Newspaper of the future

What will the newspaper of the future look like?

According to the American Journalism Review it will look like this:

A smaller, less frequently published version packed with analysis and investigative reporting and aimed at well-educated news junkies that may well be a smart survival strategy for the beleaguered old print product.

Read the rest of the AJR article HERE.

This is a great topic for discussion for newsrooms (newspaper and TV) and in college classrooms. How would students change newspapers to save them with the threat of the internet? How will the changing media affect TV news and what would students do to make it competitive?

Moonves – death to newspapers so CBS can make more money

Here’s an interesting look at how the CBS head honcho views newspapers and what his real concerns are… not news values, not being the watchdog, MONEY MONEY MONEY… Is there anything that can be done about this type of view of the media to save journalism?

From this morning’s media roundup on MediaBistro.com:

Les Moonves Wants to Put Newspapers Out of Business (Wired/Epicenter)
CBS chief Leslie Moonves says the purchase of CNET instantly made CBS a “major player” in the digital realm — and delights in his company’s contribution to the death of the daily newspaper. The CBS CEO plans to position his company as a one stop shop for news and information. “One of the advantages of the Internet is we’re taking money away from the newspapers,” he said.

What does this say about the state of the media?

From MediaBistro.com:

Todd and Sarah Palin Unchallenged in Fox Interviews (LAT)
James Rainey: Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren produced three nights of infotainment so frothy, slanted and off-point that they challenged even their cable network’s low standards. Given a chance to address real issues, Fox instead condescended to both Palins, with Van Susteren’s cringe-worthy paean to Arctic beauty and Todd Palin’s machismo, and Hannity’s weak-kneed idolization of Alaska’s governor.

A good topic for discussion right now in journalism classes and newsrooms: what does it say when supposedly “hard-hitting” news outlets don’t ask the “hard” questions and instead leave those to entertainment shows like “The View” (re: McCain’s recent interview).

Here’s The View interview:

This is the interview with ABC’s Charlie Gibson:

TV viewership increases online – What could that mean for TV news?

Not surprising to hear, but a new report is out that says more and more Americans are watching TV online.

The Conference Board reports:

Online TV viewing has been gaining in popularity. Nearly one-fifth of American households who use the internet watch television broadcasts online, double the viewership from 2006, The Conference Board and TNS report today. The top two destinations for online broadcasts are the official TV channel homepage and YouTube.com.

Why? That answer is not surprising either:

Most consumers do not like a set schedule. Being able to watch broadcasts on their own time and at their convenience are the top reasons users tune in online. Other reasons include avoiding commercials and portability. Nearly 72 percent of online households log on for entertainment purposes on a daily basis, and one in ten cites entertainment as the most important internet.

Read the rest of the report HERE:

This report makes for a good jumping off point for starting a discussion on the potential for television news. What is its future?  How can it be adapted to meet the changing habits of TV viewers?

Many stations have online components but what about ideas to totally revamp TV news?
Here are a few resources that report some findings that can also be used in this discussion:

marketingcharts.com

Pew Research Center

Jon Stewart: The most trusted person in America?

The New York Times today asks, “Is Jon Stewart the most trusted man in America?” I personally love him. He uts through a lot of the, well, crap, that other “real news” outlets glaze right over.

The NYT goes on to say,

When Americans were asked in a 2007 poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press to name the journalist they most admired, Mr. Stewart, the fake news anchor, came in at No. 4, tied with the real news anchors Brian Williams and Tom Brokaw of NBC, Dan Rather of CBS and Anderson Cooper of CNN. And a study this year from the center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism concluded that “ ‘The Daily Show’ is clearly impacting American dialogue” and “getting people to think critically about the public square.”

What does this say about “real news” if the best source for trusted information is the comedy channel? This would be a great topic of discussion for journalism students. What can “real news” outlets do to regain some of the trust they’ve lost since the days of Cronkite and Murrow?

Read the rest of the NYT article HERE for further discussion material.

All Platform Journalists

…that’s the new twist on one man bands… and they’re joining the ranks of CNN.

From MediaBistro.com’s TVNewser (8/11/08):

The all-platform journalists will join traditional general assignment reporters and CNN’s roster of show-based correspondents in 10 new U.S. cities. Those cities include Columbus, Ohio; Denver; Houston; Las Vegas; Minneapolis, MN; Orlando, FL; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Raleigh-Durham, NC; and Seattle. In most cases, the bureaus are expected to be located at CNN affiliates in those markets.

Is this the future for all journalists? Maybe. It’s a good reason to learn a little of everything in school, that’s for sure. For more info on this story, click HERE.

All you need to know about Journalism from Sherlock Holmes?

That’s the advice the Wall Street Journal’s  Winston Wood has for those interested in journalism.

He says:

In “The Man With the Twisted Lip”, the great detective solves the case of a guy who has “disappeared” in London. Neville St. Clair was a reporter who disguised himself as a disfigured beggar to research a story on life in the streets. He set up shop near the Bank of England, capered and quoted Shakespeare, and he quickly found he could make far more money panhandling than as a journalist. So without telling his wife, he quit the paper and became a beggar full time, moving his family to the suburbs and commuting to “business interests” in the city.

Read more of his thoughts on journalism education and the newspaper biz at the Columbia Journalism Review HERE.

Magazine Covers

I usually focus on other areas of journalism, but today here’s a little something for those of you interested in being a magazine editor or already working in magazines.

Steve Blacker, a mag exec and consultant has put together a list of eight essential things you need to know to get the cover right… which in turn helps your mag stand out on the news stand and increase sales. Blacker says, “The cover is the most important and only promotional tool a magazine has to sell itself at the newsstand.”

His tips include going with your gut, go out there on the cover image, and don’t overcrowd the cover with words. For more on his story at MinOnline.com click HERE.

State of the News Media

News delivery needs to adapt to new media in order to survive, much less thrive. It seems the traditional media outlets are struggling not only on converting content but also with their ad dollars. This topic gets a lot of coverage in this year’s State of the News Media report. More from Rick Edmond’s Biz Blog at Poynter.org:

Advertising takes center stage in the fifth edition of the State of the News Media report, released Monday by the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
The heart of the problem, especially for newspapers, is not loss of audience but “a broken economic model — the decoupling of advertising and news,” the report finds. “Advertisers are not migrating to news Web sites with audiences, and online, news sites are already falling financially behind other kinds of Web destinations.”
A separate report on the future of advertising finds that Madison Avenue is as tradition-bound — or more so — as news outlets. Catching up might involve finding ingenious ways to advertise on news sites.

Read more HERE.

Pay Per Sip in TV News?

Today’s discussion item comes from the New York Times. Brought to my attention via Media Bistro.

It’s about product placement in TV news. The same thing as being described in the Times has already happened in other cities, notably comes to mind in Phoenix where several years ago Duncan Donuts coffees were mandatory on the desk of one station’s morning news team.

Here’s the blurb from Media Bistro plus a link to the NYT story:

Product Placement in TV News?
Name-brand products make regular appearances on television shows, where they are typically written into a drama, comedy, or reality program. But in recent weeks anchors on the Fox affiliate in Las Vegas, KVVU, sit with cups of McDonald’s iced coffee on their desks during the news-and-lifestyle portion of their morning show. Execs say the promo will shore up ad revenue and will not influence content. Las Vegas Sun: The station and McDonald’s won’t disclose how much the fast food empire paid for the product placement. But lest there be any concerns about mixing fact (the morning news) with fiction (fake coffee), KVVU news director Adam P. Bradshaw points out that the cups are put out only after 7 a.m., when the hard news gives way to light lifestyle news.

The NYT article also mentions that the Writer’s Guild is trying to do something about this. Last month they “sent a letter to the F.C.C. supporting real-time disclosure of product placement and asking for a ban on video news releases on local broadcast television.”

Glad someone is doing something. Let the FCC know you support the Writer’s Guild’s letter demanding disclosure.

Here’s the FCC contact info:

To Contact the Commissioners via E-mail

Chairman Kevin J. Martin: KJMWEB@fcc.gov
Commissioner Michael J. Copps: Michael.Copps@fcc.gov
Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein: Jonathan.Adelstein@fcc.gov
Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate: dtaylortateweb@fcc.gov
Commissioner Robert McDowell: Robert.McDowell@fcc.gov

To Obtain Information via E-mail or On-line Form

General information, comments & inquiries: fccinfo@fcc.gov
Complaints: File a Complaint
Freedom of Information Act requests: FOIA@fcc.gov
Comments on FCC Internet services: webmaster@fcc.gov
Elections & political candidate matters: campaignlaw@fcc.gov
Broadcast Information: Broadcast Information Specialists

Here’s what I said in my email, which I sent to all of the commissioners listed above. Feel free to copy and paste and sign with your own name!

This email is to show you support for the Writer’s Guild’s letter to the FCC which supported demanding real-time disclosure of product placement and asking for a ban on video news releases on local broadcast television.
Please do what you can to stop this practice.
Thanks!

The Profession of Journalism

Are you an outsider or member of a respectable profession? Does it have to be one or the other?

This is from today’s Media Bistro Daily Feed Email, which in turn took a snippet of a Financial Times column by Gideon Rachman. I thought it would make for an interesting discussion in journalism classrooms or by circles.

Gideon Rachman: American journalists regard themselves as members of a respectable profession — like lawyers or bankers. Their British counterparts generally prefer the idea that they are outsiders. They like to quote the adage of the late Nicholas Tomalin that: “The only qualities essential for real success in journalism are rat-like cunning, a plausible manner, and a little literary ability.”

Read More HERE.

UT J-School to have an ABC bureau

Just read this story in my alum newsletter for the University of Texas at Austin.
Check it out.

University of Texas School of Journalism named one of five “ABC News on Campus” bureaus

AUSTIN, Texas — May 7, 2008 — The School of Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin is partnering with ABC News to educate and mentor talented college students through the ABC News on Campus initiative.

The University of Texas at Austin is one of five schools where ABC News will create campus multimedia bureaus that will provide an opportunity for students to report on stories in their area and produce a wide array of content for ABC News’ various digital and broadcast platforms, including “Good Morning America,” “World News with Charles Gibson,” “Nightline,” ABC News NOW, ABCNEWS.com, mtvU, ABC News Radio and NewsOne.

Read more HERE.

PS – Hook ‘em!

Journalism & Blogging

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the relationship between journalism and blogging. A journalist can be a blogger, but a blogger is not always a journalist.

There are some great blogs out there that report news on a variety of things for their readers, no matter how small their circulation numbers. That is a true free press. There are also some blogs that obviously are just people venting, others are more diaries. Then there are those blogs that are really advertisements in disguise. I never knew these exsisted until accidentally stumbling upon one such blog recently. There was an advertisement to make money from your blog. “Hmmm,” I thought. “Sounds interesting.” So I clicked.

I was lead to the underworld of blogging. A site that tells you that you can get paid for writing about people’s products. Well, that sounded questionable but potentially legit. I mean that’s what product reviewers do everyday. You never know where you’re going to find a source for that. So long as you give your honest opinion, does it matter the origination? Think on that.

Well, then you get to the fine print once they accept you. (I, of course, could not let these just go right by me. I HAD to investigate.) It says right there on your the login account home page, do NOT write in the review that you were paid to write it. Nor can you make it a category or tag. Well, if this was TV that would be against FCC rules, but I’m not sure if the internet falls under their complete jurisdiction. I remember a big stink a few years back when CBS O&Os were being asked by corporate to include a pre-paid feature story about how great Hawaii is. Sure it is great. We all wanna go, don’t we. But this was content PAID FOR BY HAWAII’s tourism industry. Not cool. I refused to stick it in my show at the time without proper labeling. I wasn’t being unreasonable. I’ve accepted that TV News is NOT journalism. At least not pure journalism. It is about making money. That was hard to come to terms with but its the truth, so take it for what it is. So, I’ll add the content okay. But I’m gonna have to put up a nice little banner the whole time that says PAID PROGRAMMING! That is the rule! And even if it wasn’t shouldn’t your journalistic ethics step in with a BIG RED FLAG!?

So back to blogging. This same thing is being done everyday by thousands of people across the globe. The money is not great but it’s something. About $6 per post of 200 words. These sites that set up this little scheme warn you that Google and the like are cracking down on paid blogs. They tell you to take out key phrases that might set off the spiders. (I won’t be putting them here for obvious reasons. I don’t want this blog to be taken down for talking about paid posts when in fact I’ve never written a paid post on any blog.) They proceed to add that you can say what you want about any advertiser you review, BUT (you knew that would be coming) the advertiser can object to it and demand it be removed and you get no money for all your work. (Hey, that’s just like in other media. Hmmm. See my paper on Advertiser Influence of TV News.)

It seems wrong that these paid blogs even exist. It seems brilliantly deceitful on the part of the advertising genius that came up with it. I guess it’s buyer/reader beware in this arena like so many others. It’s no wonder that motto’s like The X-Files’ “Trust No One” resonate with so many people these days. (Me being one such person.) But, like another of The X-Files motto’s proclaims, “the truth is out there,” we just have to dig a little harder to find it.

Crime & TV News

For today’s blog entry, I’m going to paste a book review I’ve previously written but haven’t published. It’s all about crime and TV news coverage. Check it out:

The Book:
Lipschultz, J. & Hilt, M. (2002). Crime and Local Television News: Dramatic, Breaking, and Live From The Scene. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

My Review:
Crime and tragedy, which are usually intertwined, are the most basic elements to any given local television newscast in any market in the United States. If there’s a big crime, it will most likely be the lead story with little or no disagreement from anyone in the newsroom. Lipschultz and Hilt try to find out the reasons for local news’ obsession with crime reporting in Crime and Local Television News: Dramatic, Breaking, and Live From The Scene. The book gives an accurate portrayal of local television newsrooms and newspeople. The authors look at the popularity of crime coverage, the reasons for its growth, the theories and research on crime news, how crime news effects segments of the population, and possible remedies to reduce the amount of crime coverage.
Television is a part of everyday life for most Americans, and according to a 1999 Roper survey 56 percent of Americans say local television news is too (as cited on p.1). That means crime stories are also a daily part of the American information stream. In defining crime stories, the authors use five characteristics defined by Jamieson and Campbell in 2001. They say crime stories are “personalized through perpetrators and victims; dramatic, conflict-filled, controversial, and violent; actual and concrete; novel or defiant; and linked to issues of ongoing concern to media” (p.2). Lipschultz and Hilt say news values help promote the use of crime coverage, particularly the news value of social order over disorder. “The organizational need to be dramatic helps explain why crime is frequently featured” (p.14). Lipschultz and Hilt say news coverage has evolved from a public affairs model to an event centered model, which shifts the focus of stories from politics to crime, human interest and sensationalized events.
“Crime is considered ‘the most common and least studied staple of news’” (p.2). In 1999, the Project for Excellence in Journalism counts crime coverage as the top category of local tv news stories, accounting for 19 percent of all local news. Lipschultz and Hilt say most of that coverage focuses on sensational events. The next closest type of coverage was “education/welfare/society” which earned just nine percent of local news content.
Lipschultz and Hilt say the popularity and reliance on crime news came about with the growth of local news across the nation. They say the emergence of the “eyewitness news” format in the 1970s emphasized live, local and interaction with the anchors… all elements which crime stories support. Interestingly, Lipschultz and Hilt give a brief history of this format of news, which they say was “developed by Al Primo at WABC-TV, New York, as a way to boost ratings by more than 10%” (p.13). This type of news spread across the country and eventually spawned the “action news” format. Lipschultz and Hilt say “action news” took advantage of electronic news gathering capabilities. This sparked local TV newsrooms across the country to purchase live trucks and helicopters. Again, a capability that well suits coverage of crime stories. This all “turned network affiliated local stations into ‘cash calves’ bought and sold for more than $500 million” (p.13). This accepted format of live, breaking news coverage “emphasizes the earliest stage of crimes because ‘breaking news’ from the scene of a crime is fresh, dramatic, and visual” (p.6). And for the most part, Lipschultz and Hilt say, this type of news gets high ratings, which means more dollars for stations.
Lipschultz and Hilt say when looking at local TV news from a cultural model of communication, crime stories “infer subtle meanings that place events within the context of their lives. Race, income, education, and geographic differences will make a difference in the ways that crime stories are interpreted” (p.21). This can negatively affect segments of the population by leading to negative stereotypes. Lipschultz and Hilt discuss both the impact on minorities and the elderly. Crime stories tend to show minorities as the perpetrators of crimes and whites as the victims. One study by Oliver in 1999 is mentioned in the book. It examined the stereotype of African Americans as criminals. Participants were shown different stories with different races portrayed as criminals. “Participants who had seen a white suspect in the news story were more often likely to mistakenly identify him as an American American” (p. 116). The study found “viewers’ memories of racial and crime related information in the news may serve to sustain racial stereotyping, even under conditions where African Americans and Caucasians are portrayed in similar ways” (p.116).
Appropriately the issue of ethics in crime coverage is also discussed in Crime and Local Television News. This section of the book looks at various codes of ethics, reasons for the need to use them and the problems, mostly time, in making ethical decisions in local television news. As one news director quoted by Lipschultz and Hilt says “having guidelines is not the problem, the challenge is executing the plan” (p.83).
What can or should be done about the popularity of crime coverage in local television news? Lipschultz and Hilt look at a couple of crime projects done by local television stations in attempt to reduce crime stories in their newscasts. One such project happened in the mid to late 1990s at KVUE-TV in Austin, Texas. I worked at KVUE when their crime project was initiated. While it was criticized for playing to the ratings, KVUE was already number one when they, under the direction of News Director Carol Kneeland, began the project. It had a couple simple guidelines used to determine if a crime story aired. Those reasons were put on the screen and mentioned to viewers if they decided to broadcast a crime story. The guidelines followed were: Is there an immediate threat to safety? Is there a threat to children? Does action need to be taken? Does the crime have significant community impact? and Does the story lend itself to a crime prevention effort? The change to this system for crime coverage did not decrease ratings. KVUE still continues to be a leader in Austin, but they no longer use the crime coverage guidelines on the air. According to some people who still work there, the guidelines’ principles are still considered by some staff members when debating value of crime stories.
In retrospect, Crime and Local Television News: Dramatic, Breaking, and Live From The Scene does a good job of explaining the reasons behind the popularity of crime coverage without condemning it. This book seems to be written mostly for researchers who have some familiarity with broadcast news. It also would be applicable for students in a broadcast reporting class. The section on ethics would make for good discussion material in a course on journalism ethics. If there’s any theory or factoid you wanted to know about crime news in the early part of the 21st century, this book would be a good place to start looking for information.

Photojournalism Discussion

THIS IS FROM THE POYNTER CENTERPIECES NEWSLETTER EMAILED OUT TO SUBSCRIBERS ON SUNDAY JUNE 29, 2008. IT’S AN INTERESTING DISCUSSION. CHECK IT OUT… Election Violence in Zimbabwe: The Story Behind the Photo
By Kenny Irby (more by author) Visual Journalism Group Leader/Diversity Director	E-mail this item Print this Page Add Your Comments on this Article

The photograph was a stunner. Displayed across four columns at the top of Page One of Thursday’s New York Times, the image showed a baby boy with casts on both legs, the apparent victim of the violence marking the presidential election in Zimbabwe.

In these times of mass video delivery and saturation of visual messages, this still image offered cause to pause. It demanded attention, insisting that readers and viewers not look away.

Because of the risks to both journalists and the subjects of their coverage in Zimbabwe, The Times did not identify either the photographer or the child and decided not to publish the photo on its Web site. (Poynter Online also decided not to publish the photo, and instead links to the image of Thursday’s front page published on nytimes.com.)

Poynter Online asked Times picture editor Meaghan Looram to describe the decision-making that went into the photo’s publication. She said the photographer received permission from the child’s mother to publish the photo, which she said has generated “tremendous response” from readers. She said the paper is looking into how it might facilitate readers’ interest in helping the child and others in similar circumstances.
Read the rest of this story HERE.

J movies every journalist should see

These films all highlight important ethical issues that journalists face. (Details from www.imdb.com):

Absence of Malice (1981) Directed by Sydney Pollack
“Tagline: Suppose you picked up this morning’s newspaper and your life was a front page headline… And everything they said was accurate… But none of it was true.” Starring Paul Newman and Sally Field

All the President’s Men (1976) Directed by Alan J. Pakula
“Reporters Woodward and Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Nixon’s resignation.” Starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford
Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism (2004) Directed by Robert Greenwald
“Documentary on reported Conservative bias of the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News Channel (FNC), which promotes itself as “Fair and Balanced”. Material includes interviews with former FNC employees and the inter-office memos they provided.”

Shattered Glass (2003) Directed by Billy Ray
“This film tells the true story of fraudulent Washington, D.C. journalist Stephen Glass, who rose to meteoric heights as a young writer in his 20s, becoming a staff writer at “The New Republic” for three years (1995-1998), where 27 of his 41 published stories were either partially or completely made up. Looking for a short cut to fame, Glass concocted sources, quotes and even entire stories, but his deception did not go unnoticed forever, and eventually, his world came crumbling down.” Starring Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard and Chloë Sevigny

The Insider (1999) Directed by Michael Mann
“Based on a true story about a CBS 60 Minutes-episode in 1994 on malpractices in the tobacco industry, that was not aired because CBS parent company Westinghouse objected.” Starring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe

Join the “What Would Murrow Do” fanclub….

Today’s topic is Edward R Murrow.

I have to admit, and I don’t think I’m alone, while I knew of Edward R. Murrow and his association with the roots of broadcasting, until I was in grad school in Dr Tommy Thomason’s J-Lit Review class, I did not have the appreciation for him that I do now. Until then, I had never read more than a paragraph or two, maybe even a chapter, about Murrow.

It is the details of his story that make him so relevant to the state of broadcasting today. Murrow is not only an important figure all journalism students should know well, but he is an inspiration to accept nothing less from yourself and the business of broadcasting. Murrow had to fight many of the same battles that we’re still facing today. That is, in part, why he left the business.

Here’s a quickie Edward R. Murrow Historical Timeline:
•Egbert Roscoe Murrow was born in 1908 in North Carolina
•grew up working on farms and with loggers in Washington state
•got bachelor’s degree from Washington State College
•As head of the Pacific Student Presidents Association, Ed joined up with the
National Student Federation of America, which would eventually lead him to CBS
•1935 Ed was hired as what we would now call a booking producer for CBS radio
•1937 Ed was chosen as the news CBS European director
•March 13, 1938 first Murrow radio report broadcast (from Nazi-occupied Vienna)
•1939 conducted his famous rooftop broadcasts from London during the war
•1941-45 hired a distinguished group of war correspondents known as
“Murrow’s Boys”
•1945, at age 37, Murrow was brought back to the U.S. to run CBS news
operations
•September 29, 1947 began anchoring the radio show Edward R. Murrow with
the News
•1950 Hear It Now radio series begins
•1951 first Murrow television show, See It Now, begins
•1953 Person to Person begins
•1953 See It Now began doing stories that eventually helped bring down McCarthyism. The “famous” McCarthy expose aired March 9, 1954
•1958 Small World begins (the model for current talk shows)

•See It Now was canceled July 1958, Murrow upset

•Gives famous RTNDA speech (see below for link to read the whole thing!)

•1960 Murrow co-anchors one time with Walter Cronkite
•1960 “Harvest of Shame” documentary airs (on Thanksgiving)
•1961 Murrow officially leaves CBS to work for President Kennedy as head of the
United States Information Agency.
•April 27, 1965 Murrow dies at age 57 (two days after his birthday)
Read more about him…

Links:

Edward R Murrow’s 1958 famous speech (You’ll really enjoy this and how it seems so current.)

Murrow Wikipedia

Books to start with:

Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism by Bob Edwards

Prime Time: The Life of Edward R. Murrow by Alexander Kendrick

DVDs:

Edward R Murrow: The Collection (This is great. You can watch lots of his stuff!)

Good Night and Good Luck (The George Clooney film)

Why you should listen to your professors and learn it all!

I’m sitting here thinking about how happy I am that I decided to NOT get a degree in TV News.

If you told me that about ten years ago I would have thought you were crazy. Back then I was just starting in the biz and was gung-ho. I did not know that TV news would be changing and sinking to new lows or how I would develop a love-hate relationship with it. I did not know that I would dedicate a year of my life to studying burnout in producers. Back then I had a “great” job working overnights at a Dallas TV news station. Wow. I thought I was big time. Funny now.

I ended up getting a general journalism degree because I was working as a producer at a TV news station in Austin while finishing up my bachelors degree. I was 21. I wanted to graduate and move on. I was in the University of Texas’ TV journalism program. Hard to get into. But very good. Then a problem arose, one of the classes conflicted with my work schedule and the university would make no exceptions I had to take the class to learn about TV news. It didn’t matter that I was a real TV news producer getting paid to do what the class talked about. I had also completed an internship for the CBS Evening News, then anchored by Dan Rather. I thought I knew where my career was headed. And I did. Mostly. So instead of taking that class, I decided to drop the TV program and just focus on journalism. I had already been a print journalist for The Daily Texan and for my high school newspaper. I liked print journalism. I had just decided that TV was more me, so I wanted to do that.

Getting a degree in journalism rather than TV News meant I had to take a few more classes to widen my base. I loved them. I took graphic design and more writing courses. Looking back on it now, I think it should be mandatory to get the more general degree.

While TV news classes are great, you really learn more in one day in the field than you do in most classes. That’s what internships are for. (I’ll expand on that thought in a future post.) I’m not saying you don’t need TV classes because you do. You need to learn the art of storytelling on TV. Its a skill that takes time and patience. You also need to walk away from school with a resume tape so you can get the job you want. I have come to hate how so many journalism students don’t want to write for the college paper. They want to be on TV. That’s fine and all. It is not easy to learn how to be a polished reporter or anchor. It takes practice. And you need to know how to work a camera and write specifically for TV. But, what you really need to learn in school are the basics of being a journalist. Being a journalist should mean something. It should come with standards that aren’t toyed with. I think those are getting left behind far to often in this day and age. You can see it on TV without looking very hard.

Back to my story… I climbed the ladder at the station in Dallas all the way to producing the 6pm news. Then I decided I wanted something more. I felt burned out. I needed a change. TV news was my life. I literally spent all my time doing it. I had no meaningful relationships outside of work. I’m glad I realized that then.

I took a job doing an entertainment/lifestyle show in Salt Lake City. It was a great move. I enjoyed it and got reinvigorated. I soon moved back to hard news and became an investigative producer. Best job I’ve ever had. Most rewarding. Another bonus – I met my now husband in Salt Lake too. Little did I know that would change my career path. After the Olympics in 2002, I decided to move on and back up the ladder. I landed in Chicago. Cool. One of the top TV markets in the world. And my best paying job so far too. That was nice. But soon I burned out there too. The daily grind and diminishing standards of the news business can really take their toll.

Skipping ahead, I decided that I needed to finish my mater’s degree. I had started it in Salt Lake before moving to Chicago. I picked it back up and completed it at the Schieffer School of Journalism at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. I also taught students about TV news there. It was a great experience. I planned on staying there and hopefully becoming a professor. Getting a law degree or a PhD seemed like a good plan. I was also pregnant with our first daughter. Things looked like they had fallen into place. I was ready for a break from the TV business and wanted to become a part-time stay at home mom, part-time prof.

But as life does, things changed. Being the type to embrace new things, I encouraged my husband to find a new job. He was a TV news photographer and he had become burned out at his job. We decided to move. This was the perfect thing for our family. He now gets to be home with us more than he is at work. Something which never seemed to happen in the news business. He sets his schedule for the most part. He does something he loves. He’s still a news photographer but he also now produces his own sports show for the university here. He says its the best of both worlds – getting family time and still doing what you loved about TV news.

Me, I am now back to being a journalist. Part-time at least. I am writing and editing restaurant reviews for Out West Food Review. Its a website I started up in hopes of helping locals and tourists alike find good independent spots to eat. We review restaurants in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. I travel a lot in these areas and try lots of small places that are worthy of telling others about. So I decided I would share that info. I got a few other journalist friends to take part too. Its not a money making venture but it gets me back to doing what I love and was missing: writing.

I am also working as a freelance writer for magazines and other websites. I don’t discriminate. All media are subject to getting my pitches. And I like it that way. Luckily I learned the skills of the trade back in school. I learned what it meant to be a journalist in every sense of the word.

My advice to all of you future journalists out there – learn it all. I’m glad I did. I’m not saying this just because I plan on becoming a professor one day. While it is fine to specialize, don’t turn your nose up at the other formats. Learn to write across the board. You’ll be glad you did one day. It allows you to be in charge of your life and priorities. You WILL be happier. You will feel freer. You will have something to fall back on. Trust me. And in ten years, let me know how glad you are to have taken my advice!