I was lucky enough to score a job in music television with very little writing and producing skills behind me back in 2011. My background is in performing arts and I’m a professional singer. Talking about and reviewing my favorite artists albums was a dream job for me. Being able to report and discuss pop culture news eventuated from that as I worked on multiple shows on the music network channel at Foxtel.

During my time I was creating my own weekly segments, interviewing and presenting on camera. After 5 years I successfully scored my own TV show called ‘V Trending’ interviewing local bands and musicians as well as international celebrities. Each segment needed be topical and or “trending” to the week’s top stories in entertainment but I also had the chance produce packages that were opinion pieces. I learnt a lot on the job and found that I learn better when I’m physically thrown into the deep end, having to perform on the spot. Maybe that’s where my performing experience kicked in, but one thing I always lacked was my story telling and journalism skills.

After leaving the network in 2016 I enrolled into J school as I thought it would be a good time to go back to basics, and learn the history of journalism which I was really interested in. I’ve noticed in the last year a lot has changed in the media, the reason Channel V ending according to the press release was because they couldn’t keep up with Youtube. However allegedly, the company needed a way to find new creative ideas to keep youth shows on air but simply didn’t want to spend the money or move with the times. In the same way I’ve learnt in this course that digital is taking over print, it took over the network I worked for and in my opinion, it came down to the ignorance and out of touch ‘higher ups’ not wanting to take a risk and keep one of the only stations producing and making local content.

The plus side of digital expansion in recent times is all the credible news website options that keep journalism alive. My favorites in the pop culture space include, PTV, Junkee and Vice Magazine. The course thus far has given me so many more skills I didn’t learn on the job, skills I can take into a new phase of my career in radio and TV but with more of a news base. I enjoy the structure and un-bias approach needed in writing proper news stories as opposed to producing pieces for entertainment value.