Week 4 at CBS

When I began working at CBS Channel 8 I had a very skewed view of media, news, and everyone that works in this industry. I, like many views, believed that having a job in media, like being a news anchor, was all fun, cool experiences, and glamour. Within my first week here at CBS I learned that that belief was far from true. The news anchors work long and hard hours as they arrive on set between 3 am and 4 am before they are on air from 5:30-7 am, 8 am, and again at 11 am and this is only the morning “talent”.

Having a job in this industry is indeed fun, consists of unique experiences, and there is definitely glamour but there is much more to the job than that.. Because the entire county or sometimes the entire country is watching you as a news anchor, there is also a constant pressure to upkeep your appearance. I have sat in on Live News at 11 multiple times and one day Nichelle Medina, CBS Channel 8 anchor, told me “This job is not glamorous.”. A few minutes later she got an email from an executive telling her to change her hairstyle and there was an attached image. The image was almost identical to her hairstyle now but she was forced to change it.

Along with the pressure to upkeep your appearance there are little to no sick days. The viewers are depending on you to be there every morning, to wake them up with morning news. These anchors start off thousands of people’s days and if they aren’t consistently there as part of their daily routine the channel is likely to lose viewers. People love to be comfortable and have a routine and it is the channels job to make that possible for their viewers.

Before I started working at CBS I never thought about the personal life of every news anchor. I did not think about whether or not they were married, if they had children, what their hobbies were, etc. because I was so used to seeing them on TV at the exact same time every day. The anchors and everyone who works in media are people too, people who have friends and families. This is just their job and it is hard to remember that they have a life outside of television.