Jobs in the Media Industury

In the industry there are a range of jobs including creative, technical, editorial, managerial, financial, administration and marketing. Below I will talk about different jobs in the industry:

Magazine Journalist

Magazine Journalists research and write news articles and features for a wide range of publications. You could be writing for anything from glossy cnsumer magazines to specialist trade journals. They need to be interested in people, places and culture. They will usually have specialist knowledge of the subject covered by the publications. Duties include:

• Going to meetings to plan the content of the magazines.
• Suggesting ideas for articles that would interest the magazine readers
• Interviewing and researching to collect information for articles.
• Writing articles to suit the magazines style.
• Keeping up to date with development and trends in the magazines subject.

They may also produce versions of the articles for the magazines website and social media. Also working as a critic, reviewing films, food and concerts. You can be directly employed by a magazine or work on a freelance basis. Freelance magazine journalists may work for a number of different magazines and newspapers at a time. They would need to be flexible about their working hours. A usual working day could be from 9am till 6pm. They may need to work longer, irregular hours if working on a project with a tight deadline. They may spend time travelling to research articles or interview people, involving overnight stays away from home and overseas travel.

Starting salaries can be between £18,000 and around £25,000 a year. With experience earnings can be up to £35,000 or more a year. 

Most new magazine journalists have an HND, degree or equivalent qualifications. You may still be able to find employment without an HND or degree, as experience and specialist knowledge are highly valued in the industry.

You would have to be determined, proactive and persistent to get into magazine journalism. Gaining practical experience and building up examples of your published work in a portfolio could improve your career prospects.

To become a magazine journalist, you need these particular skills: 

• Excellent writing skills.
• Good Listening and Questioning Skills.
• An inquiring mind and a lively interest in people, places and events.
• Good research skills.
• A keen interest in the magazines target audience and content.
• Self- confidence, and the ability to make people feel relaxed.
• The ability to absorb information quickly
• The ability to write in a style that is interesting and easy to understand.
• Determination and persistence.
• Keyboard and IT skills.

Camera Operator

As a camera operator, it would be your job to record moving images for film, television, commercials, music videos or corporate productions. You would operate film, videotape or digital video cameras, usually under instructions from the Director or Director of Photography.

Your work could involve:

• setting up and positioning camera equipment
• planning and rehearsing shots
• following a camera script and taking cues from the director or floor manager (in TV studio recording)
• choosing the most suitable lenses and camera angles
• solving practical or technical problems such as lighting
• working closely with other technical departments such as lighting and sound.

You may be the only camera operator and use a portable single camera, or you could be part of a TV studio camera team. On feature films and TV drama productions you may be part of a large crew with a specific role, such as:

• second assistant camera (clapper loader) – loading and unloading film, counting the takes and helping the camera crew
• first assistant camera (focus puller) – judging and adjusting the focus on each shot
• grip – building and operating any cranes and pulleys needed to move a camera during shooting.

The hours could often be long and irregular, and may include shift work and nights depending on the production. You may also need to be flexible and work at short notice, particularly for news programs.

They could work anywhere from studios to outside locations in all weather conditions. You may have to work at heights on cranes or scaffolding.

Location work could be anywhere in the UK or overseas. News camera jobs may involve working under difficult or dangerous conditions such as riots or war zones. 

Employers will be more interested in your technical skills and practical experience than your formal qualifications. In practice, many camera operators take a college or university course to develop the necessary skills before looking for work. Relevant courses include:

• City & Guilds Diploma (7501) in Media Techniques (Level 1, 2 and 3 Award, Certificate and Diploma in Media Techniques (7601) from September 2010)
• BTEC National Certificate or Diploma in Media Production
• BTEC HNC/HND in Media (Moving Image)
• degrees in media production, media technology or photography
• trainee courses run by the GBCT (camera guild).

You will need these skills to become a camera operator:

• good practical skills and knowledge of camera equipment
• an interest in photography, film and video
• good communication and 'people skills'
• the ability to carry out instructions accurately and with attention to detail
• good colour vision
• calmness under pressure
• the ability to work as part of a team
• patience and concentration
• good levels of stamina, for holding and moving camera equipment and working long hours.

Newspaper/Magazine Editor

 As an editor you will:

• commission articles
• decide which articles will be included in the publication
• decide how they will be laid out for publishing
• consider submissions for inclusion from freelance journalists, photographers and illustrators.

You will work with sub-editors, designers, production staff and printers to make sure that publication deadlines are met.

On a local newspaper you may help to write and sub-edit the publication, while on larger titles your role may be purely editorial. You could have responsibility for other matters such as budgetary control, hiring staff and working with advertising and production departments.

 They work irregular hours, including evenings and weekends. If they work for a monthly publication or a specialist trade journal they will work regular office hours, with some extra hours leading up to publication deadlines.

The work will be mainly office-based, with occasional travel to meet clients and reporters. 

  Editors can earn between £30,000 and £80,000 a year. Experienced editors working for a national newspaper can earn over £80,000 a year.

 There are no standard entry requirements, although most newspaper editors have wide experience in journalism. As an editor of a specialist magazine you would usually need qualifications or experience in that particular field.

You can also take degree courses in publishing, and combined degree courses with publishing options. On top of the usual entry requirements, some courses may ask that you have passes in specific subjects, particularly English.

To be a newspaper or magazine editor you should have:

• a good command of English with strong writing and IT skills
• planning, organisational and staff management skills
• creativity and good visual sense
• financial skills and commercial flair
• some legal knowledge regarding the content of publications
• an eye for detail
• an understanding of target audiences
• Negotiating and decision-making skills.

Web Content Manager

As a web content manager, they work on sites that are open to the public on the world wide web, or sites for staff use only on a company's intranet.

Their duties could include:

• taking a lead role in maintenance and development of the site
• meeting with editing, marketing and design teams to plan and develop site content, style and appearance
• using web content management systems to analyse website usage statistics
• writing reports for senior managers, clients and partnership organisations
• setting permissions for site users
• promoting information about the website to target customers and partners
• carrying out quality assurance checks on content
• reporting technical problems to IT support staff
• dealing with legal issues, such as copyright and data protection.

The type of content they might work on could vary widely but some examples include:

• e-commerce, such as on-line shopping or banking
• product advertising and retail catalogues
• local, national and international news reports
• social media output
• college and university websites
• on-line public information and government services.

In larger companies, they may manage an editorial team who research and produce material including text, images and multimedia for publication on the website. In smaller organisations, they might have a more 'hands on role' in content production and writing. They would usually work 35 to 40 hours a week, Monday to Friday. Overtime may sometimes be necessary to meet deadlines.Most of the work will be office based at a computer.There may be some out of office duties, for example attending meetings with clients or partners.Web content managers’ salaries fall between £24,000 and £50,000 a year, depending on the level of experience 

Web content managers’ salaries fall between £24,000 and £50,000 a year, depending on the level of experience.

There is no one way to start in this career. You can get in with a background in journalism, marketing or IT, or they might move into the role after gaining experience in another area of a business.Whatever your background, they would normally need previous experience of writing content in some form, although not necessarily on-line. A useful way to show employers their skills is to build up a collection of your published work.

They can gain writing experience in several ways;

• Through your existing workplace-producing marketing materials or bulletins for the company intranet.
• Voluntary work- creating articles, leaflets and information sheets for a community group, a charity or local free newspaper.
• Producing a blog or writing on social media channels.
  
• Taking  a training course at college or university.

They could take a course that would teach you some of the skills needed for producing web content. Relevant subjects include journalism, publishing, media, and communications, PR and marketing. Contact your local colleges for course details and entry requirements. They do not need specific IT skills for a management position, although knowledge of web design, desktop publishing and photo editing would broaden your options, as many jobs combine management with writing or web design. An understanding of web content management systems (CMS) and how they work could be useful, but you would be given training in specific packages once you start working.

These are the skills you need to have to be a web manager:

• Good organisational skills and the ability to meet deadlines.
• An understanding of legal issues, such as online copyright
• Financial management and negotiating skills.
• Confident presentation skills.
• The ability to build relationships with clients and partners
• Good team working skills.
• An understanding of online written issues, such as house styles and content structure.
• An excellent grasp of English grammar, punctuation and spelling.
• The ability to write for a target audience.
• Creative skills to find interesting ways to present information and to generate new ideas.
• Attention to detail, for example when proofreading
• The ability to give and receive constructive feedback on work.

Employment Oppurtunies In The Creative Media Sectors

My dream Job is to become a journalist. Below I will explain how the education requirements, future training and progression routes to achieve my goal;

First off all I will have to complete BTEC Level 3 Creative Media Production at Middlesbrough College, with a DDM as my grade. I will also have to complete and pass functional skills level 2 maths at an equivalent of GCSE grade C. I will set myself a goal to complete everything at Distinction to Merit grade and to meet deadline and include the information that needs to be included in my coursework to do so.

I will then begin a three year degree in Journalism at Manchester Metropoliton University, I will then have to graduate university with a degree in the chose subject. In this time i will complete a one year work experience placement in the publication industry to gain training in my chosen field.

I will then start looking for work experience or job for me to be able to work myself up the career ladder until I get my dream job as a journalist.

  

Contract Jobs in the Media Industry

Full Time:A full time contract is a contract whereby you are employed and expected to give your full attention to that particular job. When handling a full time contract you are not expected to be having any other full-time contracts apart from that one. A full time contract can mean you work on it 8 hours plus per day. You also have the benefits of holidays, paternity leave, maternity leave and sick days.

Part Time:Employment that is less than a full-time organizational commitment on the part of the employee. Part-time employees usually do not receive the same health insurance, retirement, and other benefits full-time employees receive. For qualified retirement plan vesting purposes, part-time refers to an employee with less than 1,000 hours of service during a 12-month period.

Permanent:A permanent contract is an official or written agreement between an employee and employer stating the rules and regulations in a full-time or part time basis and the rules and conditions under which both parties are going to work and/or including the terms and condition for compensation and the targets or milestones to be achieved

Fixed Term: these contracts last for a certain set of time, and are set in advance. They also either end when a specific task is completed and when a specific event takes place.Fixed-term employees must receive the same treatment as full-time permanent staff.

Hourly Paid:this were the employee is paid on an hour-by-hour basis. Pay for an hourly employee is calculated as hours worked times rate.Hourly employees are also considered to be eligible for overtime, according to federal law, if they work over 40 hours in a work week.Salaried: the employee is set a basic number of hours a year under their contract, and they also have an annual salary which is paid in equal monthly or weekly amounts.Salaried hours workers’ contracts might not state the basic number of hours as an annual figure, but it must be possible to work this out. Workers and employers can then use this figure to make sure the rate of pay is at least the minimum wage.

Paid on Completion: the employee must complete set work to a deadline, and the payed amount of money is set before the start of the work. Once they have completed they are payed.

 When working an industry, not just the media industry you need to acquire a professional behaviour, this including how you look, dress and act towards your collegeus. In this post i will be talking about the many ways to keep your behaviour professional.

The first thing your employer will see when employ you will be your appearance, as first impressions are everything, you need to make sure that what you are wearing is the right clothing for your working environment. For example when working in a magazine publication office you need to make sure that you are not just smart but comfortable. On the other hand if you were a freelance writer working from home, whilst completing work at home you can be as casual you want to be.

 Aswell as wearing responsible clothing, you also have to be responsible for you actions, such as making sure no fowl language, and also not to be abusive towards employers, collegeuous and any other persons that you come in to contact with whilst on the job. You must also follow all the rules and regulations set by your employers, and also have respect for your place of work. As teamwork skills are important, being irresponsible may affect these skills if you cannot get on with certain co-workers.