Students hear from entertainment industry insiders
Panelists spoke to journalism students about the overlap of entertainment and journalism when covering Hollywood and television at Wallis Annenberg Hall on Monday evening.
The event was hosted by the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
The panel featured Danielle Robay, an entertainment journalist, TV host and Pop Politics blogger; Heidi Clements, the executive producer and writer of the ABC Family show Baby Daddy; and Ken Baker, a senior news correspondent for E! News.
Mary Murphy, a senior lecturer at Annenberg, moderated the event. The panel discussion took place as part of Murphy’s class, “JOUR 381: Entertainment, Business and Media in Today’s Society.”
“When I became a journalist, no one ever said you had to be entertaining. They said you have to be accurate, honest, tell both sides of the story,” Murphy said.
With the development of apps like Instagram and Twitter and outlets like YouTube, being entertaining and creating a brand has become important to a successful career.
The number of followers a person has elevates their value as an entertainer who need to gather support from fans in order to make a living.
“When I got into entertainment news, everyone told me you had to find your niche,” Robay, who is currently a host and producer of CBS’s Entertainment Tonight/Entertainment Tonight Online, said.
Robay defined niche as her “why,” the “why” being the reason why she is in entertainment news.
For Robay, a person needs a reason to work besides money, such as passion for their careers.
Clements encouraged the event attendees to follow their passions and choose what makes them happy over what might make them wealthy.
“A lot of times you can end up following a certain path because the money is so good and you get stuck in it even if it’s not your passion,” Clements said. “Go be broke.”
The best time for a person to re-evaluate and find what their true career path is, is when they are “stuck” in a job that they are not passionate about, according to Baker.
Baker previously worked at People Magazine and US Weekly.
“That’s when you define your career, when you’re stuck. What’s going to propel you is your passion,” Baker said.
Baker encouraged the audience to keep trying to break into the entertainment industry and realize that more people in the world are going to say no than yes, which does not signify defeat.
“What are you meant to do in service to the world? Find your dharma,” Baker said.