Recently two employees from channel 7 news came to speak to the class. Tony Consiglia and Cindy both work at the station but do multitudes of very different jobs. I found not only their background information that they were willing to share interesting, but also took to heart much of the motivating advice they shared as well.

Probably what I found most interesting about what these two professionals is that they both came from such different backgrounds. Tony took a more traditional approach to his career by attending Emerson College, and working his way up in the ranks there, and then came to Maine where he again worked his way up to the position that he is at now. Cindy’s story was much different. I found it fascinating that someone who has such a vital role in people’s day to day lives had little to no formal training in her profession. She really is quite an inspiration to go after what you want, a mantra that both of them were very passionate about.

Another intriguing part of the presentation was the fact that both of them, mainly Tony, hold multiple positions in the station. As someone who was not interested in going into broadcast I had completely written it out as anything I wanted to do as a career, however, hearing all of the input that the two of them have on their work interested me a bit. Working for such a small market definitely has its advantages.

Yet another thing that was interesting to hear was the ethical issues that lie within their job. As journalists we try to convince ourselves that everything we do is for the news, but their honesty about this portion of their job was really refreshing. I don’t know how many times I have seen journalists interviewed, and heard them say that what they do is solely for the information of the public and for nothing else. In reality these news outlets run as a business and sometimes have to report things or work things into a report, that aren’t necessarily what is most important, and I personally appreciated them telling us this realistic view of the business.

Overall I found these guest speakers to be not only interesting and entertaining, but also informative. I thought I knew about broadcast and knew that it was something that I definitely didn’t want to do, but after hearing them speak about what they do on a daily basis, I am a little less hasty to deny myself that opportunity.