June 2017 archive

reporting live outside on a cold day

Today’s topic is reporting live outside on a cold day. Sometimes when you are a reporter or a presenter you will be asked to report live at the location of the story in the presentation. This can happen at any time of year, including the cold winter days. People may wonder how to keep warm if they are reporting on a cold winter day outside.

When you are reporting on a cold winter day, it goes without saying to dress appropriately. Make sure you have enough layers. If it is just too cold to report outside, let the crews know when you’re not on camera if you can get another volunteer or sit inside to do the presentation. If you must do it outside, dress warmly and go inside during the times you are not reporting to get warm. This will give you more energy to go back outside to continue the live presentation.

What about you? Have you ever did a live presentation outside on a cold day? How cold was it? What happened? What did you do? Let me know in the comments.

Don’t forget to tell all your other friends who are pursuing a communications career to visit this blog for the answers to all their issues!

animal segments

Today’s topic is animal segments. When you are a reporter, some of the segments you do will involve different kinds of animals. Sometimes people don’t know what to do with the animals or they worry if they’re allergic to them. This is how to do a successful animal segment.

When you do an animal segment, the trainer or owner will usually come with the animal. You may ask to hold it or pet it, or sometimes the trainer may ask you. If you think you are allergic, let the trainer know either before the presentation or politely during it. If you do pet or hold the animal, respond accordingly to what kind of animal it is. If it is a dog let he or she sniff your hand first so he or she becomes accustomed to you. If you are feeling too uncomfortable interacting with the animal, politely let the trainer know.

What about you? Did you ever participate in an animal segment? What kind of animal was it? What did you do? Let me know in the comments.

Don’t forget to tell all your other friends who are pursuing a communications career to visit this blog for the answers to all their issues!

food or cooking segments

Today’s topic is food presentations. Sometimes in a news show, they will have cooking or food segments. Some people wonder what to do if they don’t like the food showcased or they are allergic to it. This is how to do a food segment successfully.

You don’t know whether or not you like the food unless you try it. So always make a point to try whatever food is being showcased. If you then decide you don’t like it, then you don’t have to eat anymore, just continue interviewing the cook. If you already know you don’t like it, interview the cook and take a small bite if she asks you to to be polite.

If you are allergic to the food being showcased, politely let the cook know either before or during the segment. Then you can either sit the segment out or just stand there interviewing the cook without tasting anything. You may explain to the audience you are allergic to the food and that is why you can’t try it. If there is any other reason why you can’t try the particular food being showcased, this is also what you do.

What about you? Did you ever participate in a food or cooking segment? What was the food being showcased? Did you like it? Did you try it? Were you ever allergic to one of the foods being showcased? What did you do? Let me know in the comments.

Don’t forget to tell all your other friends who are pursuing a communications career to visit this blog for the answers to all their issues!

interviews

Today’s topic is how to conduct successful interviews. When you are in communications part of your job may be to interview someone who has something to do with your presentation. People may not know how to go about planning an effective interview. This is how to conduct one.

When you interview someone in relation to your story, stick to questions about the story. Ask questions you are sure the audience would want answered. Ask questions you would want answered about the story if you were just finding out about the situation. Also, make them feel important. Show them that what they have to contribute to the story is very important. What they know about the story adds to the important information you have to report to the audience. Ask them personal questions, but put the focus on what the story is about. If they have a personal tie to the story, that is amazing. If not, focus on the story, but show you care about them as a person too by asking a few other nonrelated questions even if they don’t end up as part of the presentation. Make sure you ask clear to the point questions. Make sure you also speak clearly so they understand what you are saying, Most people will feel grateful that you asked them to contribute their opinion because everyone likes to feel important.

What about you? Did you ever interview someone for a presentation? How did it go? How did they feel or contribute? What was the story about? What questions did you ask them? Let me know in the comments.

Don’t forget to tell all your other friends who are pursuing a communications career to visit this blog for the answers to all their issues!

presenting without a projector or teleprompter

Today’s topic is how to report without a teleprompter or projector. I think for most presentations or reports they will show you what you need to say, but in case they don’t that could be an issue because you may worry about what to say if it is not given to you.

if they don’t give the words to you, or even if they do, before your presentation, look thru what you are going to say. Figure out what the main points are and try to remember them. Even if you don’t know them exactly, try to remember the main points and ideas. This way, if the presentation isn’t given to you, you can still be prepared to give a successful report or presentation.

What about you? Have you ever had to do a report or presentation without a projector or teleprompter? What helped you? Did you still remember the main ideas of what you were presenting? Was it still successful? Did the audience understand the story based on what you told them? Let me know in the comments.

Don’t forget to tell all your other friends who are pursuing a communications career to visit this blog for the answers to all their issues!

how to give a report or presentation

Today’s topic is how to give a report or presentation. You will probably have a script or projector so you know what to say, but people still have issues with what to say sometimes or how to say them. They don’t know how to make it personal and not like they’re reading it from a script. This is how to do an effective report or presentation.

When giving a presentation, you generally follow the script. But if there’s comments you can think of that are appropriate to make the story personal you can add them. Also when you’re reading the prewritten text, read it with emotion. Figure out what emotions people will be feeling that are hearing the story for the first time and read the story accordingly. It takes practice, but soon you will be a very successful reporter and presenter.

What about you? How do you give presentations or reports? What do you do to make them more personal or have more feeling to them? Let me know in the comments.

Don’t forget to tell all your other friends who are pursuing a communications career to visit this blog for the answers to all their issues!

reporting on something you don’t believe in

Today’s topic is how to report on a story that supports something you don’t believe in. Everyone has different beliefs, and there are so many drastic ones nowadays, so it is easy to come across something that you don’t believe in for whatever reason. This can be an issue because people don’t know how to go about talking about something if they don’t believe in it.

If you have to report on something you don’t believe in, such as minority groups, controversial topics such as abortion, or something that goes against your religious or political views, remember that just because you’re reporting the story doesn’t mean you have to believe it. Also, there are people in the audience out there that do believe it, and you have to serve those audience members too by reporting the story. It would be unfair if you didn’t report stories that some audience members want to hear simply because you don’t believe in them.

What about you? Have you ever had to give a presentation or report a story on something you didn’t believe in? What was it? What helped you get thru? Did you change your beliefs at all because of the experience? Let me know in the comments.

Don’t forget to tell all your other friends who are pursuing a communications career to visit this blog for the answers to all their issues!

reporting a sad story

Today’s topic is how to report a sad story. When you are a news reporter, you have to talk about a bunch of different kinds of stories, and some of them will be sad ones. Someone died, someone hurt someone or killed someone, another terrorist attack happened somewhere. These ones are examples of sad stories. People have trouble talking about sad things because they don’t want to cry especially in front of everyone, and they don’t want to think about sad things because that is an uncomfortable thing for anyone to do.

If you have to report a sad story, read or rehearse thru it before giving the presentation. This will help you to become familiar with the story so you are not surprised or shocked by any sad things in it. Also, this way, if something makes you want to cry, you can cry when you’re reading thru it instead of finding out everything on camera and crying in front of everyone. If you do end up crying on camera, try to compose yourself, and bite your cheek to keep from crying. This works for laughing and for keeping yourself from crying too. Say excuse me and ask for a tissue or get one if you need one. If you really can’t finish the presentation, they will try to get someone else to take over for you.

What about you? Did you ever have to report a sad story? Did something ever make you cry on camera? What was it? What did you do? What happened? Let me know in the comments.

Don’t forget to tell all your other friends who are pursuing a communications career to visit this blog for the answers to all their issues!

 

writing a resume

Today’s topic is how to write a resume. Writing a resume is very important no matter what job you are applying for. The potential employers will use your resume to determine whether or not you are the employee they are looking for based on your qualifications. Some people have trouble writing a resume because they don’t know what all to put on it, or they are afraid to talk about themselves too much. This will teach you what to put on an effective resume.

The main things you put on a resume are your previous work history, your educations history, your skills, contact information and languages. Your work history will show them how much work experience you’ve had and what kinds of things you did at your previous jobs that will determine what you would be good at if you were hired at this one. Your education history shows how much schooling you completed, because most employers want to hire people who have completed a college degree. This shows how book smart and dedicated you are. Your skills are there to show them what you are good at. Companies have a bunch of different positions. Your skills will show them what position works best for you. Also, don’t be afraid listing all your skills will come off as self centred. Resumes are one place you kind of need to be self centred to show everyone what you can do, because that is how they know whether or not they will be hiring you. Contact information is included because if they decide to hire you, they won’t let you know right away. Once they have made their decision, they will use your contact information to reach you and let you know whether or not they are hiring you. Lastly, languages are included if the person speaks more than one because there may be certain positions that require speaking more than one language, and this shows the employers who all meets that qualification. One website that makes it very easy for you to fill out a resume is ResumeBuilder. I have used that website before to write my resume and it is very helpful and it spells everything out for you.

What about you? Have you written your first resume? What was hard or easy for you? Did you get hired by a company after they viewed your resume? Let me know in the comments.

Don’t forget to tell all your other friends who are pursuing a communications career to visit this blog for the answers to all their issues!

laughing at inappropriate times

Today’s topic is laughing at inappropriate times. Sometimes when you are doing a story on a broadcasting platform, something will be in the story that strikes you as entertaining in that moment, but it’s not really supposed to be, and you aren’t supposed to start laughing at that moment. Maybe the story is a really serious one, or you are the only one who would understand the reason for laughter. This can be an issue because many people don’t know how to refrain from laughing when it is a really bad time to do so.

What you should do to not laugh inappropriately is to in your head remind yourself of the seriousness of the story. If something bad happened, remind yourself of the families and people affected by the tragedy. Also, they say to bite the inside of your cheek when you want to keep yourself from laughing or crying. If you do end up laughing before you can stop it, just clear your throat and say excuse me, and go back to reporting, reminding yourself of the sad parts of the story. This is a way to handle the situation professionally. If you seem like you should, you can explain the reason for the sudden outburst of laughter, but you don’t have to.

What about you? Have you ever inappropriately laughed during a presentation? How did you handle it? Do you agree with the ways talked about here? Let me know in the comments.

Don’t forget to tell all your other friends who are pursuing a communications career to visit this blog for the answers to all their issues!

 

 

 

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