overthehill
Aug 2nd 2007, 05:41 AM
From the Committee of Concerned Journalists website: Do you need Web skills to work in today's TV newsroom?
Excerpts:
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 (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).
Link: http://www.concernedjournalists.org/node/855
Excerpts:
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 (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).
Link: http://www.concernedjournalists.org/node/855