JRN 200: More Job Shadows

Here's the latest job shadow reports I've received; they will each be posted as I receive 'em.  Take a look and see what you can learn from everyone's visits. There's a lot of good stuff here to help you decide what you want to do with your lives; what you need to be doing to get there; and what to expect when you do get there.

Please give each one of these a quick read, will you?

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At Michigan State I am majoring in Journalism and would like to specialize in Sports Broadcasting. It has always been a dream of mine to report on sports, getting the inside scoop onto what is going on in the world of sports, travelling to various sports stadiums, and talking to players. It almost seems too good of a job to be getting paid for it.

I  interviewed Mike Moore, a sports reporter for C & G Newspapers. C & G Newspapers are a collection of newspapers that cover the metro Detroit area.  They do online media as well as print media.

            Moore specializes in high school hockey and girls basketball in the winter. During the summer he does whatever C & G needs him to cover. Over the summer he has been doing a lot of baseball, golf, and a bit of football news.

            Without any high school teams on their summer break, things can be a bit slow for the sports reporters.

He has a bit of freedom to choose what he wants to cover, for example, he has done power rankings for high school hockey teams around his coverage area.

            Most of his work days consist of going to various games around the area and  reporting on what occurs in them.

            Since this is a newspaper that covers local area events, he will also point out some of the things going on around the community to help inform those who want to get involved in local sports activities; like local soccer team tryouts or a local tennis tournament.

            C & G Newspapers allow the local community to email them about ideas for stories and Moore will sometimes do stories on what the local community asks them to cover.

            Moore says that in sports reporting your hours have to be really flexible. This isn’t a job that you can just work a normal 9-5.

            With most high school games being after school, the reporting day may not even begin till just before the school day ends.

            With the time before the game he will think about how he wants to write the game, thinking about pregame interviews and what story angles he can take. Sometimes he will even begin to think about this the night before if he knows the story in advance.

            Planning ahead can save you a lot of headaches later on in the day, since you won’t be scrambling to figure things out when you get there.

            It’s a job that requires a lot of prep work, like knowing what the teams have been doing up until the point that you are covering them, therefore you can get a better understanding of what the magnitude of the game may end up being.

            It will also help you think of better interview questions for those you are considering interviewing. In general it will make you look like a more knowledgeable reporter and will make others think highly of you.

            During a game he will sometimes give out twitter updates on the game he is reporting on. He will also be taking notes and begin writing his full story, bit by bit as the game goes on.

            Once the game is over he will finish writing the parts about the game that he would like to include in his piece while he waits for players and coaches to get ready to be interviewed.

            He will then conduct postgame interviews and then finish up his piece. When starting out, you will need to send your piece to your sports editor so that they can get it prepped for being published, but the more experienced you are the more leeway you get into what stories can be published outright and what has to be sent to the editor.      

            After talking to Moore it seems like the job is less exciting than it seems at times, with a lot of hours to work, and lots of time spent thinking about your job. If I ever get to that position that I hope to make it to, it is going to be after a lot of long hours and reporting on stories that many people will never see. But you’ve got to start somewhere, right? 

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