WAMU News Director, SOC alum discuss news careers

The old adage goes something like, “he has a face for radio.” While Jim Asendio’s outward appearances are not for me to judge, the News Director at WAMU certainly speaks with the velvety delivery of a well-tenured radio veteran. In his appearance in Friday’s Boot Camp session, Asendio served as the perfect teacher to a group of young journalists learning to properly use their voices.

WAMU News Director Jim Asendio talked to Boot Campers about professionalism.

Earlier in the morning, Professor Jill Olmsted had taught the class about the technical side of putting together a news report for radio. Asendio’s speech, however, focused much more on how to move up in the reporting industry. Journalism is not the profession for an introvert, he told the class. Everything in reporting is about connecting, be it with sources or with the viewing/reading public. While this is important advice for learning to tell a news story, the same holds true for finding work reporting the news.

In the news game, he said, anywhere you go, you’ll probably run into someone who knows someone you’ve worked with before. To students trying to move up in the industry, this offers a few very important lessons. Most importantly, don’t burn any bridges. You never know who you might cross paths with again in the future. And for the same reason, never refuse to take a job seriously just because you think it is small-time.

But what about first-time job seekers?

2008 SOC graduate Keosha Johnson joined our class later to discuss how she is making her way through the news world. Johnson first praised the program itself for the multimedia nature of the coursework. In her first job after AU as an associate at NBC News, Johnson was asked to do just as much computer graphic and web-based work as standard writing and shooting. While she initially found herself a bit overwhelmed at the workload she was not personally too proficient in, Johnson used the multimedia background she learned at AU as a launching pad for her professional career. She advised, “if you know how to shoot, edit, write, and do web production, you’re golden.”

While Jim Asendio reinforced the message we’ve heard before about, “It’s not what you know, but who you know,” Johnson reminded us that we need to make sure first that what we know isn’t a small amount. She recommended doing as much work as we can get our hands on during the program. During her time at AU, Johnson freelanced outside of class as a blogger for a fashion website. “Always try to be working outside of class,” she told a roomful of students already weary from two weeks of Boot Camp.

Advertisement