{"id":414,"date":"2017-04-21T15:06:19","date_gmt":"2017-04-21T19:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/?p=414"},"modified":"2017-04-21T15:06:19","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T19:06:19","slug":"and-away-you-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/2017\/04\/21\/and-away-you-go\/","title":{"rendered":"And Away You Go….."},"content":{"rendered":"

1735 DeSales Street, NW Washington DC 20036!…I still remember it, some forty years later after i started applying for my first television job…That was the address i’d send my three quarter inch tape to, never to see it again…The DeSales Street address was where Broadcasting Magazine was located, literally the ONLY classified page for on air jobs…And if that wasn’t bad enough, my tapes went to a box number so i didn’t even know where the jobs were!<\/p>\n

Thanks to websites like TVJOBS.Com<\/a>\u00a0 and Journalismjobs.com<\/a>, to name a couple, the process is much easier now…<\/p>\n

One of the advantages of starting out in a smaller market, as scary and as unattractive that might be, is that you’ll often time find yourself the only one covering the event…I can’t tell you how many times spectators would come up to me in my first job at Malden Cablevision and ask initially “Who are you shooting for” which then segued to \u00a0“When is this gonna be on?”….and eventually translated into “Hey, you’re the guy from Malden Cable, thanks for doing our game”…”Parents still want to read about their kids and neighbors in their hometown”, Brian MacPherson<\/a> of the Providence Journal told our recent Boston University Sports Journalism Seminar class, “Some of the best stories I’ve ever written were because people wanted to share them”…<\/p>\n

Joining MacPherson was Catherine Donovan<\/a>, Executive Producer at the Western Mass News Organization that oversees three TV stations in Springfield, ABC 40, Fox 6 and CBS 3….Even with a population of over 150,000, Donovan knows where their audience is, “Friday they (the sports guys) go out and do ten to twelve football games…and the parents love it!…they want to see their kids”…<\/p>\n

It’s really simple…ESPN, FoxSports, The Boston Globe aren’t showing up to cover the games played in the markets where you’ll start…use that to your advantage…<\/p>\n

Now while maybe it’s easier to find<\/em> the jobs, I’ve gained an appreciation for the hard work it takes to do<\/em> that job now… Donovan lays it right out there. \u00a0“Going into this you’re going to want to love it”…A typical day for a Multi Media Journalist (MMJ) at her station sounds daunting. \u00a0“They’re responsible for coming up with at least three story ideas, their own and not from the newspaper or our competitors. \u00a0You get assigned and make your calls, setting up your interviews. \u00a0You’re getting your gear together, you’re packing up your car and going to your interviews. \u00a0You’re gathering your interviews, your video, your sound. \u00a0You’re in touch with the assignment desk throughout the day. \u00a0Every reporter is required to do a Facebook Live hit (at least 5 minutes). You’re sending back photos of their stories. \u00a0You’re re-posting stories to your personal webpages. \u00a0Once you’ve gathered everything you might write and edit in the field, feed it back. \u00a0You get your scripts approved (by Donovan) and then go “live”. \u00a0I might add that includes shooting the live shot by yourself…And if the story is big enough, as in the case of Aaron Hernandez, you might even do a series of live shots for other stations around the country…And don’t forget to Tweet while you’re at it…<\/p>\n

Bottom Line, you’re working hard…<\/p>\n

Which brings us to a question for MacPherson courtesy of Shelby Reardon…”What was your biggest struggle in your first job”…”Some of it is just getting your feet under you and knowing what’s going on, not just like who won last week.”<\/p>\n

It says here, you’re ready…time to hit the bricks…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1735 DeSales Street, NW Washington DC 20036!…I still remember it, some forty years later after i started applying for my first television job…That was the address i’d send my three quarter inch tape to, never to see it again…The DeSales Street address was where Broadcasting Magazine was located, literally the ONLY classified page for on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":901,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/901"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":415,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414\/revisions\/415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}