Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Media Careers


Communications practice is the most challenging yet most sought after by a lot of budding youngsters who are trying to make a career here. How do you choose? This article will explore various media career options which are available for a student completing his/her formal education in media. Starting from a budding executive to a manager in the media organisation. 

It is difficult to escape the different forms of communication around us. If you look around you are constantly bombarded with various forms of messages through maybe a report in the newspaper, an ad on television or print or a hoarding, promotion of your favourite electronic gizmo on the Internet film, promotion of television soaps etc.

You just have to look around. With so much of infotainment 24/7 365 days a year all around you even at the touch of a mobile you can imagine the kind of communication one has to do if you planning a career in communication. Let’s begin with some of the career options available as a communication practitioner. Have a look into what suits you best.

Journalism

This is a profession to be in if you have the knack to explore and investigate and report factual happenings around you. Your communication skills will involve a lot of writing and if it is the audio visual media you are aiming at then your spoken skills will need a lot of polishing too. Of course this doesn't mean that as a newspaper reporter you don't have to speak. Internet has changed a lot the way we report stories. It is more real time and thus added knowledge of technology will only help you get your desired job in this field in the world of print, television and Internet journalism. You start as a reporter and gradually rise in position as an editor and to other managerial positions in the organisation.

Public Relations 

This career option is initially a little difficult to comprehend. So what does one do here basically? If you are the kind of person who likes to talk to people, have the maturity to read and understand people and situations and help resolve crisis then this is the closest to what you may be doing in the field of public relations. Here you are responsible for creating organisation/individual image though various forms of media, creating people-organisation/individual relations and how you can save or build images during crisis. Good communications skills are a must. Both written and spoken. Remember Maggi and how they reached back with all forms of communication. But you may not immediately start doing all of this as you join as a PR executive but eventually as a manager you may build strategies for your client to help manage image of him or his organisation.


Advertising

This is a practice to be in if you like writing especially on the creative side. This job will involve creating messages for brands, products and services with the intention of selling. Your communication skills have to be sharp and thinking out of the box will be mandatory. Think of all the ads you have loved and why? After all you have to catch attention of the audience within a glance or a frame of few seconds and sound persuasive too! There are various roles you could be looking at such as client servicing, copy writer, accounts planning etc.

Branding

This is a very dynamic practice which involves helping organisations create a space for themselves in the market place. So answering the most important question: what do they do? A practitioner here helps identify in all aspects how a company represents themselves with respect to others, clearly identify themselves and create a niche for themselves. Look around you the various brands like Coke, Apple, Samsung, Nike, Star Plus, Netflix etc. which have caught your attention. Have you ever thought why? You begin as an executive and later grow as managers in the organisation.

Events

What was your favourite event that you last attended? Why did you like it? Of course it depended on who was the main star of the event if it was a musical one, wedding or because it was your own college event that you organised or attended. But was common in all of these events? The organizing, planning promotions and logistics handling that went into managing the events. So behind all the glamour was the hard work that went from conceptualizing to arranging and implementing the event. You may start work with an events/media company and grow into a manager.


Digital Marketing

The next big thing to hit media career options. If you have the knack for promoting products and services online, on mobile devices and on various forms of digital mediums this may interest you. Here promotions happen through all kinds of online platforms such as search engine, social media, websites, podcasts, apps. The challenge is to reach as many consumers as possible through many of these platforms. Some of the roles that you see are social media executive, web developer, data analytics executive, content marketing executive and so on and so forth. You eventually grow into managerial positions.


Production (Film and Television)

This career option would entail creating content for television or films on all kinds of modes of entertainment such as television, digital or IMAX screens. You start as a production assistant, camera operators etc. As the skills required here are both artistic and technical in nature thorough training in the required skills are mandatory. 

Script Writing

If you have really liked content on television or a film a lot it has a lot to do with the script writing. A script writing has to visualize a story for a TV program or a film, develop the characters in the story. They may be also responsible for writing the dialogues for the characters in the story. A lot of training other than a formal one comes from observing the world outside. Speaking and researching skills comes handy when you need to speak to people or look for information. Or plain observation will give you an insight into developing content.

Radio

Ever considered a career in radio? Do you have that 'voice' which is so needed for a radio career as a radio presenter or radio jockeying as we know it as? Thorough knowledge is required to understand the medium and how it works and of course training the voice for presenting. The mandatory point here is you should like talking to people. Other options would be to be involved in the branding of the shows or maybe even creating or scripting shows. You can be a radio jockey or a manager at different levels.


These are some of the career options for a media aspirant. Yet sky is the limit. If you have it in you and are ready for adapting to changes and keen on communicating with people, welcome to the world of media! If you have the independent streak in you; you may even want to start your own media company of your own sometime in the future.



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