This is Not a Beauty Pageant
If you think being an anchor or a reporter is only about being good looking, you are sorely mistaken. To take a quote from NBC - 5 Chicago Reporter Michelle Relerford who's featured in my book #JOURNOLIFE, “This is not a Miss America pageant...this is work. You have to be very quick. You have to be very smart. you have to be able to grasp a lot of information in a short amount of time, then communicate it to people. You have to know what you're talking about and get it right.”
Journalists develop a thick skin simply due to the nature of the job — newsroom people tend to be very direct and have little to no regard for feelings, no matter who they belong to. But on-camera positions are vulnerable to the eyes and ears of the world and people can be cruel. Critics will make comments based on factors beyond the scope of your job performance and they can become very personal. People will criticize and nitpick everything you say and do on down to how you do it. And this is before you check your social media accounts.
Is this right? No. Is it fair? No. Will it continue to happen? Yes.
Your best defense is to work hard and master your craft. Being a general assignment reporter means you're covering a different subject matter daily. The local election one day, city budget, breaking news, crime, new store opening, human interest, the list goes on. One essential function of your job is understanding how the government works. You cannot get around that and this is true for producers, assignment editors, and photographers as well. You should be well versed on the functions of city departments and who runs them, jurisdictions, and neighborhood border lines, what issues affect which county, zoning, and its history. Why is a grocery store opening news in one neighborhood and not another? How do you read city budgets and most importantly can you translate the numbers to show how they affect real lives?
Doing your research is more than a few Google searches. Taking a public official's word for it simply because they said it is not doing your job. Fact-checking, asking the right questions and the follow-up questions to tell a complete and thorough story is. There was a time when a minimum of three different sources were needed for a story. That’s not the case anymore but you’d better be able to back up your story.
Anchors who come in to work 30 minutes before the newscast typically don’t last long. Being the face of the newscast is a big deal. People trust you. They believe what you say. So, what you say should be correct and it's your responsibility to ensure that it is. Good anchors write as much as their producers and editors. They know the story they’re telling and can adlib if needed at the drop of a dime. They can deliver the news with compassion and ask hard-hitting questions. Because they’re a part of the community — as all journalists should be — they know who to call in live breaking situations and can talk with in-depth knowledge about nearly any facet of city operations.
Be diligent in your research, learn the city where you live and be a part of it. Take your profession seriously and put your best foot forward every day. And if by chance you’re easy on the eyes, well that’s just icing on the cake.
