How to be a network political TV reporter

Opinion Uncategorized

The BBC’s Laura Trevelyan explains how to get your foot in the door of political television news and climb to the top…

First, and foremost, don’t do a three-year journalism degree!

The industry’s perception of these courses, whether fair or unfair, is that you spend a lot of time on what’s loosely termed as ‘media studies’, covering topics such as bias in the media and attitudes – none of which are at all useful if you’re going to be a reporter.

Media studies is not regarded as being intellectually up there with the more challenging subjects, so people in the industry may perceive it as being a cop out.

You may also come out of university with rather preconceived notions about how the media business is structured, and that’s not going to help you.