Military Media: How to Become a Broadcast Journalist for the Armed Forces

It doesn't matter if you're 18 or 28. If you've ever dreamed of being a broadcast journalist, traveling to distant lands and reporting on world events, you may want to consider the Armed Forces. Be it the Air Force, Army, Navy or Marine Corp, all these branches of the military over challenging job opportunities in the field of broadcast and print journalism as members of the Armed Forces radio & Television Service. Is this the right choice for you? Why not take a look at what a military career as a broadcast journalist has to offer and more important, see if you have what it takes to enter the field.

That's right. I thought I'd start off by asking if you have it takes. Because being a military journalist is not just a matter of signing on the dotted line and pledging allegiance to your country. It's a little more complicated than that, but in the long run it may be worth it.

The most important thing is to visit a recruiter. It's not for me to say which branch of the service you'll want to consider. They each have their pluses and minuses, and anyone of tells you any different is not being honest. The important issue here is that you need to tell the recruiter you want to submit a voice audition tape to the Defense Information School (DINFOS) in Ft. Meade, Maryland. This will entail some leg work on the part of the recruiter. DINFOS will send the recruiter a script which needs to be read in a controlled environment like a local radio station. The script - usually a couple of 30 second spot announcements or something similar, needs to recorded on tape and sent to the school for evaluation. If they think you have the "right stuff" you'll be assured a spot in an upcoming class. At that point you need to enlist for 6 years of military service.

I can't stress this voice audition tape enough. It won't be the first time that a recruiter has told a potential recruit to sign up first and then worry about the job second. There are plenty of would-be journalists out there who are now jet mechanics for that very reason. Take the test and pass and then you're on your way.

Assuming you have got that far, you will - in short order - go through basic training and then move on to Technical School, which in this case is the Defense Information School. DINFOS instruction lasts about 8 weeks and during that time you'll learn the basics of radio and television production, command information, and basic announcing skills. Will you learn everything there is to know? In 8 weeks? Of course not. I always considered the curriculum of the Defense Information School to be a condensed version of what most students learn in their junior and senior years of college. Some of the DINFOS course work will touch upon videography and video editing, voice skills for anchoring television news and performing as a disc jockey, writing news, feature and sports copy for radio and television, radio and television programming and production and public speaking. Not bad. And it's all courtesy of the United States Government.

In 8 weeks at DINFOS you'll get your feet wet and you'll learn everything else via on-the-job training. And that's the important thing - you'll have a job! A job in Radio and Television! A job working with state of art digital equipment, editing television news, being the disk jockey of your own radio show, the list goes on and on! I was a broadcast journalist in the Air Force for nearly 23 years and I tell you it went by much to fast!

There are few ways as enjoyable as this in which to earn a buck! Every day you'll be able to pick up a camera, shoot and edit a story and get it on the news. That's pretty damn gratifying. Sure, you'll have about 20 other things to do as well, not always enjoyable, but the JOB is what you always dreamed of doing! Was it CNN? Not quite. Was it FOX sports? Nope. What it was, was reporting local and regional military news, travel pieces, spot announcements and more on a military base overseas for a predominantly military audience.

Your day to day job will include the following: preparing scripts and news copy for live and taped news and entertainment programs, researching, preparing, and disseminating news releases, radio and television products and Web-based products, performing as a radio DJ or television anchor, developing ideas for stories, conducting interviews and shooting video and working with the civilian media as an escort, liaison or spokesperson. Like I said, there are worse ways to earn a living.

As a military broadcast journalist you will live and work in locations most people can only dream about. And whether you decide to stay in or get out after one enlistment you will have amassed skills that will serve you well in the civilian sector.

I'm not going to sell you a bill of goods. This is a challenging and demanding job. The military services attract more quality recruits than ever before. In fact ,nearly 75% of recruits already have a college degree or at least some college under their belts, regardless of their career field. But remember, despite your career as a military journalist, you are first and foremost a service member in the Armed Forces. And as such you will have lots of responsibilities parallel to your job.

I would say the important thing is to way your options. Sure you can go to college for 4 years or some specialty school for Broadcasting. But after 4 years or more will you have a job? It's not secret that Universities exist to make money in exchange for education. That's a good thing but generally you won't do a lot of hands on broadcasting until your third or fourth year. In the meantime, you could zip through DINFOS in 8 weeks or so and ** BOOM ** you're in the field doing the job - a job that counts, while your classmates are still shooting Super 8 movies.

Oh, and the money isn't bad either. I spent time in Korea and Turkey, Italy and Greenland and most points in between and I managed to make a decent wage.

More information I would do a few things - visit a recruiter from every branch of the service. And tell every one you want to be a broadcast journalist. They might tell you to take a Military Aptitude Test first but that's o-k. That's a requirement and it's only a couple of hours. I would also recommend logging on to the Defense Information School site. Or check out this link: http://www.tecom.usmc.mil/ccm/ccm/pages/schools.htm, it gives clear and concise information on the course offered and who to contact for more information. In fact, if you do a check on Google you'll find some great sites that talk about DINFOS. The Army has a great one for example. There are a few sites posted by former DINFOS students also. In short lots of information.

The choice is yours. A career as a military broadcast journalist certainly isn't the only path into Radio and Television, but it certainly might get you where you want to go a lot quicker!