Blog 2: How Social Networking Has Affected Football Broadcasters
For a very long time, broadcasting careers, specifically football (soccer), have been based upon experience and how people have worked their way up the ladder of broadcasting. However, the recent implementation of social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, has caused the method of becoming a well-known broadcaster or on-camera personality to change.
Social networking sites have been a great way of making connections with relevant people in almost all professional career fields since these websites were created. Many career fields, especially television careers, are all about "who you know" and social networking sites allow people to connect with other individuals with ease. Some of these connections may never have been made in person and these sites open up numerous opportunists for jobs, internships and partnerships.
LinkedIn is one of the more popular sites used by professionals and was highlighted in a lecture for my Internet Communication class by Geralyn Mitchell, a career-advisor for Appalachian State University. Mitchell described and showed how many different aspects of LinkedIn are available to users, from adding connections to joining different group pages on the site.
Social networking has impacted football broadcasters in a great way, specifically in the aspect of bypassing experience and time in the field. Experience broadcasters can now recommend beginners in the industry to employers for job opportunities. If someone has the talent and the right connections, those connections can get them a job on a large network with little time required.
Luck plays a huge part in every broadcasters career; They need their 'big break" or moment of luck to come for them at some moment in their life. This moment is what stops their career from remaining in production or operations. They need to be trusted before they can be in front of the camera and this trust can be gained from the words of the experienced broadcasters giving a recommendation. If an experienced professional knows you, your resume and your talent, then your career can get a kick start, just from their knowledge of who you are and what you are capable of.
So if you are in fear of not getting a job because the market is competitive, then get a competitive edge over your opponents by joining a professional social networking site. It may just be the start of a great career for you.
