Since I was a little kid, I wanted to work in television news. When I was in first or second grade, I set up our archaic home video camera in my room, put on my suit and clip on tie, and read my "International News Hour." Ultimately this would serve little other purpose than to embarrass me at my high school graduation party (I interviewed my mom, an intensive pregnancy nurse, and asked her how she could stand the sight of a "strange ewwww-terus"). So now, sitting in front of the teleprompter at KOMU for an anchoring segment, or reading headlines during All Things Considered for NPR takes on the quality of "Kyle playing newscaster" once more. It's hard to believe I'm sitting here, today, poised to make my leap into a world where my voice and my work will be regularly broadcast to thousands of people. It's an exciting, humbling thought.
But I also know how to separate my childhood dreams from the adult realities of the world I'm about to enter. It's brought home to me when two anchors in my hometown of Minneapolis are forced out of the job by the realities of the job market (KARE 11's Rick Kupchella and WCCO's Jeanette Trompeter) — and growing up in a media market that loves its television news reporters like family, this is very personal to me as it is.
I'm not giving up my childhood dreams, but I'm quickly realizing I'm going to have to bring a non-traditional skillset to a traditional newsroom — not just for my benefit, but for the survival of traditional newsrooms.
What does the future hold for me? I'm not sure. My going line when someone asks me what I want to do next is, "I want to do non-traditional journalism in a traditional newsroom." But I think I can say for certain what I'll be doing, no matter where I go: my television or radio story will probably increasingly be a mirror of my web story, and not the other way around, that much I believe is certain. My toolbox as a reporter will have to include more than just a video camera or a radio recorder, but a still camera, a laptop with an aircard to live blog, and familiarity with online chat and social networking. I feel as though I'm mastered some of these skills; I'm working on others. But for where I am in my life right now, I feel as though I'm on the right track.
