Producing a promising career in Media (Part -1)

A bright future beacons for hundreds of thousands of aspirants who aim to make the best use of their communication skills to serve one of the most dynamic industries, Media. Yet, this article is not a career counselling session. It is an effort to start a discussion about things Media professionals are struggling with.

Mass Communication courses saw a sharp rise in India around 15 years ago and things have pretty much consolidated now. Having spent the last 14 years working in 3 of the biggest names in News Media in the country, I keep asking this question to myself, what does it take to make it big in this field of work.

Is it the set of skills, which includes written, verbal, creative, management etc. or is it the right qualification? One thing is clear, it cannot be an either-or situation. We need to strike a balance between getting the theoretical aspect of Media right and keep sharpening the communication and creative skills.

Several Media Institutions in the country are continuously updating their teaching methodology, equipping themselves with latest machines, studios, teaching tools to cover all aspects of New Age Media, be it Print, Television, Digital and Films. The challenge lies in the way professionals are trained and developed over a period.

Let’s talk about Television for instance, as this is the area l have devoted almost all my professional career to.

For those who have started their career in early 2000s would agree that Education in Media was limited to Journalism courses. There was dearth of world class education in Mass Media, especially the production part of it. As a result, many of us entered Media without the coveted educational background. This holds true specially for Production and technical people. Production was such an ignored area of Television that our most prestigious Universities and Institutions to did not think highly of it.

I have had opportunity of interacting with a lot of interns from big Media Schools. And I rarely found someone who wanted to be a good Producer. Everyone either wanted to be an anchor, reporter, camera-person or at best a video editor.

This is how we have been preparing our Media Professionals. Obviously, things are changing but there is still a long way to go.

Way back in 2006, I got an opportunity to attend a 3-day workshop by CNN, on “Field Production”. We were being trained by one of the most popular non-anchor/reporter personality at CNN, Atlanta, Ingrid Formanek. She is their most experienced Field Producers. Someone who was an eye witness to the Gulf War, an event that got CNN on the world map. It was indeed an insightful experience for all of us young TV Producers. During this workshop I was asked if this training is going to help us. My answer was “Theoretically, Yes. Practically, No”. The interviewer was a bit surprised. Not expecting this answer may be. I explained by adding further that the TV News formats in India are still not conducive to an elaborated set-up for any Live event covered. You will hardly see Field Producers travelling with the Reporters and the Video Journalists here. Let alone the elaborated cavalcade that were shown to us during the training. Events like US military movement in Afghanistan during their combat with the Taliban, mass migration in Somalia and the Iraq war were shown to us and how prepared the CNN team was for a coverage that could run into weeks.

Further to my point about benchmarking operations in TV Media, little is to talk about. A casual discussion with your friends from other industries will make you realise the difference. An IT professional for example not only has to have a minimum qualification, he or she also has an option to keep getting new certifications and keep upgrading. TV Producers do not have any certifications to upgrade their skills. You would not come across any “ABC certified Studio Director or XYZ certified VT editor” in our field.

My point is not just to draw a comparison but to also make Media Professionals aware of the responsibility they have towards their own professional development till the day we actually have Certifications and they really start giving their career a much needed push.