My job is something else

Since I'm in a new city now, I've been trying out a lot of things lately - I'm constantly going to many different events in an effort to meet new people and make new friends. As a result of that, I've been in full-time explanation mode - what's my name? where did I move from? why did I move? what do I do? etc, etc, etc. I don't mind these questions. I inquire the same things from people, because it's a way to find commonality or obtain familiarity with someone new.



As I was sitting in the control room for hours this afternoon, watching election rehearsals and waiting for the 8pm special to begin, I thought a lot about the "Get to know Manashi" Q&A sessions at which I'm becoming quite adept. I'm feeling a bit drained from all the new introductions and fielding questions. And as I thought more deeply about it, I realized that working in TV news is one of the only professions where people find it acceptable to bombard me with criticism within seconds of discovering what I do.

I can't remember the last time I was at a party where the IT guy and the lawyer were challenged on the performance of their companies. Do firefighters or hairdressers get chastised at parties about their daily grind? Yet as soon as I tell people that I work in cable network news, their ideas for how the network SHOULD operate immediately becomes the topic of conversation.

While I can appreciate most of the commentary that people have to share, my technical geek status doesn't seem to register with anyone. Unfortunately, I don't deal with editorial content, nor do I have the power to change what stories are covered or how they are covered. Of course, I can make suggestions to the powers-that-be if something strikes me as really troubling, but in general, I don't get super bothered about the content on my network. What we do, we do pretty well. Like any company, our output has flaws, but it also has a great deal of merit.

One of the complaints I've heard a lot recently is that most news programs repeat the same stories every hour (or even more frequently.) It was pointed out that certain international networks do not do this... but it occurs to me now that the int'l nets that were used as examples were not 24-hour networks. Obviously those networks cover more world news stories, and I do wish we did that more. But otherwise, we're pretty solid. And that brings me back to the point of repetitive storytelling...

Does anyone outside of the TV news biz really know how hard it is to fill 24 hours of air time with NEW content? Give me a break. Unless you know how to research it, write it and produce it, you have no idea what that entails - cost-wise, resource-wise, or otherwise. What's worse, with sister websites constantly clamoring for updates, the frenzy for new content is even greater. Trying to satiate the ever-increasing appetite of internet savvy news-junkies while news organizations cut costs (and jobs!) is nearly impossible.



News doesn't make much money for the parent broadcasting companies. Think about it - we get our best ratings when there's breaking news. When there's breaking news, we're not running any ads. Ads are our revenue source. No ads = no money. (It's not the best business model, really, but the utopian idea behind a news outlet is to inform the public - to provide a public service.) So you have limited resources, an increasing demand for new content and, well, not much news happening at the pace that people want new information. Hence, the repetitive content.

The bottom line, for me, is that I love the magic of television. As a kid, I'd always wanted to know how they get pictures from one end of the camera into my home, and that's the stuff that still fascinates me. I'm lucky that I'm able to work in an unconventional job, because I like doing something that's unique. And I do love being able to say that I work at a certain reputable cable news outfit, but I don't like having to defend the company every time I meet someone new. It's exhausting. (And as shocking as this may sound, my job is not my life.)

So please, people, if you have something to say about any television network, they all have public information offices that field grievance calls. Call them. Tell THEM your thoughts... someone higher up than me might actually listen and do something about it.

PS - The above photos are the view from my apartment. I actually have trees to look at on one side and a brick courtyard that no one has access to on the other side. I love the color of the yellow tree against the brick building across the way, although I think Sam should come over and take a photo that does it justice.