Journalism

[sooner2b09]

I am going to be an incoming Freshman in the fall semester of 2009 at OU. I am looking to hopefully get my degree in Broadcast Journalism so I can go onto become a sports caster which is one of my all time dreams. I have done commercials and acted on stage before and am comfortable in front of a camera and I love sports so I decided I would be a pretty good Broadcaster. (I have taken journalism classes at my H.S. and I am not too shabby of a writer.)

I was just looking for any useful information from people who have gone through this program or from anyone who would like to share their input.

I recently visited the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication during Sooner Saturday and I was very impressed with the facility and the teachers.

I would just love to have any information that would help me as I try to decide if this is the right fit for me.

[fadada1]

ask TopDawg - he's a journalism grad from OU.

can't spell very well, but he never colors outside the lines.

[1890MilesToNorman]

Get Katie Courik in bed, I bed that would boost yer career.

[badger]

I am going to be an incoming Freshman in the fall semester of 2009 at OU. I am looking to hopefully get my degree in Broadcast Journalism so I can go onto become a sports caster which is one of my all time dreams.
First off, congrats on coming to OU! Be sure to check out the fun thread on the football board on advice for incoming freshmen... either for educational purposes or humor purposes (or both).

I am an online and print journalist and have a degree from OU in journalism, so I kind of fit into your description. The journalist school now has a focus on training all journalism students in both print and broadcast formats. Thus, people like me that have no intention of being in front of or behind a camera will nonetheless have experience with it. With the move from print format to Web recently, I can't say that I've never used it.

Before your dream of becoming a sportscaster becomes a reality, I would like you to question a little whether or not this is truly what you want to do. If you a fan of OU or another school, keep in mind that you will be reporting on not just your favorite school, but also local high schools, other colleges or depending on where you can find a job, professional teams too.

Even if you get to cover your favorite areas, you should also realize that it is not the same as being a part of a crowd of 85,000 at Owen Field. You will be in an eerily silent press box that never cheers or speaks above a whisper. When I have been on the floor above where radio and cameras are, it seems that they fight a little for position... and WOW that area can be windy and cold on some gamedays (and hot on earlier games).

Thus, please think about whether you are getting into this because you love sports (because you may not love sports as much after you experience the professional side) or if you're getting into this because you love the profession itself already... getting into your next part...


I have done commercials and acted on stage before and am comfortable in front of a camera and I love sports so I decided I would be a pretty good Broadcaster. (I have taken journalism classes at my H.S. and I am not too shabby of a writer.)

Writing is the basis of broadcast, so just because you'll be speaking your story instead of having others read it, don't think you can abandon writing altogether! It is good to see that you have experience. This will be your key to future employment. Get as much experience in college as you can. OU (which you may have discovered on your campus tour) has radio stations and a student television station for you to get your "boom goes the dynamite" slip-ups out of the way before you start your first post-college job. There is also a student newspaper and other area student-geared publications on campus that you can get your sports journalism experience started with.

Don't think that your freshman status will prevent you from working at any of these. On the contrary, it may be key to starting your college experience off on the right foot by getting involved in these activities early. Having experience is vital in journalism, but also in other fields.


I was just looking for any useful information from people who have gone through this program or from anyone who would like to share their input.
Not all professors in the school (or any school on campus) are created equal. I recommend finding out which are the preferred and which are not through either your new friends at the radio/television/paper (hint: if i didn't emphasize it enough already, you should look to get involved in one of these!) or visit sites like Pick a Prof or Rate my Professor. These sites might also be helpful in choosing your intro courses, which also aren't created equally.

Again, the program, when I attended 01-05, emphasized both print and broadcast, so you will have experience in academic experience in both by the time you leave, but if you are really serious about it, be sure to get professional experience at the student level via OU Nightly News (the student television broadcast), The Wire or KGOU (student and national public radio stations on campus) or The Oklahoma Daily (student newspaper).


I recently visited the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication during Sooner Saturday and I was very impressed with the facility and the teachers.

I would just love to have any information that would help me as I try to decide if this is the right fit for me.

I hope my post didn't go on for too long (but most of my posts here do, so whatev), but I hope this all helps.

I cannot emphasize enough how important it will be for you to get experience in the field outside of the classroom. I think too many transfers from other programs (meteorology and business burnouts mostly) just did their coursework and ended up not working in the field right away... or ever. The first time I saw some of them was graduation ceremonies. Not a good sign.

Good luck, and [david boren]Welcome to the OU Family[/boren]

[C&CDean]

You need to peem Sooner04. He was a broadcast journalism major. One summer of interning - a.k.a. "polishing Dean Blevins' knob" turned him off to it. Guess there's lots of bad haired/big egoed personalities in the field.

[badger]

You need to peem Sooner04. He was a broadcast journalism major. One summer of interning - a.k.a. "polishing Dean Blevins' knob" turned him off to it. Guess there's lots of bad haired/big egoed personalities in the field.

I don't mean to be Debbie Downer, but Dean brings up a good point on the Deano's out there. How, exactly, do you think Dean Blevins got his job?

Exactly - being a former Oklahoma QB pushed him to the front of the line. There was a lead sportscaster in Green Bay who was... you guessed it, a former Packer Pro Bowler. Our "favorite" Sports Animal talker is... yup, a former OSU baseball and football player.

Sports broadcast is a very competitive field. However, we could use more talent in this field to kick out some of the ones who have overstayed their welcome :)

:mad: Especially on OU basketball broadcasts.

;)

[sooner2b09]

Thank you so much for your advice Badger, I did get to read the "welcome to college" thread on the football forum and got a lot of basic college hints there so I came over here to hopefully get some insight on the field I want to pursue.

My mom is friends with the West family (Lance West) and we are trying to use those connections to possibly get an internship over the summer so I can just be around people who are making a living out of this and see what all goes into it.

I also do understand that I will have to start out in a small market and work my way up and I am prepared for this. I do realize I am not going to be covering my favorite sports teams right off the bat, so I see it as a goal to try and move up to those positions.

And yes I do love being at Owen Field with 85,000 of my best friends, but when I am watching games I usually like to watch them alone, which is why I usually don't enjoy watch parties. I love to analyze everything that is going on and try to predict what is going to happen next.

Hopefully I passed the test of "Oh that would be cool to be a sports caster and talk about sports all day" :D

Thank you guys for your input so far!

[badger]

I'm afraid that the professional world is "who you know" as opposed to "what you know" in all professions, not just journalism. However, for people that don't have connections to Lance West (wink-wink/Buddy Christ pose your direction), you will be able to establish connections when working at student media, or through your coursework, or through internships that you'll get via student media coursework.

Also, I'm sure that they mentioned this on the college tour, but they have internship job fairs in the spring semester and have campus visits by local media outlets so you can get further connections that way!

So anyways, glad you are not part of our "entitled generation" (gah, I hate that term) and know that you won't be making $100k and working for ESPN straight outta college.

[Okla-homey]

I don't know anything at all about the journalism bidness except for one thing. If you are a cute chick, you can break into sports broadcast media easier than if you are a d00d who didn't play college sports.

[John Kochtoston]

Don't be too discouraged. There's plenty of non-jocks on TV. Almost all of the good ones, in fact.

Dunno what I can offer as far as "advice," except for get an internship or three. Especially try to get one out of state one summer, or even do a semester as a visiting student.

PM me if you want. OU School of J, 1999. Yes, before it was a college. :)

[A Sooner in Texas]

Hi 2b09 - I'm in print journalism but have friends in the broadcast biz and Badger's right that you need to keep up your writing skills. Doing your own research and writing will show you're serious and not afraid to put in the time. That said, I would recommend going for internships - even unpaid ones - with radio and TV sports depts. as much as possible. Do the lowliest of grunt work with enthusiasm and respect and learn as much about the technical aspects as possible. Not only will that make you more well-rounded and valuable, you'll make connections with the off-air folks who can be very helpful to you (as in make you look good and will have their own connections).
Best of luck to you.

[Rhino]

Goodness, you people type a lot of words.

Listen, you're going to change your mind about a major about three times between now and your junior year of college.

Go get your basics out of the way, sprinkle in an elective and at least one class of your major every semester. Sometime during the middle of JMC 2033, you will know if you want to be a journalism major or not. If you're iffy, bounce.

It's not that hard.

[SteelClip49]

I know you want to be a Sooner so have at it at the JMC department. I was a part of Gaylord JMC for 2 years and the teachers sucked. Gade is the only decent professor there. Dr. Rosengard, which i believe isn't there anymore, gave OU Broadcasting some credibility but now it's just blah. OU JMC does have their fair share of OBEA awards and Journalism awards but the only reason OU's JMC department looks good is because it's OU, it's Gaylord's money and they have a lot of uptodate technology.

I got my Broadcasting degree from UCO where I am proud to say came in second recently in the best college newscast category, finishing higher than OU!!! UCO Mass Comm department has better professors, trainers and overall staff. It's a lot smaller but you have a wide variety of avenues to take being there. Channels 4, 5, 9 and 12 have said they like hiring UCO grads more than any school because of the dedication that shows in their work.

But hopefully you see it better than I do but there are several of my friends who transferred from OU to UCO because OU required too much unnecessary BS courses and at UCO you can get done in much less time and get a better quality broadcasting/journalism education.

Good Luck!

[DoubleDown]

I hate to be "that guy", but as someone that's been doing this for 7 years (Two in radio, 5 in TV), I have but one piece of advice: DON'T DO IT!!!

Seriously, this business is getting further and further from what I thought I was getting myself into when I was deadset to get into broadcast journalism. The internet has completely changed how the business is run AND I would be hard pressed to name an occupation the current recession has hit harder than the broadcast media.

Here's a little exercise for you to do: Watch a news broadcast and count how many spokespeople and PIO's you see giving sound for city/county/state offices that are former members of the media. Just about everyone I know has either bolted for one of those positions or are currently trying to land one (myself included).

Again, I hate to be "that guy", but I wish I had listened to the guy that got me my first gig when he told me it's not all it's cracked up to be. But, if you insist on giving it a whirl, or if you have any questions, hit me up when you're ready for an internship (as long as you promise not to blame me down the road for not talking you out of this).

[badger]

I'm not going to try to discourage our young future-Sooner from his dream job, but I will endorse what DoubleDown said: A lot of former writers and broadcasters in journalism become public relations specialists for primarily for two reasons: more money and better hours.

In. Turn. Ship. Tern? Ehhhh, I'll emphasize it every time I post on this thread. Get experience in your field to make sure it's what you want to do. There are many people in broadcast that love their job, too :)

[Pogue Mahone]

A few other things no one told me in journalism school ...
Your hours will be bad and your pay might be worse. I missed dozens of Sooner games while I was out covering high school sports in four states over 10 years. The word "holiday" will come to mean "overtime pay in my check next month."
Whoever said you'll like sports less is 100 percent correct.
It's an extremely competitive business, which makes it a buyer's market for jobs. I once beat out 68 people for a job in Albuquerque.
But it's not without its joys. Write a lot; learn the AP stlylebook; find a broadcast style that is distinct without being silly. Work on news stories; they're just like sports: who wins, who loses and why. You might prefer them. I do.

[1890MilesToNorman]

If you become a journalist be sure to remember that most people don't care about yer opinion!! just report the facts. The media has a lower approval rate then congress due to opinions oozing out of the media.

Just sayin!

[badger]

If you become a journalist be sure to remember that most people don't care about yer opinion!! just report the facts. The media has a lower approval rate then congress due to opinions oozing out of the media.

Just sayin!

That's the outsider's advice. The insider's advice is that you should remember that you will deal with these people every day :P

[Collier11]

My mom is friends with the West family (Lance West) and we are trying to use those connections to possibly get an internship over the summer so I can just be around people who are making a living out of this and see what all goes into it.


There is your open door, now maybe you should ask your mom to enhance their friendship for your sake...hey, she gave birth to you, she can do this. It cant hurt