We've always been told that if you're not sure, just do one anyway to be on the safe side. So, here's a list of the websites I've referenced in my exploration of my interest in becoming a Press Officer.
www.drownedinsound.com
www.drownedinsound.com/community
www.facebook.com
www.myspace.com
www.NME.com
www.pitchfork.com
www.popjustice.com
www.popjustice.com/forum
www.prospects.ac.uk/p/types_of_job/press_officer_job_description.jsp
www.twitter.com
Thursday, 7 May 2009
The Media In Pracitce: So, In Conclusion...
I've enjoyed looking in to the career I hope to have when I leave university, I feel like I've learnt a lot of things about the job that I didn't know before and have a clear idea of the kinds of skills and experience that I will need to go about getting the job I want.
Becoming a Press Officer at a record label won't necessarily be easy; I'll have to start at the bottom and work my way up, making as many contacts along the way as I possibly can and developing skills that will help me when I finally do end up in the job I want (if I even do, the climb up the ladder may open a door to doing something I hadn't even thought of). I must say though, I'm looking forward to the challenge and the chance to experience lots of new things whilst I work towards achieving my goals.
Work experience is going to be as important as my degree (if not more so) when it comes to getting the kind of job I want, and whilst the work experience I've had so far has been really useful I need to make sure I continue to make contacts and gain as much experience as possible.
The lesson we had in public speaking has probably been the most useful to me throughout this module as I think public speaking is something that few people are ever truly comfortable with, and any advice that can help improve your ability to hide the nerves that go along with standing in front of a large group of people will always be appreciated.
I've learnt a lot during my time at university, such as how to write academically and how to research properly, but I've also learnt things individual to me, like the way in which I find I work best and get the best results. I think my degree will form an important backbone to my search for the career I want, and the experience I've had at university has really helped to prepare me for a career and the real world.
Becoming a Press Officer at a record label won't necessarily be easy; I'll have to start at the bottom and work my way up, making as many contacts along the way as I possibly can and developing skills that will help me when I finally do end up in the job I want (if I even do, the climb up the ladder may open a door to doing something I hadn't even thought of). I must say though, I'm looking forward to the challenge and the chance to experience lots of new things whilst I work towards achieving my goals.
Work experience is going to be as important as my degree (if not more so) when it comes to getting the kind of job I want, and whilst the work experience I've had so far has been really useful I need to make sure I continue to make contacts and gain as much experience as possible.
The lesson we had in public speaking has probably been the most useful to me throughout this module as I think public speaking is something that few people are ever truly comfortable with, and any advice that can help improve your ability to hide the nerves that go along with standing in front of a large group of people will always be appreciated.
I've learnt a lot during my time at university, such as how to write academically and how to research properly, but I've also learnt things individual to me, like the way in which I find I work best and get the best results. I think my degree will form an important backbone to my search for the career I want, and the experience I've had at university has really helped to prepare me for a career and the real world.
The Media In Practice: My Time At University (So Far)
Now that I'm approaching the end of my second year and am starting to think about the career I'd like to pursue when I'm finished at university I feel like this is as good a time as ever to look back at what I feel i've learnt and how I've changed since being at university.
I certainly feel like I've grown up a lot since being here. Unlike with college, there isn't someone to always make sure you get the work done outside the classroom, and as assignments mainly come in one big essay at the end of term instead of lots of small assignments throughout the year it is important to make sure I'm attending all the lectures to get the information needed to write good assignments.
I still feel like I could improve on the way I work during term time, in the weeks before assignments are due in. I still have a tendancy to leave all assignments until the last minute which can make it difficult to make sure they are all researched properly. However, I have learnt that this is the way I work best and have decided that, whilst leaving assignments until the day before they're due in probably isn't the best idea, I do find it easiest to complete assignments in a short period of time close to the due date (starting the week before they're due in, for example).
I'm in two minds when it comes to looking at the way in which my time at university may have helped me with my future employment plans.
On one hand, I feel that learning to improve my public speaking and time management have been very useful skills that I will take away from this course. On the other hand, however, I do not feel like my degree itself will be particularly helpful when it comes to getting and performing in the job I hope to one day achieve. When it comes to working in the record industry what's most important is that you have a lot of experience in that field, and having a degree will not necessarily make it any easier to get a job if you have no experience to back it up. This is why I feel it's really important for me to get as much work experience through the contacts I have already made outside of university as possible, as having a degree as well as plenty or work experience will definately help when I'm looking for future employment in the music industry.
The thing I feel I could improve upon the most is my motivation. When I don't particularly enjoy a certain module, or find it very interesting, I find it very difficult to motivate myself to do the work required. This is something I definately need to improve upon, as I probably wont enjoy every aspect of my job once I finish university but will need to make sure I still perform tasks required of me to the best of my ability.
I certainly feel like I've grown up a lot since being here. Unlike with college, there isn't someone to always make sure you get the work done outside the classroom, and as assignments mainly come in one big essay at the end of term instead of lots of small assignments throughout the year it is important to make sure I'm attending all the lectures to get the information needed to write good assignments.
I still feel like I could improve on the way I work during term time, in the weeks before assignments are due in. I still have a tendancy to leave all assignments until the last minute which can make it difficult to make sure they are all researched properly. However, I have learnt that this is the way I work best and have decided that, whilst leaving assignments until the day before they're due in probably isn't the best idea, I do find it easiest to complete assignments in a short period of time close to the due date (starting the week before they're due in, for example).
I'm in two minds when it comes to looking at the way in which my time at university may have helped me with my future employment plans.
On one hand, I feel that learning to improve my public speaking and time management have been very useful skills that I will take away from this course. On the other hand, however, I do not feel like my degree itself will be particularly helpful when it comes to getting and performing in the job I hope to one day achieve. When it comes to working in the record industry what's most important is that you have a lot of experience in that field, and having a degree will not necessarily make it any easier to get a job if you have no experience to back it up. This is why I feel it's really important for me to get as much work experience through the contacts I have already made outside of university as possible, as having a degree as well as plenty or work experience will definately help when I'm looking for future employment in the music industry.
The thing I feel I could improve upon the most is my motivation. When I don't particularly enjoy a certain module, or find it very interesting, I find it very difficult to motivate myself to do the work required. This is something I definately need to improve upon, as I probably wont enjoy every aspect of my job once I finish university but will need to make sure I still perform tasks required of me to the best of my ability.
The Media In Practice: Work Experience
I mentioned earlier that when looking for a career in the music industry it's very important to get as much experience as possible and make contacts along the way, so here I'm going to discuss the work experience I did a couple of years ago for Drowned In Sound (DiS).
Since getting work in the music industry is all about who you know, not what you know, I used the one contact I had at the time to get myself a week of work experience with DiS in London. It was actually a fairly standard 9 to 5 (well, 10 to 6) job in an office, which I really enjoyed. I know a lot of people looking for jobs in the media are after something that involves a lot of travelling or varied hours, but to me a 9 to 5 job in an office in which I get to listen to and analyse music all day is perfect.
As it's a very small business of (at the time) roughly 5 staff I got to work closely with everyone there and see what it was their job entailed. The woman who dealt with press for both the record label and the website was especially helpful and allowed me to observe and help out with her jobs. I got to see how she went about placing adverts in magazines, writing press releases and speaking personally to members of the press to hlp publicise the artists DiS was promoting that week.
I was also given the chance to write several news stories for the website and was helped by the main writer to make sure they were written in a style that would both appeal to their readers and get all the necessary information across.
Spending that week working at a real record label and seeing the way things were run was really useful for me and I'm looking to get some more experience this summer.
Since getting work in the music industry is all about who you know, not what you know, I used the one contact I had at the time to get myself a week of work experience with DiS in London. It was actually a fairly standard 9 to 5 (well, 10 to 6) job in an office, which I really enjoyed. I know a lot of people looking for jobs in the media are after something that involves a lot of travelling or varied hours, but to me a 9 to 5 job in an office in which I get to listen to and analyse music all day is perfect.
As it's a very small business of (at the time) roughly 5 staff I got to work closely with everyone there and see what it was their job entailed. The woman who dealt with press for both the record label and the website was especially helpful and allowed me to observe and help out with her jobs. I got to see how she went about placing adverts in magazines, writing press releases and speaking personally to members of the press to hlp publicise the artists DiS was promoting that week.
I was also given the chance to write several news stories for the website and was helped by the main writer to make sure they were written in a style that would both appeal to their readers and get all the necessary information across.
Spending that week working at a real record label and seeing the way things were run was really useful for me and I'm looking to get some more experience this summer.
The Media In Practice: Learning Public Speaking
I feel that during my time at university I have become a lot better at public speaking, though this was never a particularly big problem for me before coming to university. I have never really been scared of public speaking but this doesn't necessarily mean I've always been good at it. For the presentations we had to give in the first year I never really felt like I prepared properly and as such often found myself missing out things I had wanted to talk about, or talking too much about things that only needed touching on briefly. Since then I have learnt that presentations need to be prepared for a rehearsed thoroughly in order to make sure I get all the information across as clearly as possible. I would also speak far too quickly and fidget whilst talking during those early presentations. Thanks to tips learnt from Kim Marks, a newsreader who came in to talk to the class, I feel like I know a lot more about successful public speaking and find I get less nervous and talk at a much better pace than I used to.
I think that learning these tips about public speaking and correct presentation will be useful for finding employment in the future as they can be applied not just to speaking to a crowd but also in one-on-one circumstances, such as job interviews. Good public speaking skills will also be useful for a career as a Press Officer as it is important to be able to speak to the Press in large groups at press conferences and in other similar situations.
I think that learning these tips about public speaking and correct presentation will be useful for finding employment in the future as they can be applied not just to speaking to a crowd but also in one-on-one circumstances, such as job interviews. Good public speaking skills will also be useful for a career as a Press Officer as it is important to be able to speak to the Press in large groups at press conferences and in other similar situations.
Monday, 4 May 2009
The Media In Practice: How Do Press Officers Contribute To The Organisation?
For this part of my reflection on my chosen career I will look at how Press Officers contribute to the organisation they are a part of. As it is my goal to become a press officer for a record label I will of course be looking at what th role of the Press Officer is within record labels and how they contribute to the running of the label.
Press Officers play a very important role in the music industry as they are partly responsible for organising publicity for bands/artists and making sure that anything that band or artist is trying to sell is properly publicised and in the consciousness of the general public.
Talking to journalists and organising interviews and press conferences is a vital part of the job performed by the Press Officer, and without these things it makes getting publicity difficult. In this way the Press Officer makes a major contribution to the record label, as they are essentially responsible for making sure bands or artists are well publicised so that their products sell as much as possible.
Press Officers play a very important role in the music industry as they are partly responsible for organising publicity for bands/artists and making sure that anything that band or artist is trying to sell is properly publicised and in the consciousness of the general public.
Talking to journalists and organising interviews and press conferences is a vital part of the job performed by the Press Officer, and without these things it makes getting publicity difficult. In this way the Press Officer makes a major contribution to the record label, as they are essentially responsible for making sure bands or artists are well publicised so that their products sell as much as possible.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
