Working in Media

Task: Research 5 jobs in the media industry and create an occupation

profile :• As a freelancer, how do you find work?• How would you outline your role?• What are your main responsibilities?• What specific tasks do you do? • What’s your working environment like?• What does the work involve?• What challenges do you face?• Is there such a thing as a typical day?• What qualities do you need?• What training have you done?• What hours do you work?• How long does it take?• Where do you see the industry going in the future?• Related jobs• Salary information

Useful addresses• Photography• The Association of Photographers• 81 Leonard Street• London EC2A 4QS• p020 7739 6669• i www.the-aop.org• British Institute of Professional Photography• (BIPP)• Fox Talbot House• Amwell End• Ware• Hertfordshire SG12 9HN• p01920 464011• Institute of Medical Illustrators• i www.imi.org.uk• The Royal Photographic Society (RPS)• The Octagon• Milsom Street• Bath BA1 1DN• p01225 462841• i www.rps.org• Design Council• 34 Bow Street• London WC2E 7DL• p020 7420 5200• i www.designcouncil.org.uk• i www.yourcreativefuture.org• The British Journal of Photography• lists college courses on its website:• i www.photocollege.net

• Moving images• Skillset (Sector Skills Council for the audiovisual• sector)• Prospect House• 80-110 New Oxford Street• London WC1A 1HB• p08080 300 900• i www.skillset.org• BBC Recruitment Services• PO Box 7000• London W12 8JG• p0870 3331330• i www.bbc.co.uk/jobs• Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematographic• and Theatre Union (BECTU)• 373-377 Clapham Road• London SW9 9BT• p020 7346 0900• i www.bectu.org.uk

• FT2 – Film and Television Freelance Training• 4th Floor• Warwick House• 9 Warwick Street• London W1B 5LY• p020 7734 5141• i www.ft2.org.uk• Guild of Television Cameramen• p01822 614405• i www.gtc.org.uk• Independent Television Association• ITV Network Centre• 200 Grays Inn Road• London WC1X 8HF• p020 7843 8000• i www.itv.com• Scottish Screen• 2nd Floor, 249 West George Street• Glasgow G2 4QE• p0141 302 1700• i www.scottishscreen.com

• Metier (The National Training Organisation for• the Arts and Entertainment Industry)• Suite E237• Dean Clough• Halifax HX3 5AX• p01422 381618• i www.metier.org.uk• i www.netgain.org.uk• National Film and Television School• Beaconsfield Studios• Station Road• Beaconsfield HP9 1LG• p01494 671234• i www.nftsfilm-tv.ac.uk• Radio Academy• 5 Market Place• London W1W 8AE• p020 7255 2010• i www.radioacademy.org

• Sound• Commercial Radio Companies Association• The Radiocentre• 77 Shaftesbury Avenue• London W1D 5DU• p020 7306 2603• i www.crca.co.uk• Institute of Broadcast Sound• 27 Old Gloucester Street• London WC1N 3XX• p01483 575450• i www.ibs.org.uk• The Professional Recording Association• PO Box 22• Totnes TQ9 7YZ• p01803 868600• i www.aprs.co.uk

Jobs which might interest you in the mediaand photography sector include:

• Animator• Audio-visual technician• Boom operator• Broadcast journalist• Media researcher• Medical photographer• Photographer• Photographic stylist• Photographic technician• Radio producer• Recording Industry producer• Reprographic assistant• Sound technician• Special effects technician• TV/Film camera operator• TV/Film director• TV/Film editor• TV/Film floor manager• TV/Film producer• TV/Film production assistant• TV/Film runner• TV/Radio announcer/presenter• VT operator

How staff are recruited

Education and training

Methods of recruitment

• The media industry can be difficult to break into for beginners, but once inside it often seems to get much easier, as you gain experience, skills, understanding and, of course, contacts. Media organisations recruit new staff in a number of ways. The most obvious way is advertisements placed in the national and trade press, as well as on the Internet. The most popular place to find press advertisments for jobs in the media is the Media Guardian, every Monday.

• Freelance contracts relate only to the performance of specific tasks, and a typical freelancer might be working on different contracts for more than one organisation at the same time. Freelance work offers no job security or benefits beyond what is specified in the current contract, so, again, it is important to check the contract before signing.

Work patterns

• Because the media industries mostly work round the clock, on a 24/7 basis, many staff and freelancers work to different patterns to the nine to five day found in many office jobs and other industries. Programmes have to be broadcast live at all times of the day and night, news doesn’t stop out-of-hours, and often filming a blockbuster movie has to take place at the weekend when disruption to traffic will be reduced. Readers now expect newspapers on bank holidays – and certainly at weekends. So, while many people working in the media, particularly those in administration, management and financial jobs, do keep regular hours, many do not.

Pay• Once established in their careers, most people working in the media• industry want to be properly paid for their contribution to an

organisation’s success. We would not want to be exploited for long periods of working for nothing, just to gain ‘work experience’, so it is reasonable to expect that someone who is qualified and experienced enough to do a particular job regularly is worth paying properly.

• Payments can be made in a number of ways:• Salaried staff – people on permanent or fixed-term contracts

receive an annual salary, usually paid monthly into their bank accounts.

• Hourly payments – these are usually made to freelance or temporary staff and are paid according to the number of hours worked for the organisation. Some weeks they may work more hours than others and are paid accordingly.

• On completion – a payment for a job completed. Usually paid to freelancers who accept a commission or fee to perform a particular task, such as compose a soundtrack, write a script or work on a photo shoot.

• Because advertising in the Media Guardian is so expensive, some organisations try to save money by targeting their adverts in publications that people with the skills they are looking for are likely to read, such as The Radio Magazine, which costs much less and is read widely in the radio sector. For print journalists, the UK Press Gazette is often the best place to look for work. Some websites are becoming just as useful and just as popular

• In most media jobs, maintaining a portfolio of your best work means you will be able to demonstrate your suitability for promotion or an opportunity in another organisation without delay. This might mean keeping cuttings of stories written for printed publications, keeping recordings of moving image or audio work or keeping examples of multimedia that you have worked on. Unless a specific job advertisement asks for more, audio and video demos should be short – three to four minutes maximum, because the people who will be deciding which applicants to put on a shortlist and invite for interview will probably be very busy, and will not be able to set aside much time for trawling through lots of material.

• Only include copies of your very best work in your demo or a portfolio – the moment employers come across anything of a poor standard, they will almost certainly move on to the next application. Presentation is crucial. The covering letter and any application form must be very well presented and without spelling errors. Disks and tapes must be neatly and clearly labelled with your name and contact details, in case they become separated from the rest of the material, and work on paper or card needs special protection to prevent it becoming spoilt.

• These two words are very closely related, but people tend to have different expectations of what will result from each of them. Education is the term favoured by schools, colleges and universities, because it suggests development of the individual person in lots of ways that relate to work and life, such as literacy, numeracy and how to relate to others.

• Training, on the other hand, is a term that often appeals more to employers, because it suggests learning specific skills that are focused on one task or a small number of tasks involved in performing a particular job role.

• In fact, most of us would probably get most out of life from a balance between the two – being better educated will enable us to think more clearly, to find solutions to problems, to get information and to know what to do with it once we have found it, while being trained in job-specific skills will enable us to succeed at work and to develop a career.

• Education and training can take a number of different forms:• Full-time education – in school, college and university. This leads to

recognised qualifications, such as BTEC First and BTEC National awards, GCE, HND, degree and postgraduate certificates, diplomas and masters degrees. Normally there is time left in the week to do some part-time work, and if this is in the media industry, it can provide valuable experience and contacts that could lead to a fulltime job once the course is finished.

• Part-time education – also in school, college and university. Many of the qualifications above can be studied part-time, leaving more time free in the week for paid work if you can get it. Of course, it will take longer to get the qualifications – perhaps several years more – because you are spending less time studying each week.

LevelThe level of a qualification is determined

by its placing in the Nationalqualifications Framework (NQF)