TV/Media College help!!!

BoyceLeaving15

I'm looking for some advice.

I love the whole TV/Media scene but I'm unsure of what course to do. What I'm aiming for ultimately is a job similar to Laura Whitmore (of presenting MTV & ITV 2 Fame). I know you don't get a job like that straight out of college so I don't need a lecture on that. I don't mind working my way to the top, starting off even as a floor runner, unpaid internships etc..

I know Laura studied journalism at DCU (she told me) and then got her place on MTV through a competition they were running. Do you think that a journalism course would be the right route to go down to get into that industry or would I be better off going into the Media side of things?

I'm quite creative and my best subject in school is English. In general I wouldn't be a person to be deemed good with cameras and the sort. Basically I'm better at the theory side of things.

I have to admit I prefer TV but I also read around that a great way of getting into TV is through radio. Nick Grimshaw from BBC Radio 1 has a great slot with the breakfast show weekday mornings and I'd even like to be involved in something similar to that too. I'd like to be the person coming up with the ideas for the slots in the show or briefing the guests on what was happening. That would be interesting. (Sorry, I don't actually know the correct names for these jobs!)

I'm wondering which course I'd benefit from in the long run? I was thinking of Maynooth: Media Studies or DCU: Journalism because they seem to have the most positive outcomes and most recognised degrees or Tralee IT: TV, Radio and New Media because it basically has everything I mentioned above but I don’t want to end up dropping out and having zilch money to do another course for the next 5 years.

Any advice or information I can get would be much appreciated.

iiHyPeRize

The journalism course in DCU is kind of a cover all basis course - at the end of it you're pretty much prepared to go off in whatever direction you want, let it be TV, radio or print, the course covers most things in good detail. And there's plenty of ways around the campus to get involved in radio, TV, and print. There's DCUFM for radio, there's the College View newspaper for print, and I believe there's DCUTV, and the Media Production Society (MPS) do things like 24 hours broadcasts, so you'd be able to do something there.

The one negative I would say about journalism in DCU: For someone aspiring to be someone like Laura Whitmore, well they don't like that very much in the journalism course :P They tend to prefer who want to be the next Brian Dobson, or a hard-news print journalist. Practically none of the modules deal with specialist areas such as sport, fashion, celebrity related things etc.. There's a huge bias towards current affairs. So be prepared if you want to tackle the course. It's not a particularly difficult course; you've only obout 9-12 hours off class a week, so it's pretty relaxed.

BoyceLeaving15

This was great information thanks a million! Yeah I was thinking of possibly moving to the UK after getting my BA to do an MA in a specialist topic such as fashion or pop culture, and mainly because there is better opportunities in this sort of work over there. Thanks!