News Reporter

My name is Robert Walls. I was a television news reporter and anchor full-time for about 20 years of my life, 25 years. And then I have taught journalism at Brigham Young University for another almost 20 years. So for about 40 years, I have been working in the television news industry. So a little advice on getting started. The first thing you have to do is have a passion for the conveyance of information. Because that's what we sell in journalism is information. And an understanding that in today's world, anyone can be a journalist, but not everyone will. Because it's a lot of work to be a journalist. Because you have to do certain things that take a lot of time and they're a lot of work. It's not just being on television. And so when you get information, the first thing you have to do is find information. So you have to get people to tell you things. So you have to develop relationships with people.

Hi, I'm Lexi Peery. I'm a news reporter. I've worked as a print reporter and now I am a radio journalist. And my advice for getting started is to get involved, especially if you're still in school and, you know, it could be middle school, high school to college. It's just getting involved and getting as much writing experience as you can. It can be yearbook, it can be the college or high school newspaper. Really any opportunity to get experience talking to people, to writing stories under deadline. That's, I think, some of the most valuable things you can learn before applying and getting a job is just having the ground level understanding of, you know, what it takes to write a story and who you need to talk to and what kind of work goes into it.