What TV Stations Look for in New Reporters

Carrie Brown, who for a couple of years coordinated CCJ's Traveling Curriculum development program [1] and now teaches at the University of Missouri [2], sent the following note to CCJ Broadcast Director Walter Dean [3] one day in early March 2007:

"I had a question (from) a freshman who is a very bright, very hardworking aspiring broadcast journalist. She wonders if she should try to take classes and develop skills in online journalism as well as broadcast. Although her primary interest is television and she doesn't really like online stuff per se, she sees the writing on the wall with everything including video becoming more web-based. Have there been any recent changes in local TV in terms of their hiring patterns?"

Here is the answer Wally gave her:

When news directors hire reporters, they seek someone who:

1) Is curious and has a good work ethic

2) Displays a discipline of and desire for life-long learning

3) Has a mastery of basic reportorial skills

4) Has good TV skills

5) Has some Web skills

6) Plays well with others

Do not take this to mean the web is unimportant. Just the opposite is true. Your students should learn as much about on-line journalism as possible, especially how to tell important or interesting stories using the "non-traditional" ("non-TV") approaches that are available on-line.

Wally solicited feedback from newsroom managers who have participated previously in Traveling Curriculum workshops and Brian Benschoter, the Vice President and General Manager at News 8 Austin [4] (TX) added the following:

Wally’s list is right on. I rank it as: Smarts, Passion, Presence, People Skills.

1. Smarts: They must be interested in the world and demonstrate the breadth of those interests. Not just smart…but “smarts”…bright, resourceful, clever, energetic, adaptable, alert.

2. Passion: They must care about the “business of journalism”…and speak to integrity, fairness, inclusiveness and the all around editorial (and economic) success of the enterprise.

3. Presence: They should project ease, poise, self-assurance…in their writing and in their on-air performance. (Or, if a newbie, at least in the interview.)

If they have the first three, they make the first cut. Then we hire them based on:

4. People Skills: Reporting, news gathering and broadcasting are team/contact sports…they must care about and like people…both the people they work with and the people they report on. They must demonstrate that they can build relationships…be trustworthy…possess a sense of obligation to community (work and public).

As for taking a web class…sure. Take a shooting or editing class…sure. But I’d really rather students do as much writing as possible in classes that will critique their grammar, style, logic. How about taking debate, public speaking, research, stat analysis, government, civics, business law, graphic design? (We’d all love to hire a Renaissance man or woman, right?)

The reality is that the person I hire will be trained to use our cameras, edit on our editors, and publish online using our content management system. So the only advantage would come if they had a good grasp of the basic aesthetics and conventions involved in shooting, editing, online publishing. But I think generally those skills are more easily acquired on the job than the ability to be a good citizen and be an intellectually flexible, empathetic, critical thinker.

PS: Alarms sort of go off when I hear someone doesn’t like online stuff. Now more than ever I want folks who see every tool as a new opportunity to tell/advance a story. I’m currently hiring for a new small market newsroom. There will be a news director and five reporter/producers. The reality is that these five folks will set up, report, shoot, edit, their stories…then publish their stories to the on-air automation and to the online system…with guidance from the news director. They will also have days where they manage (produce) the automation rundown and the online priorities…again with guidance from the news director. This is truly concept-to-completion news flow. It means being open to every facet of news gathering and publishing.

Do you have thoughts about the skills that a student interested in entering the broadcast journalism field should have? Drop us an email [5].

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Celeste Gonzalez de Bustamante, a broadcast journalism professor at the University of Arizona, had this to add:

Now more than ever, critical thinking and writing need to be emphasized. These are skills I am constantly trying to build among my students.

Unfortunately, far too often, many college students have not developed these skills before they reach the university. As Brian Benschoter suggested [above], the lines between online, T.V., print etc. have been blurred to the point that broadcast journalists need to produce reports for all types of media. Therefore, what really matters these days is the journalist's ability to take information and analyze it with a critical eye, and then put the information into an understandable (not necessarily simplistic) context for the audience/reader.

Thanks for letting me put in my two cents.

Would you like to contribute your "two cents" as well? Drop us an email [5].

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