go with it to create a quick story on the
nightly newscast, you will easily be in demand because these skills are rather rare.
People who do these jobs often get tired of the stress involved and quit. On the other hand, I heard of one talk show host who had two jobs in
different cities. He did his morning talk show, took a plane to the other city 150 miles away, did his evening show then took another plane
back.
He said he did it because the competition was so fierce. You don't know when you're going to work in this business so he was trying to build
up some security. He did it for eight years.
It never ends. If you do a good story for TV, newspaper or radio, so what, tomorrow you have to do it all over again. The public is
squeamish. They never let you rest on your laurels. If you aspire to create a quality media product like a good radio talk show, they will
expect it all the time.
The ratings drop quickly. I heard one radio talk show host who started out with an extensive summary of his own research every night but
then he got lazy and just spewed off a few mainstream media stories and expected his callers to entertain him and run the show. It didn't work. They got rid of him.
The bigtime journalists on CNN are such good entertainers/ journalists because they go into every show fully rehearsed and fully prepared.
They did their homework two times over before they ever stepped on stage. When 100, 000+people are watching you, you can't ever afford to be "off" for more than two seconds because they pick up on it which is why journalism is so tough, you have to be up and on all the time.
It's not an easy life. Today's news is already old news. You have to go for the next story. You can get tunnel vision working in this field giving your life over to mass media, losing yourself in the process.
There are four types of jobs in television; administration, programming, sales and technical.
You have to be energetic and aggressive to land a job. In a newsroom, you might start as a writer and reporter going to all the small jobs,
taking a day to report on a story that gets two minutes airtime. You might go out alone with just a camera that you set up yourself.
Anchor people read from a prompter yet it's considered a glamour job. They're not journalists but it's a big time competitive deal.
You have to find an agent who will get you a job in a small market and from that, you will hopefully get a job with one of the few big city
markets around and that's it, you read the news everyday whether you feel good or bad. You have to help write the news script too.
It's really a tough job if you don't have the right personality. You're not an individual, you're just an automat doing a tightly regulated job.
Then, because you're considered a local celebrity, you have to go to local functions and act like a cool, happenin', dignified person. It's a job for egomaniacs. There are also several behind the scenes production jobs.
Radio is almost identical except that the prima donnas are the disc jockeys and the talk show hosts. Only a few of these make it big though.
Because there are so many DJs around, the job is relatively low paying. Talk is cheap too.
Many radio talk hosts are just low paid, generic blab artists. People get tired of them all except for the few original ones. In either case, you
need your audition tape and try to get a local job to work your way onto a network.
You can either get a job through an agent or by canvassing radio stations yourself. If you're really aggressive, you will go out and find advertisers to sponsor you for a radio show then present yourself to a radio station. Go to your library and get the several different annual broadcaster's/ media directories for lots of information.
Newspaper jobs come down to your ability to write. Beyond your journalism degree, you should have been on the high school newspaper
staff. Magazines are either trade or consumer.
There's writing, editing, photojournalism, art department, advertising, sales, administrative, etc. You have to start at the bottom and work
your way up.
Most states have newspaper and media associations that can help you find a job.
Names and locations of newspapers and a list of schools and departments of journalism are published in the Editor and Publisher
International Year Book, available in most public libraries and newspaper offices.
For general information about careers in journalism, contact:
Association for Education in Journalism and
Mass Communication
1621 College St.
University of South Carolina
College of Journalism
Columbia, S.c. 29208-0251
sc.edu
Communications Websites
cencom.org/medialinks.aspx, center for
communication media links.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/communication,
communication overview.
americancomm.org, communication studies
center.
uiowa.edu/commstud/resources, communication
studies resources.
cwa-union.org, communications workers of
america.
fcc.gov/initiatives.html, emerging
communication technology.
fcc.gov, fcc; federal communication
commission.
aber.ac.uk/media/functions/mcs.html, media and communication studies site.
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