When I came to Marquette as a freshman I thought the best way to eventually earn a job in sports television was to make a career for myself in print journalism and go from there – like Wilbon and Kornheiser or anyone from the Around The Horn cast.
I didn’t know anybody in the industry but I had always heard (and constantly read) about how hard it is to break into the business. I knew I had to have a backup plan, but I wanted it to be in media, so I decided on a political science minor, that way I could write about politics if sports didn’t work out. Now I’m a senior - about to apply for jobs. My three and a half years at Marquette have brought me back to where I wanted to go originally, sports television. A combination of things have led me back to my primary goal, but reason number one is simply that my talent lies in television. I’ve learned how to write for print, radio and television, but the writing that comes most naturally is broadcast writing. As far as being on camera goes, it’s something I’ve always been comfortable with and a skill I’ve continuously honed in my time at college. Additionally, I’ve developed a good eye for shooting sports and a wide-ranging knowledge of how to use different video cameras. I feel confident that I could figure out how to use a video camera I’ve never seen before in less than an hour. I’ve shot a multitude of sports, from basketball and football to lacrosse and track and field – it’s all just a matter of anticipation. A struggle of mine has always been reading other people’s words for broadcast. I can rewrite their words to suit me better, but reading someone else’s work without putting my own touch on it makes my delivery clunky. One of my biggest weaknesses on television is controlling the pace of my delivery. Occasionally I’ll speak too quickly, but enunciation has never been a big issue. This is a skill I can use to my advantage sometimes though, when hits on television are short and there isn’t much time to fill the audience in, I have more options than cutting things out or trying to rewrite the story into as few words as possible. Another thing I’d like to improve on is incorporating natural sound seamlessly into packages. I’ve learned how to get quality nat sound, but slipping it into the story and weaving it together with my voice over is the next step. Of course, if I land a job and do these things five times a week, I’m confident I’ll improve quickly.
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AboutOn this page you can find blog posts about my adventures in journalism, ponderings about projects, experiences with storytelling tools and updates on what I'm working on. Archives
February 2017
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