Thoughts, opinions, a day in the life of Emily Deem

I conducted an interview with a colleague of mine, Emily Deem. First, I want to give a little background on Emily before jumping into the Q&A. Emily is a weekend anchor and co-anchor during the week at Fox 11 in Green Bay. Emily attended St. Cloud State University and was a student in their excellent mass communication program. At SCSU she participated in a live news cast the school would put on five days a week for 30 minutes. This activity was called UTVS. Emily tried out every available position both on and off air during her time at UTVS. That is what really sparked her passion for mass media communication.

I chose Emily because she majored in mass communication like I am. I asked basic interview questions pertaining to journalism. Her responses appeal to the broadcast journalism field. I chose to format my interview story in Q&A form for a few reasons. One of them being Emily suggested it. Also, because it is very simple for the reader to graze through and read.

Interview

How long have you been involved in journalism?

Ever since my freshman year of college. So 11 years. From my college news show, to my first job that literally aired for five minutes a day, and now Fox 11. I've been here for 6 years now. Journalism has been with me for such a large majority of my life.

What is journalism today?                                                                 

I feel like this is a question I got asked on my first day of college…Journalism today is always changing. It’s everything. Politics, entertainment, sports, all the basics wrapped up into one big thing to keep people interested.

What are some opportunities and challenges people face in this field?

There are lots of opportunities for both on and off air positions. You just have to look around and find what works best for you. If you give it a chance, there are always opportunities around the corner. It depends on you and who you want to work for. Some challenges would be everything. No I’m kidding. It is a difficult field. You really have to love it. I mean getting up at 2 am and looking professional isn’t the greatest, but if you love it it’s just something you’ve got to do. This field is also so unpredictable. It’s news. You are always going into the work day blind as to what might happen. The biggest issue I think our station has personally though are communication issues. Right, it’s a bunch of communication majors with problems communicating. Ironic.

Is this an easy field to get into?

It’s like any job if you work hard and always have an eye out for new openings you’ll make your way in. It all depends on what position you want. Off air positions are definitely easier to get into than on air. It’s not what you know, but who you know that really helps in this field.

What is a day in the life of Emily Deem?

Jenny you know. It’s not pretty. I wake up early, come to work, read through the scripts for the day. Write a few web shells for on the web if we have any guests. Then comes time do the show for 3-4.5 hours depending on what day. After, we talk about problems, how we can fix them, things to add for next time, all that. Then I make a lot of calls whether it’s setting up interviews or finding out more about breaking news we caught wind of. It’s just A LOT of work.

We use a lot of social media on the show. How do you think that affects our reporting and journalism as a whole?

We get a lot of information from social media which can be good and bad. Like this morning we got a tip on Facebook about a car accident so we called Brown County and sure enough. So that was a plus because we got a foot ahead on the competitors. Social media is more of a resource and tool to journalists today. The negative side however is that people think they have a voice and are being “journalists” by posting about certain topics on social media. That is not journalism, but yet people are shaping it into that. Also, it has misleading information 80% of the time.

What does the future of journalism hold?

Oh boy. I’d say journalism is turning into content creation (courtesy of Phil DeCastro who chimed in across the studio.) I would have to agree with Phil. Journalism isn’t just about writing, it’s about getting a lot of clicks and viewers and especially the money. Always the money. Right now we have a sort of millennial divide going on. Not many people are watching the news or reading it. They only do when they seek out the content they are looking for and if they don’t find it they move on to the next resource. Journalism is becoming more about giving people what they want instead of focusing on the stories that really matter. So the future is always changing, but in my opinion things will start centralizing more and more.