Journalism Jobs

Before I know it I'm going to be out on work placement and getting some "real world" experience. I put real world in brackets because a lot of the things we do in CreComm are the same things we'll probably be doing on the job, we just do them at school.

As I'm thinking about where I'd like to have my work placement, I think about where I want to end up when I graduate. I don't want to be working as someone's assistant or teaching english to kids in Africa. Both of those jobs are great for those who like that kind of thing, but that's not just for me.

So I started thinking, what is my dream job? Well obviously CNN or BBC anchor, but that's setting the bar pretty high for a 21-year-old brand new journalist. So what's my dream first job? I would love love love to work in tv. Reporter would be ideal, but when you're first starting out it's kind of that "take anything you can get for experience" kind of thing.

So I set out to look for some TV jobs in Manitoba (I would love to stay in the province close to my family friends and boyfriend). Low and behold, there weren't any. 

During the summer the internet job posting websites were full of TV news jobs. From reporter, to anchor, to weather, etc. All summer I was thinking "oh man I wish I was done CreComm so I could apply for these." There was a lot of change that went on this summer and I feel like that doesn't happen very often.

I'm hoping that this drought for TV news jobs at home doesn't last. I'm also well aware of the "who you know" clause. So my plan for finding an awesome first journalism job: make a lot of connections at work placements and scour all the media job websites I can find.

Here's a list of ones I used for those who are looking:

Jeff Gaulin Journalism Jobs

Media Job Search Canada

Workopolis

Kenton Larsen's CreComm Grad Jobs

Simply Hired

Wow Jobs

I'd love to know what other resources people use to find jobs, and what your "first dream job" is.

Anderson Who?

Two Fridays ago (September 2, 2011) I was at home, channel surfing when I finally decided to watch eTalk because there really wasn't anything else on. I was super excited when I clicked on the show and the screen changed to a nice close up of Anderson Cooper, one of my favorite journalists.

I didn't catch the whole interview, but when I tuned in what I heard amazed me. Ben Mulroney who was interviewing Cooper was asking him something along the lines of why or how he became a journalist. 

Cooper, who has a BA in political science from Yale became a journalist in a more drastic way then most of us. Compared to what he did, us CreCommers have it easy! During the interview Cooper told Mulroney that his friend made him a fake press pass and he started going to wars to cover them.

I knew that Cooper was an amazing journalist, doing amazing work with CNN - but I had never heard how he started before and I was amazed. I had gained a great respect for him and was impressed that eTalk was airing a more "newsy" story. That was until I watched the "highlight" video from the interview.

Here's the link: http://en.video.sympatico.ca/index.php/en/video/entertainment/3/all-entertainment-providers/153/etalk/729/cooper-countdown/1149933462001

It's just a promo interview for Cooper's new daytime television show, Anderson. The show is comparable to Oprah's talk show as they mentioned, with a large emphasis on celebrities lives and going into depth and finding out what their real stories are.

The show looks interesting but I'm not sure what to expect. I'm hoping and expecting a large emphasis on real journalism from Cooper, but this highlight reel doesn't give me that feeling. eTalk makes it seem like just another talk show and I'm a little worried because Cooper mentioned his guilty pleasure is "bad television" but I'm counting on him to impress me.

I PVR'ed the show, and am going to watch it later tonight - my thoughts on the new show to come. Hint, the first show features interviews with Amy Winehouse's friends and family, and is the first big interview they did after her death.