People will do one of two things when faced with a microphone: they'll
either clam up or ham it up. This has been the experience of news anchor Audrey
Desrosiers, who often has to go out and get her own stories.
She says most people are very receptive towards an on-location reporter.
The odd media skeptic will remain silent, but most people are willing to talk.
"You have some sort of an authority when you're in the media, so it's nice
to be able to talk to certain people that probably wouldn't talk to you otherwise,"
she says.
Despite the possibility of rejection, the reporter must step into a situation
with confidence, says Desrosiers. "You do have to have a thick skin and be
very outgoing and be able to ask tough questions and get your face in there,"
she says.
Desrosiers interviewed George Bush when he was the governor of Texas. "I
got to cover that and get into the thick of the whole press corps thing. That
was exciting!" she says. "I got to ask one-on-one questions."
While an interview with Bush certainly stands out, not all of Desrosiers'
stories are medal material. And nobody expects them to be. "You do the best
you can. I think everyone here knows that you're not going to make award-winning
stories every day. Your main goal is to get on the air [and] have something.
That can be disappointing if it's not what you had wanted in the first place."
That is not to say that employers' expectations aren't high. News directors
count on their anchors to work at a fast pace and deliver stories on time.
"It's tiring," says Desrosiers. "You're running around and the stress can
really get to you on a daily basis. You have to be able to do a million things
at once. You have to be able to work on deadlines with no problems whatsoever.
You're on a deadline literally every day."
Desrosiers knew in high school that journalism was her calling. She started
out as a writer for a school newspaper but thought TV journalism would be
more exciting. With the help of guidance counselors, she found a journalism
school to suit her interests. She is one of the lucky few who knew early on
what she wanted to do later in life.
Many people don't slide into the journalism field as smoothly. "I know
a lot of people who did the internship after majoring in it for four years
and realized it's not what they wanted to do. I think a lot of people think
it's a very glamorous job. They think, 'People are going to see me on TV and
I'm famous.'
"Really, to be honest, it doesn't pay very well right out of college...and
you may not always get to be on camera as much as you think you will, " says
Desrosiers.
If anchoring the news falls short of your dreams, all is not lost. According
to Michael Nolan, journalism school builds on numerous skills that are useful
in all kinds of fields, media-related or not. "The journalism skills that
you learn...you can transfer those, " says Nolan. "You learn writing skills
and you learn editing skills, and these take you an awfully long way."
The ability to write and communicate is invaluable in any working environment.
Some people, says Nolan, suffer because they lack these basic skills -- trained
journalists may be hired to help out.
"Some chief executive officers are having difficulty writing memos, you
know, and this is shocking. That's because there hasn't been enough basic
training there."
Nolan uses his abilities to write and communicate on a daily basis in the
classroom. However, he started off as a journalist in the field. Before Nolan
switched to academic life in the mid-1970s, he was in broadcasting for 15
years.
"They actually hired me to do the weekend news....I then moved to CFPL
Radio and I then went to academic life," says Nolan.
Nolan says academia has given him a new perspective on journalism. After
having worked in the field, he can theorize, criticize and teach it from both
a practical and an intellectual standpoint. "The advantage I have is that
I did it and then I studied the field. When you teach you have to kind of
analyze and be critical about a particular profession," says Nolan.
It is a common misconception, says Nolan, that news anchors enjoy starry
salaries and famous lifestyles. This myth is founded on the fact that some
high-profile anchors in the world do attain million-dollar salaries. "I think
the point is that not everybody gets to be an anchor, " he says. "It's relatively
few people."
According to Desrosiers, it's all about luck. "[Being in] the right place
at the time. I think that there are millions of other talented people out
there that could be doing the same job, but it just depends....It's all about
who you know and if you're at the right place at the same time," she says.