The BBC’s Laura Trevelyan explains how to get your foot in the door of political television news and climb to the top…
First, and foremost, don’t do a three-year journalism degree!
The industry’s perception of these courses, whether fair or unfair, is that you spend a lot of time on what’s loosely termed as ‘media studies’, covering topics such as bias in the media and attitudes – none of which are at all useful if you’re going to be a reporter.
Media studies is not regarded as being intellectually up there with the more challenging subjects, so people in the industry may perceive it as being a cop out.
You may also come out of university with rather preconceived notions about how the media business is structured, and that’s not going to help you.
