One media industry that was included in our guest speaker series was journalism. In 2018, this industry was estimated to employ over 70,000 media professionals (Spilsbury, 2018) and therefore I was intrigued to see how an industry as vast as this could work and, whilst I myself am not looking to become a journalist, I wanted to learn skills related to this industry which I could potentially use in my own chosen profession later.

The speaker for this session was Gareth Owen, an ITV News correspondent with over a decade of experience in journalism. (Owen, n.d.) Gareth spoke about his work in a journalism career, including how he initially studied history but looked into how to get into journalism due to his own interests. I found this anecdote to be valuable to me as whilst I have somewhat of an idea about my future career path, I am uncertain as to whether my industry of choice would suit me. This anecdote by Gareth reassured me that I would be able to adapt my career path to suit my needs and interests, for instance how I could pursue my interest in sports journalism, without having to necessarily make this my first option.

Additionally, Gareth mentioned that Covid-19 has caused working from home to be necessary for many journalists, whilst I’ve also read elsewhere that there are multiple media organisations which are having to reduce their staff numbers due to the pandemic (Tobitt, 2020). This has been reflected in my attempt to find a professional placement this year as whilst I have looked for companies willing to provide this, I have been unable to due to the difficulties caused by Covid-19. Despite this, another piece of advice from Gareth was to contact as many people as possible and to get my name known as this could lead to opportunities. As a result, a next step of mine would be finding a way to stay motivated despite what may appear as little progress in finding professional experience, and therefore I will be continuing to contact media employers regarding placement opportunities.

An area of Gareth’s talk which stood out to me was a section regarding stress relief. According to Gareth, journalism is an industry which can surround all aspects of life and therefore it can sometimes be difficult to step away from work during time off. I found this extremely relevant as I myself find it difficult to separate work from relaxation and as a result am constantly faced with stress. Gareth suggested to have alternative interests, such as how he used to play sports in his younger years, as this allows room for something other than work. I found this advice to be significant as it touches on an area I have struggled with for a while now. My next steps in this regard will be to not only use my own interests, such as my interest in music, to distinguish between work and downtime, but also to create a more managed workspace which will further allow me to differentiate between work and free time without detracting from either.

References:

Owen, G. (n.d.) Gareth Owen [LinkedIn Profile] LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/garethjohnowen/?originalSubdomain=uk

Spilsbury, M. (2018) JOURNALISTS AT WORK. National Council for the Training of Journalists. https://www.nctj.com/downloadlibrary/JaW%20Report%202018.pdf

Tobitt, C. (2020) Guardian to cut 180 jobs as it reveals Covid-19 will cost it £25m this year. Press Gazette. https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/guardian-job-cuts-covid-19-annual-results/