| Laurie's Television Broadcasting Home Page | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How do you get an internship in television broadcasting? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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At many universities, there is a class called "career planning" that helps students figure out what one aspect of their communications major that they would like to pursue. At IUP, CM 395 is this course. This course prepares students to enter an internship of the field in which they desire. Businesses, in most cases contact universities and let them know what kind of interns they need. Internships are not difficult to find, they are everywhere. And, unfortunately they are usually without pay. In lieu of money, most are "paid" in college credits. The reason for the lack of being paid is because students by the thousands now seek internships, and stations say they can meet the demand only by offering them without pay. If stations follow federal regulations, unpaid interns get diluted experience, but they are severely restricted in the work they are allowed to do. Paid internships are worth more professionally as well as financially, but are available to few of the many students who want them. Internships pay off at hiring time. Interns are favored applicants in the growing competition for jobs. In television, former interns at the same station account for at least one of every six hires. Half the people working in broadcast news today had internships. They're tickets to jobs. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| What are the potential markets available for a beginning television broadcaster? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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According to Dr. Dudt, the dean of communications media at IUP, there are three potential markets available for a beginning television broadcaster. The first one is corporate video. This is working at a business and putting together videos for training, public affairs, commercial, public- relations and sales. The second market, is actually becoming a television broadcaster. However, this is a highly competitive field. You must have a lot of creativity and drive to break right into broadcasting. A person must be highly competent. The third market is to go into the education of television. This can include making educational videos or actually teaching students. Many school districts today are hiring professionals with communications media degrees, with interests in television and video. These people put together programs for students and do all the media work for the district. Television is a highly competitive field. Word has gotten around, correctly, that working in broadcast or cable news is exciting and satisfying. The result--an oversupply of college graduates wanting in, mainly from the many who want to be reporters or anchors. This is why there are other alternatives (above), if you are not able to become an anchor overnight. It may happen someday, but everything takes time. The supply of entry-level job seekers in the 1990's greatly exceeds demand. That's confirmed in team research by Professor Lee Becker and colleagues at Ohio State and by Vernon Stone at Missouri State. It was found that entry-level applicants outnumber hirings by 10 to one in TV and three to one in radio news. In many cases, the same person applies to dozens of stations. As a result, the average TV news director gets about 60 applications for every entry-level hire. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| What is the educational background of television broadcasters? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Having a degree in communications does not guarantee that you will get a job in TV broadcasting. An English major could be the anchor on "World News Tonight." Television Broadcasting is a very diverse field. With so many broad backgrounds, sometimes it comes down to "who do you know?" There are also many different kinds of school's out there that are specifically designed just for television broadcasting. There are many institutions where you can get a degree in three or six months. However, when it comes down to it, Dr. Dudt says that businesses today want people with an all around education. They want employees that hold a degree from a typical four- year college or university. People who chose to attend three to six month institutions, or two-year schools, are locked out of many opportunities due to their extremely specified education. Television broadcasting is not an easy field to break into. But, if you get a good education, and hold a strong degree (unless you know the right people), you have fought half the battle. Getting an internship, even if it is unpaid, also helps you. Tony Villasana, new operations director at KSDK-TV, St. Louis sees it as "the time each intern spends with us is a win-win situation for the student and the station. The intern is given the opportunity to learn from media professionals in a setting that's unavailable in many colleges and universities. The station, on the other hand, benefits from those services the intern performs."
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