2nd Guest Speaker - October 28th
Jackson joined Global Toronto in January 2006, but his career in broadcasting started well before that, in his hometown of Calgary. As a 16 year old high school student, Jackson found himself reporting for Shaw TV and freelancing for CBC Radio. Bitten by the news bug, he pursued broadcast journalism at the University of Calgary and the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. After graduation, Jackson was hired by Global News in Lethbridge, Alberta. The small station gave him a chance to do just about everything, from reporting, to anchoring the weekend news and even filling in on the weather desk. There were also some incredible news stories to cover, from the flood of the century to a tornado that touched down right in front of Jackson's camera. Jackson's next move was to CH TV in Hamilton, and included more wild weather. A career highlight includes the hours of breaking news coverage, after a tornado touched down in the city. Now in Toronto, Jackson is looking for new challenges. He is currently the Municipal Affairs Specialist for Global.
18 comments:
Christina Cavotti
Jackson Proskow from Global TV really opened my eyes to a whole new world of news. As I often watch newscasts such as Global I tend to change the channel if something about City Hall appears on my screen. I know as a budding journalist I should watch all types of news but as Jackson mentioned eyes just glaze over when stories pertaining to his beat pop up. However, after hearing Jackson speak so passionately about being a Municipal Affairs Specialist you could not help but learn to appreciate not only his craft as a journalist but his beat as well.
Jackson taught me that no matter what kind of beat you are involved with it is always important to trust your intuition. At first I thought Jackson was crazy when he told us the story about him phoning a Calgary newscast to ask why they did not have a youth perspective on their show. I figured at this point Jackson’s story would end up with the person on the phone hanging up on him. However, to my surprise not only did the show like the idea but asked Jackson to do the segment with having no previous experience. I not only found this interesting but also came to understand that at times you have to take big risks to receive big rewards in this industry and looking outside the box is key. This is something I often have trouble doing and can definitely use his experience as fuel towards my future stories and hopefully also in my future career.
With the news business constantly changing and with jobs not always being as readily available, starting in a smaller job market is not always a bad thing. As Jackson mentioned you get the upper hand because you find yourself involved with all aspects of journalism such as shooting, writing, editing and so forth. On the plus side if you screw up it will be viewed by a much smaller audience which is never a bad thing when you are starting out! Overall, Jackson was a great guest speaker who had a lot of informative information and interesting stories and I thank him for coming in and speaking with us.
Stephen Parks Video Blog - Jackson Proskow
Check out this stud everybody...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MHieOY2KMw
Although he wasn’t Richard Madan, Jackson Proskow was a great substitute speaker this past Tuesday. It was so great to see another young face, “such as Francis’s”, speak about the world of journalism. Often when I watch the news, I feel like a good journalist must be old, experienced and greying, yet seeing and hearing Jackson reassured me that there are jobs, good jobs at that, out there for young enthusiastic journalists.
Because many of our classmates seemed to tired to ask questions, I took the opportunity to ask Jackson several questions I felt pertained to my career as a journalist and how to go about trying to find that first journalism job. I especially enjoyed hearing of how when Jackson finished school, he jumped into his car and drove around the province of Alberta, meeting with producers at all the small market cities he could find.
As well, Jackson showed that reporting about City Hall is not just standing in front of the building giving stand-ups about council. His story about the bathroom facilities on the beach front showed that there are plenty of exciting stories within the Municipal beat.
I have really enjoyed the guest speaker segments and look forward to our third event in November. Have a good weekend guys!
Derek
Nic Taylor
Well we just watched Jackson Proskow whose the municipal affairs specialist at Global TV. He was a great guest speaker, very personable and knowledgeable as well. When we were first told he was the municipal affairs beat reporter, I was almost ready to fall asleep right there. I had in my mind that would be just like Queen's Park and other typical political blandness that 80 year old guys watch so they have something to complain about the next day. But he laughed off the notion and explain that as dull as it sounds, municipal affairs can be pretty entertaining. I thought it wasn't possible but it grabbed my attention and when he began to explain some of the stories he had done, I realized that his specialty was actually pretty interesting. He spoke about the one parking ticket story he did and how he worked to get justice for the man who was getting ticketed. And then he showed us the beach washroom story and the follow up afterwards. This wasn't what I expected municipal affairs to be, this was getting justice from the government! It was fantastic, a news story I always like to see. Jackson opened things up in that part of news because I never thought of going close to any political affairs but what he was doing mattered.
He also stressed that in order to get somewhere in news, you have to push, hard. And even though it can seem like there's no hope and you may as well start looking for a better job, a tornado will come along and you move up in the news world. He was a really interesting person and I'm glad he came and spoke to us because I never considered that part of politics before and I found it intriguing.
Ally Blundy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=914pQUWJ14M
Yvonne Morris-Sliekers
Our second guest speaker, Jackson Provskow was just as enjoyable as Jee. I found it the most surprising that he had his start in journalism at sixteen when he was reporting Shaw TV in Calgary. At sixteen I had no idea that I wanted to someday get into journalism and I guess if you have your start early enough such as Jackson did you can get where you want faster. What I liked most about Jackson's talk with us, just like Jee, was his honesty. His honesty about how he was getting paid the least when he was doing the most work but how rewarding it was and how grateful he is for it today. What I also found rewarding from his talk was hoe he explained that if we get 2 job offers after school that he recommended we take the smaller station with the lower pay. He suggested this because if we make a mistake at a huge broadcasting company there is less time we'll have there to fix our mistakes. I never really thought of it that way but it does make sense to learn from the experiences he had at his lower paying jobs at smaller companies and use all you learned from there and take it all into consideration when you are ready to move up to the big companies. Another thing that I found helpful when he was speaking was the importance of contacts. It really makes sense when you think about how many people (especially if you are a reporter) that you are in contact with trying to get a story, and throughout your career you may find that some stories need the same expert as you had in a story a few weeks or months or even years ago. What I also found helpful with this speaker was his experiences when he was at the school where the tornado touched down and there was a huge thunderstorm and he found that he was the only reporter there and he had to go on the national news for Global, a company he didn't even work for and how nervous he was. I found this helpful because we all obviously know that being a reporter is not a regular job where you can find yourself doing the same thing everyday, but everyday when you are a reporter you can find yourself in the most random and crazy situations that could enhance your career, something you had no idea that was going to happen when you woke up that morning. I thoroughly enjoyed Jackson as a speaker and maybe someday I will be as successful as he is.
Nicole Bauman Video Blog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVvI-tVK3uw
I'm almost as good looking as you, Steve.
Elizabeth Kirkham
After listening to our guest speaker, Jackson Proskow, I am so much more excited to work in the journalism industry. Proskow is a Municipal Affairs Specialist, and to be honest, before he came to our class, I thought there was nothing less interesting than municipal affairs. However, after hearing him talk, and watching a couple of his stories, it sounds absolutely exciting. Everything about this field is just fascinating to me. I admire his work, because he takes stories out of city hall and makes them interesting to the general public. That is probably a pretty challenging thing to do.
One important thing I learned from his talk, is something they've sort of been drilling into our heads from the beginning. The way he said it just made it so much clearer. He said that he goes out, whether it be to city hall, or wherever, and he finds the story. After that he has to go out to the streets and find characters. You have to build the story around the character, and fill in the blanks with the expert.
Another thing that he talked about was building a reputation for yourself. Once you establish yourself in a beat, people will bring stories to you. He talked about the importance of contacts, people will be so much more willing to talk to you if they like you. One thing that really stuck out to me was when he discussed the difference between "faking it" and "getting it". I guess I did not really realize that if you don't know what you are talking about, people wont take you seriously. I was definitely under the impression that you could fake your way through it, which kind of seems like a silly thing to have thought now...
Hearing about his career was so exciting to me, even his tough start in Lethbridge. I cannot wait to move out into the boonies and working/freezing my butt off. It sounds like so much fun. I am totally ready to throw myself into a tornado if that's what I have to do to get a story.
Gavin-Thomas: Caradonna
Jackson was a great guest with a near-storybook tale in how he moved up through the ranks of broadcast reporting. His tales of harrowing daring-do with his run-ins with tornadoes are something you'd expect out of Hollywood. Inspiring might be overstating, but I was fascinated by his luck all the same.
Of particular interest to me was the fact that he runs the City Hall beat for Global. I myself am not a regular viewer of Global's newscasts, I am however, interested in City Hall. Though I have managed a few successful interviews with Councillor Adam Vaughan (He even remembered me while I was attending the election night panel at the Hard Rock), and Kyle Rae, Jackson has showed that there is more to covering City Hall than simply getting comments from councillors. Should I strive to continue a path towards reporting, I still think I'd do well covering city hall. It's relevant and as Jackson's pieces displayed, it can generate immediate results, which is one of the primary reasons I struck out on this grand endeavour to enter the whirlwind world of Journalism.
Paula Adams
I really enjoyed Jackson Proskow as our guest speaker for Broadcast Beats. Unfortunately he came into our class when we were all so tired and getting adjusted to being back to school after our reading week, so I hope he didn’t take it personally when we barely had any questions for him. Because his story was very interesting. The fact that he called a station himself at age 16 to ask why they didn’t have a youth’s perspective on stories is very ambitious because it got him his first taste in this industry. When he explained all the ins and outs of the small, medium and large television markets, it gave us a good perspective on this industry and showed us what we should expect. When Francis asked him if he would change how he climbed up the ranks of this industry, he said “no, because the small stations are where you get experience (or chops).” He also said it is hard moving around a lot so he does want to stay put for now because he has moved 8 times in the last 4 years.
I found Jackson to be very well spoken and also very eager to tell the important stories. Being thrown into, not one but two tornadoes, just to get a story has ambition written all over it. That is how he has landed in the larger market, by getting noticed by Global doing a tornado story for CH in Hamilton. Although they threw him into the eye of the storm of City Hall as the Municipal Affairs Specialist. A nice perk to that job is that he has his own office there which is a couple of blocks from his house. He knows that from an outsider perspective it sounds boring reporting on City Hall, but he says it is really an interesting and important beat. There are many stories that can be told. The one story about the Beach toilets was good on so many levels because he stumbled across it on his own personal time, realized it was a City Hall issue, did the story and then got a second story out of it because the City wanted to fix the problem. I also enjoyed his stand up in this story because it really drew in the viewer.
I’m glad that Jackson came into speak to us about this particular beat because I honestly didn’t know that Municipal Affairs could be fun. I know he also said that most of us will have to go to the small markets to start, but I hope they open a small market around here because I am quite comfortable living here in Oakville, and so are my kids!!
Paula Adams
Jackson Proskow was a good guest speaker; he spoke about the twists and turns of his career. He helped display the unpredictable nature of journalism and how every story must be done with 100%. He explained that it is passable to make a mistake if you are broadcasting from a small town, but if you make mistakes from reporting in Toronto you are done. I found it exciting that there is a restless mobility with journalism, he told us about how he’s had eight different addresses in four years.
Jackson is a Municipal Affairs Specialist for Global TV and how he explained his job was completely different than my initial impression of Municipal Affairs. I knew it was political but I thought he would just be reporting about politicians. He actually takes his stories out of city hall and gets the audience involved. He explained about how facts and figures are not interesting on TV and characters are important to help build a story. Jackson explained how important it is to be knowledgeable to make a good interview and if you don’t know what you are talking about you can fake it. If it looks like you don’t know what you are talking about than your interview subject will not take you seriously. He also talked about how beat reporting will help build contacts, reputation and research.
Jackson’s story of him in the tornado was very entertaining and I thought it was interesting that the tornado is how Global noticed him. I thought Jackson Proskow was a very informative guest. He helped in reassuring that journalism requires patience but once you build up a reputation many opportunities come forth.
Joe Hofman
Jackson Proskow was a good guest speaker; he spoke about the twists and turns of his career. He helped display the unpredictable nature of journalism and how every story must be done with 100%. He explained that it is passable to make a mistake if you are broadcasting from a small town, but if you make mistakes from reporting in Toronto you are done. I found it exciting that there is a restless mobility with journalism, he told us about how he’s had eight different addresses in four years.
Jackson is a Municipal Affairs Specialist for Global TV and how he explained his job was completely different than my initial impression of Municipal Affairs. I knew it was political but I thought he would just be reporting about politicians. He actually takes his stories out of city hall and gets the audience involved. He explained about how facts and figures are not interesting on TV and characters are important to help build a story. Jackson explained how important it is to be knowledgeable to make a good interview and if you don’t know what you are talking about you can fake it. If it looks like you don’t know what you are talking about than your interview subject will not take you seriously. He also talked about how beat reporting will help build contacts, reputation and research.
Jackson’s story of him in the tornado was very entertaining and I thought it was interesting that the tornado is how Global noticed him. I thought Jackson Proskow was a very informative guest. He helped in reassuring that journalism requires patience but once you build up a reputation many opportunities come forth.
Megan Dunn’s Blog
Jackson Proskow
I thought that Jackson Proskow was a very good guest speaker. He is currently Global News’s Municipal affairs specialist. Jackson started out in this business when he was just sixteen years old. When I was sixteen I worked the drive thru at Wendy’s. He is that lucky kind of person who knows what they want to do with their life at a young age. This helped him gain experience and helped him land a job in a smaller market straight out of school.
Jackson stressed the importance of starting out in a small market. He said through experience you gain confidence. Working in a smaller market will let you learn all sorts of jobs. And learning about these jobs and mastering them can make you very versatile in this business, and an asset to any team.
Jackson brought in some of his work. In showing us his news pieces, he helped demonstrate how to show something in a stand-up. This is something that Francis has been telling us for a while now, however when Jackson told us, it became cemented in our heads, or at least everyone I have shot with this week.
I like the way that Jackson takes his job to the streets. He gave us the vision that his eyes are usually glazed over when he thinks of Municipal affairs. However he covers the important issues that affect the citizens of the city, and tries to show it through their eyes, instead of a bunch of city counsel members talking. He felt pride in showing us his work, and the fact that something good came out of his news story, which is what reporters strive for in this business.
I look forward to more guest speakers. I have been finding that each of them have different views on their jobs and this business. However what they say to us is very helpful, and sometimes even inspiring.
I probably started my last blog the exact same way, but once again I found another guest speaker to be very interesting and helpful. Jackson Proskow explained a number of reasons as to how he became a reporter with Global TV. One of the biggest obstacles he encountered early on in his career was working his way up the ladder. After graduating from the University of Calgary he worked for CBC radio. Shortly after that he found his way to the small community of Lethbridge, Alberta. It was in Lethbridge where he gained a great deal of experience working every job imaginable in the same day such as camera, reporter, editor and even host. The experiences he gained in that small town of around 70,000 exceeded anything he might have learned at a big station in a large community.
Jackson’s current job is covering politics. His position is often difficult because most of what he covers makes for a good newspaper story, not a television story. The reason for that is because of a lack of quality footage and sound bites. Jackson has found that there are three categories he must follow in order to make a good story:
1. Issue based – Something that will get people talking.
2. Accountability stories – He talks with decision makers and tries to fix a problem.
3. Personality stories – He often covers the most interesting, well-spoken people at city hall.
I found it interesting that with his job, people often come to him with story ideas, mostly because he has created a positive reputation for himself. He has also found that throughout his career he forces himself to ‘dig deeper’ and to make the story more involving for the viewer. Those are probably two of the more important qualities for a good journalist. Other important traits that he mentioned that I would like to apply to my career are to be versatile or know it all (the more I know, the better I will be at what I do). I must always have ideas to pitch everyday. One other thing I learned is that I have to find a way to tell the story through great pictures.
Jackson, without a question, was a lot younger than I expected, however some of the experiences he has had in his career is probably more than your average person. The biggest thing I learned is that if you sacrifice and work extremely hard, chances are you will get noticed and good things will happen in your career.
Conrad Dekker
Matt Barnes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9lmCrQxXvU
Valerie Laillet
Global News Municipal Affairs Specialist Jackson Proskow’s guest appearance changed my views about political reporting. He outlined there are three types: issue based, accountability, and personality. I thought that political reporting wouldn’t be very thrilling but Jackson pointed out that those issues affect everyone, which make good stories. I like that he doesn’t spend too much time at his desk, and has some flexibility with his stories. He also pointed out that not all stories are for TV, which is something I have come to realize this past semester.
Jackson, like many other reporters, started out in a small city, which I am really considering. It was a breaking story that helped him move to a bigger newsroom. Learning to multi-task, having to do everything himself I’m sure was a big advantage for him later on, even though it sounded really hectic. He outlined the difference between a small, medium and large newsroom. In a small news room, because there aren’t many resources, you would probably have to be the videographer, reporter and then be the anchor. In a medium news room, you would have access to a live truck, and therefore more flexibility but would still be relying on yourself a lot. And in a large newsroom you have more support but it is worse if you make a mistake because more people are watching. Although it may be frantic at first, I would prefer starting off in a smaller newsroom. That may be difficult, as Jackson mentioned, as we are relying more on technology and many of the smaller newsrooms will not longer be. That is frightening but it makes the competition tougher and means that only the strong will survive.
Jackson Proskow
I found him very interesting. He answered a lot of questions that I have been thinking about and I was amazed to see how successful he is at such a young age. I always thought you had to be a certain age before you could get to his position. I was surprised when he told me about the small business because I was totally unaware of that. Now thinking about what he said makes sense. He is very inspirational as most of our speakers have been so far, but I believe because he is young that I can connect with him being young myself. When he spoke about his journey to how he came to where he is now I was amazed and inspired. The thing that had me the most amazed was when he told us about how the most random situations can land you a great career. I couldn’t believe the line of danger that he put himself in to attain the position he has now. I really enjoyed listening to Jackson speak, he was a great speaker. I also liked the tips he gave us for example the stand-ups, it’s always much more interesting for the viewer when you do a stand up in front of what is happening instead of just a boring background that has nothing to do with the topic being discussed. It was interesting to hear about his reporting and his connection with city hall.
By:Bolu Adewale
Shannon Penney
Having Jackson Proskow come in to class on Tuesday was a great learning experience. Jackson had a great story to tell us about how he came into the business and the obstacles he has faced. He is someone that I can really relate to in the sense that he has always known that he wanted to get into this industry. At the age of 22 Jackson has already achieved so much and with still many years to come there is no where to go but up.
Jackson gave us a lot of helpful for people that are working to get into the industry. He gave us a little reality check that although some of us (like me), may want to start in the large markets right out of school it's best not to. The best way to really make this into a career is to start small, get the experience, make mistakes and build your confidence. Both Jackson and Francis made it very clear that if you mess up in the larger markets your done and it can be very hard to get back in. So as much as I would really love to just get in there and prove myself I may not be ready for the big times quite yet.
Since Jackson came in, I'm noticing how much you can learn from our guest speakers. The great thing is that each one offers different advice and faces different challenges. It's great to have people who are willing to take time out of their work schedules to come in and give us a heads up with experiences we may face in our future.
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