What does a Broadcast News Analyst do: Career Information
Job Descriptions September 3, 2015Are you looking into a career as a broadcast news analyst, but need a little bit more information on what the job entails? Below is a quick breakdown of what the job is and what skills you need to start your new career.
What does a Broadcast News Analyst do?
Broadcast News Analysts, also referred to as reporters, correspondents or news anchor inform the public about the local, national and international news. Key Duties include following up leads from editors, interviewing third parties involved in the stories they are covering, writing articles, blogs and magazine amongst other more administrative tasks such as proofreading and analyzing stories and information given to them.
Key requirements for becoming a Broadcast News Analyst
Academia
Although it is not a compulsory requirement, most employers do tend to look for candidates with a Bachelor degree in journalism or any other related subject. Other subjects that come in handy and look good when wanting to kick start a career as a broadcast news analyst are English, Communications, History, and Writing. As for any graduate looking for a job, work experience makes all the difference, so choosing to do an internship after school or during summer holidays would be perfect to move you up the ladder quickly.
Specific Skills
Being a broadcast news analyst is a very rewarding job that requires a number of skills to be able to succeed. Of course writing, speaking, all levels of communications skills and computer skills are a must, it is important to note that as a reporter you will not be working regular hours as the world is unpredictable. You need to have a level of determination and motivation as well as the ability to work under pressure to meet deadlines.
Earnings and economic outlook
As for any other job, it is only once you start going up the ladder that you earn real money, but according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, wages raised by 1.6%. Of course, this would depend on the type of journalist you would like to become and the city you will be reporting from. Unfortunately, it is true that reporters tend to have to make do with a little less than the average annual wage, which is at $37,090 or $17.83 if you are paid hourly. The BLS has also reported an employment rise of 2.4% making it more difficult to bag that dream job as there is now a lot more competition with fewer jobs available.
In addition to this, as stated above, it does depend on which sector of the journalistic world you would like to work in. For example, reporters working for a newspaper or magazine company typically earn an annual wage of $40,810 whereas independent or freelance writers are able to earn $66,640 on average per year.
What other options are there within the broadcasting world?
There are a number of jobs in the sector that may be worth exploring. These include:
•Announcers – They present music, news and sports and they sometimes perform outside of the office at parties.
•Atmospheric Scientists – Although this would involve looking into a more science related degree, the job involves studying the weather and understand how it affects the world.
•Broadcast and sound engineer technicians – They set up, organize and maintain all equipment.
•Editors – Typically get paid slightly more as they have more responsibility, but their key role is to plan, review and revise content for publications.
There are a number of other options including film and video editors, camera operators, photographers, teaching, public relations managers and public relationship specialists although these jobs do require slightly different entry requirements.