First, a little background. I worked as a "one-man-band" (reporter/videographer) for affiliates in Houston and Shreveport, Louisiana, for 11 years. After two years in graduate school, I re-entered television for three years: first as a news reporter and producer at a suburban Dallas cable system and as a sports producer in Houston. I've spent the last six years in the academic world, teaching in mass communication and radio-TV departments at three different universities in Louisiana and Texas. I had the good fortune to be awarded a fellowship this year from the Radio-Television News Directors Foundation (RTNDF) and the Knight Foundation. The fellowship sent me to WKYT-TV in Lexington, Kentucky, this past July. The fellowship is designed to serve as a refresher course for professors to see what's happening in local TV newsrooms and to bring that experience back to campus.

The Real World

Television news directors want graduates to understand the basics of TV news story-telling: proper shooting methods, basic editing techniques, sound writing principles, and knowledge of ethics and how television works. This is when the hands-on approach works well. Reporters, photographers and producers who enter TV newsrooms today have to have these basic skills. There will obviously be some localized training involved since all newsrooms have variations of equipment, but if a graduate doesn't understand the correlation between a cutaway and a jump cut, the graduate is probably going to be on the outside looking in.

The Academic World

The traditional academic world tends to view the journalism profession in a different light. It sees more theory-based teaching as the most crucial (or the only) element, believing the best place to learn basic shooting and editing skills is in the newsroom itself. Many colleges and universities view journalism (print and broadcast) as a vocation rather than a learned profession. There seems to be a fear of journalism and broadcasting programs becoming technical or vocational disciplines.

What Is the Best Approach?

I think a marriage of the two ideas can work. A combination of practical and theoretical approaches is essential to produce successful graduates. There is a place for the theory that graduates have to have some basic understanding of how equipment works. It is impractical and time-consuming for news directors to teach entry-level TV reporters or photographers the A-B-Cs of writing, editing, and story construction. There must be a place for the "hands-on" approach to broadcasting. There is also a place for the idea that graduates understand libel laws, the importance of fair and balanced story coverage, basic ethical issues, and television's place in society. These elements can be, and should be, taught in an academic setting.

The classroom is also the place to learn about government, science, business, health and medicine, and any other subject a well-rounded citizen needs to know and understand. How can a journalist correctly explain the workings of city or county government to an audience if that reporter doesn't understand how representative government works? There is a lot of room for future journalists to improve his or her knowledge of the biggest beat of all: the world in which we live.

People Skills

There is one more element I feel is lacking in instruction but might be impossible to teach. I call it the "people element." Anyone who has spent some time within a newsroom will understand the theory that people in the communication business are usually the worst communicators, especially among themselves.

Management should clearly communicate ideas to employees, desk persons need to keep contact with news crews in the field, and producers have to be on the same page with reporters and videographers and other producers. In that same vein, producers, reporters and videographers have to be able to talk to each other about story subjects.

Some reporters think they have an inalienable right to interview anyone on camera because they're reporters and that's just part of the story element. But many interviews are lost because television journalists approach each interview subject as "another 15-second sound bite", just one of several elements that will make the story fit.

I point out television because lights, cameras, and microphones can be intimidating. Television equipment, a fear factor of being on TV, and the personality of the TV reporter can cause an interviewee to be nervous and anxious. The result is usually a poor interview.

A good TV reporter senses some level of mistrust and wariness among interviewees and works more on making that person feel relaxed and comfortable. How? Gain their trust and confidence. Ask the interviewee about family, interests, the weather -- anything to show the interviewee that the reporter is interested in him or her as a person, not just another short piece of a story puzzle. The "people element" can work with amazing results. Within a few minutes, I've seen reporters turn once-reluctant subjects into thoughtful and articulate conversationalists, but it only works if the reporter can show a human side.

Can people skills be taught? There isn't a specific curriculum in People 101, but it might be worth the effort of academics and newsroom managers to take the time to explore this side of journalism. Students might consider taking classes in psychology or sociology or even speech communication.

Most university-level journalism programs focus on technical and theoretical aspects of the profession, but there doesn't seem to be any acknowledgement of the importance of basic human interaction-inside and outside the newsroom. The success or failure of a news department often depends on its employees working together in some level of harmony. The human dynamic within a newsroom --its personality -- can make or break a news department.

Technology, education, and knowledge don't mean much if a reporter can't get anyone to talk or a newsroom is split into an "us-against-them" situation. There is still no replacement for dealing with people on a face-to-face basis. Perhaps people skills should become as much a part of journalistic training as hands-on and theoretical approaches.

About the Author

Tommy Booras is a Louisiana native who spent 15 years in TV and radio news and sports. Booras is currently on the faculty of the Radio-TV Department at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. He can be contact him at rtf_tgb@shsu.edu