With CreComm slowly coming to an end, finding a job has been on my mind more than ever. One problem: I don't know what I want to do. Let me rephrase that. I'm not sure which aspect of journalism I want to get into. I've done a lot of print work and I know it better than radio or television, but the job prospects aren't the greatest.
Then you have television which is very hit and miss for me. Some broadcast journalism classes I feel like I get it and everything clicks...then the following week is an absolute disaster. I love anchoring too, but that isn't something that I can make the jump to right out of CreComm. Still very open to a television career.
Finally, we have radio. I love radio. I co-hosted a fantasy sports show with Mr. Mark McAvoy last year and it was honestly one of my favourite things that I did in first year. And with my second work placement being TSN 1290, I hoping to get my foot into the radio side of journalism.
There's a month left of classes and a ton of jobs out there...now it's time to make a big decision and choose what's best for me. I'm starting to feel the pressure.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
Custom Publishing
In journalism class this week, we took a different angle and worked on some custom publishing. I can't say it was one of my favourite assignments of the year. In fact, I'd go further and say I strongly dislike customer publishing.
As an aspiring journalist, there's nothing worse than writing a piece that a company has paid for. And for my assignment, I had to write a "story" on a local business as if they were paying for it.
Now this wasn't no ordinary story. I had to puff up the ego's of the client and make them look like they were the best thing since sliced bread. No interviews and no getting two sides of the story. Nothing. Just make the business look good.
Now I have no problem going out to a restaurant or seeing a show and writing a nice review if I had a good experience. But this is a totally different beast.
Custom publishing has been becoming more and more frequent in journalism in the past few years and frankly I'm not a big fan of it. I did a lot of similar stories in Portage when I was at the Daily Graphic and those stories aren't ones that I'd put in my portfolio.
It's not that it's poor writing - it's just that they feel so fake to me. Going to businesses and getting owners to tell me how great they think their work is isn't something I find particularly compelling as a reader or writer.
As someone who wants to be in this business a long time, I'm hoping that papers find different ways of bringing in revenue and don't solely rely on this method to bring in cash.
These advertorials don't evoke any passion, emotion, or anything that made me fall in love with journalism in the first place.
But that's just my take though.
As an aspiring journalist, there's nothing worse than writing a piece that a company has paid for. And for my assignment, I had to write a "story" on a local business as if they were paying for it.
Now this wasn't no ordinary story. I had to puff up the ego's of the client and make them look like they were the best thing since sliced bread. No interviews and no getting two sides of the story. Nothing. Just make the business look good.
Now I have no problem going out to a restaurant or seeing a show and writing a nice review if I had a good experience. But this is a totally different beast.
Custom publishing has been becoming more and more frequent in journalism in the past few years and frankly I'm not a big fan of it. I did a lot of similar stories in Portage when I was at the Daily Graphic and those stories aren't ones that I'd put in my portfolio.
It's not that it's poor writing - it's just that they feel so fake to me. Going to businesses and getting owners to tell me how great they think their work is isn't something I find particularly compelling as a reader or writer.
As someone who wants to be in this business a long time, I'm hoping that papers find different ways of bringing in revenue and don't solely rely on this method to bring in cash.
These advertorials don't evoke any passion, emotion, or anything that made me fall in love with journalism in the first place.
But that's just my take though.
Monday, February 4, 2013
The diet of a journalist
Journalism life is busy for the most part and getting a having a proper diet is tough.
It's hard to have that balance of healthy food and fast food when getting fast food is so much quicker and convenient.
During my summer internship at the Portage Daily Graphic, I would be on the road close to three hours a day. I didn't have time to make a lunch or even eat a dinner in the evening. Most times, I would be stuck eating Tim's or Subway mid-afternoon with the odd snack. Safe to say that it didn't help my waist line over the summer months.
But it's not always about having to eat bad food. There are days where you don't get to eat until the evening. During most broadcast journalism Thursday's, I don't always get the time to eat. Is it partially my fault? Yes. But with the hectic schedule of a journalist (whether it's print, radio, television, etc), it's not always easy to get the right number of meals in during the day.
And with limited healthy options for snacks and meals out there, it doesn't make it any easier to get the proper nutrition your body needs.
For example, the last month at the Phoenix Sinclair inquiry and Law Courts, I ate Boston Pizza three times and pub food the other. Not to say I didn't enjoy the food, because I did, but it's so easy to get caught up in a bad diet when you're on a deadline.
So after I finish CreComm and get my first true journalism job (fingers crossed), the first goal is to become a much more responsible eater and to save the beers and pizza for the weekends.
It's hard to have that balance of healthy food and fast food when getting fast food is so much quicker and convenient.
During my summer internship at the Portage Daily Graphic, I would be on the road close to three hours a day. I didn't have time to make a lunch or even eat a dinner in the evening. Most times, I would be stuck eating Tim's or Subway mid-afternoon with the odd snack. Safe to say that it didn't help my waist line over the summer months.
But it's not always about having to eat bad food. There are days where you don't get to eat until the evening. During most broadcast journalism Thursday's, I don't always get the time to eat. Is it partially my fault? Yes. But with the hectic schedule of a journalist (whether it's print, radio, television, etc), it's not always easy to get the right number of meals in during the day.
And with limited healthy options for snacks and meals out there, it doesn't make it any easier to get the proper nutrition your body needs.
For example, the last month at the Phoenix Sinclair inquiry and Law Courts, I ate Boston Pizza three times and pub food the other. Not to say I didn't enjoy the food, because I did, but it's so easy to get caught up in a bad diet when you're on a deadline.
So after I finish CreComm and get my first true journalism job (fingers crossed), the first goal is to become a much more responsible eater and to save the beers and pizza for the weekends.
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