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I worked in local TV journalism for about five years; an industry thrashing around to find its new footing to be sure. There are very few people there who are w

by jeffool 14y ago

I worked in local TV journalism for about five years; an industry thrashing around to find its new footing to be sure. There are very few people there who are willing to do serious journalism. They don't know how to Google, or who to call. Many of those fresh out of college simply have no curiosity, and little imagination. It's not unusual to talk to some and find out their dreams of being the next Oprah or Brian Williams. (I'm not knocking those people or celebrities mind you. Even then often the reporters don't realize the work and dedication those people put into their craft. They just know success when they see it.) These people are chasing the popular respect, popularity in culture, and money. Of course, not all. Just many. There are some people who really do have an interest in the work. I say this as a producer with five years experience, who has been looking for a job just over a year now[0]. The three times interviews with top 80 markets have gone far enough to talk money the offers were around $20k. I'm going to have to take the next job like this offered to me. [0] I lost my last job because I visited 4chan. My boss said the news wires we subscribed too had enough information, and there was no excuse to try to look at the site myself. Therefor, I was obviously going to look at porn. Which I assume there were thumbnails of on my harddrive.

deleted 14y ago
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astrange 14y ago
What were you looking for? Did you find it? It seems pretty unlikely you would, honestly.
- jeffool 14y ago
  I've mostly applied for other producer positions at TV stations. I've also applied for news writer positions and just a couple of journalism jobs in print/Internet media. If you're asking what I was looking for money wise? I was in a market around 150 (DMA rank), in a city that was very cheap to live in. I had student loans of $800/month, and I'd like to be able to pay them, afford rent, water, power, food, and an Internet connection. I managed that in a cheap city with a roommate at 30k, so I'd like to make more in a larger city, given I have five years experience producing and five in the studio. Which do you think unlikely? Me finding another job at all, or me finding a job that pays a wage approaching middle class?
  - astrange 14y ago
    Well that's certainly an answer, but I meant: what were you looking for on 4chan?
    - jeffool 14y ago
      ahaha, gotcha, sorry about that. A few different times they popped up in the news over the years I went there to get a feel for why people were joining in any certain cause, (yes, mostly for the fun of it), and often to find out exactly what they were doing. Probably the best example is around Christmas 2010. People were pissed that credit card companies were not processing payments towards Wikileaks. There were tons of posts about taking down their websites (and arguments for Amazon). Of course, it did eventually happen, and while I was at work. It's not some major earth shattering story for a local newscast, but, it's easy to get. Yes, a lot of the actual goings on of some of the operations are smaller clandestine groups on IRC and the likes, and I'd love to work my way into one or two of those. But a lot of them do rely on populist support, be it from actual outrage or potential for schadenfreude. A lot of wire copy is just "secret hacker group!" It's not like I browsed it nightly lying in wait or anything. But it was in my history, and I when asked I told my boss that yes, I'd visited it. As I started to go into why, he stops me and tells me the company can't have people visiting these kinds of sites, etc... Had I been smarter, I could've made a better defense, like asking to be shown the offending material. At first I was angry, depressed, and all kinds of other things. Now, I genuinely think it was just a case of wanting to get rid of someone, and look for a way to fire someone without paying them. I don't take it as personally. I don't think he thought I was trying to do anything untoward at work. (I mean, it's not like I didn't have a bigger monitor and privacy(!) at home... And if I was, why wouldn't I use Privacy Mode, or at least erase the history and cache?) I don't know. Just a bad situation.

by jeffool 14y ago

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

astrange 14y ago

What were you looking for? Did you find it? It seems pretty unlikely you would, honestly.

jeffool 14y ago
I've mostly applied for other producer positions at TV stations. I've also applied for news writer positions and just a couple of journalism jobs in print/Internet media. If you're asking what I was looking for money wise? I was in a market around 150 (DMA rank), in a city that was very cheap to live in. I had student loans of $800/month, and I'd like to be able to pay them, afford rent, water, power, food, and an Internet connection. I managed that in a cheap city with a roommate at 30k, so I'd like to make more in a larger city, given I have five years experience producing and five in the studio. Which do you think unlikely? Me finding another job at all, or me finding a job that pays a wage approaching middle class?
- astrange 14y ago
  Well that's certainly an answer, but I meant: what were you looking for on 4chan?
  - jeffool 14y ago
    ahaha, gotcha, sorry about that. A few different times they popped up in the news over the years I went there to get a feel for why people were joining in any certain cause, (yes, mostly for the fun of it), and often to find out exactly what they were doing. Probably the best example is around Christmas 2010. People were pissed that credit card companies were not processing payments towards Wikileaks. There were tons of posts about taking down their websites (and arguments for Amazon). Of course, it did eventually happen, and while I was at work. It's not some major earth shattering story for a local newscast, but, it's easy to get. Yes, a lot of the actual goings on of some of the operations are smaller clandestine groups on IRC and the likes, and I'd love to work my way into one or two of those. But a lot of them do rely on populist support, be it from actual outrage or potential for schadenfreude. A lot of wire copy is just "secret hacker group!" It's not like I browsed it nightly lying in wait or anything. But it was in my history, and I when asked I told my boss that yes, I'd visited it. As I started to go into why, he stops me and tells me the company can't have people visiting these kinds of sites, etc... Had I been smarter, I could've made a better defense, like asking to be shown the offending material. At first I was angry, depressed, and all kinds of other things. Now, I genuinely think it was just a case of wanting to get rid of someone, and look for a way to fire someone without paying them. I don't take it as personally. I don't think he thought I was trying to do anything untoward at work. (I mean, it's not like I didn't have a bigger monitor and privacy(!) at home... And if I was, why wouldn't I use Privacy Mode, or at least erase the history and cache?) I don't know. Just a bad situation.