Radio and TV Presenter
Today, our featured career is ‘Radio & TV Presenter’. We’ve all watched TV and listened to the radio, but have you ever thought about a career working in one of these jobs? The media are very varied professions with a range of work including news and factual, lifestyle, sports, comedy and children’s programmes. To be a successful TV Presenter you need to be good at managing your time, prioritising information to focus on what most enhances your story, and be a strong public speaker confident in portraying a clear and balanced message to your audience.
Evan Davis
Current Role: Radio & TV Presenter
Undergraduate Degree: PPE (Politics, Philosophy, Economics) BA, University of Oxford
Brief Biography: Having studied PPE at St John’s College, Evan Davis has forged a hugely successful media career. Driven to become an economics journalist, Evan Davis sought to further his knowledge, building experience at an independent economics think tank. Subsequently, he became BBC Economics Editor, utilising his economics expertise when reporting on the 10 o’clock news.
Alongside BBC 2 business show Dragon’s Den, Evan Davis now hosts The PM Programme, a BBC Radio 4 news show. Advocating the health of a pluralistic media ecosystem, he encourages audiences to consider differing perspectives, not just those which reinforce one’s own beliefs. Therefore, he does not feel driven to cast his own opinion. Instead, Evan Davis aims to give listeners as much information as possible, allowing them to reach their own informed conclusions.
Katie Ross
Current Role: Founder of Jumping Yak
Undergraduate Degree: Human Sciences (MA), University of Oxford
Brief Biography: After studying Human Sciences at St John’s College, Katie Ross (nee Knapman) completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Documentary Filmmaking at Cardiff University. This passion for reporting, harnessed through extracurricular engagement, allowed Katie Ross to explore the breadth of Human Sciences. As part of a 16-year media career, Katie Ross presented much-loved shows such as Countryfile, Tomorrow’s World and Holiday. During this time, Katie Ross tackled a variety of subject matter, from science & technology to tourism and current affairs.
Katie Ross has since founded Jumping Yak, a company which produces puzzle books for children aged 8-12. Driven by her passion for ‘constructive downtime’, Katie Ross aims to make learning fun and enjoyable, whilst also enriching young minds at this key stage of their development.
Fake News!
As a TV Presenter, you have to deal with large amounts of information, whether you’re working as a journalist or on another genre of programme. In today’s activities we’re going to learn about “fake news”, and practise some strategies you can use to help sort reliable factual information from misleading fiction. This is more important than ever in an age when we all have so much access to digital information at our fingertips.
Want to know more?
To find out more about working in Radio and TV, either as a presenter or in production, take a look at the following explore-a-career pages:
To explore other career options that might interest you, there are lots of tool available! We recommend starting by exploring job sectors and occupations on the following websites:
Talking to people who are currently doing a role you are interested in, organising some work experience where you can shadow someone doing this role, or reading first-hand accounts from people working in the area you are interested in can all help you find out more about a particular job!
To find out more about studying a subject at University, you can also talk to current St John’s students using Inspire Chat by clicking here!