23 May 2017, Belgrade
First-year journalism students of the Faculty of Sport, within the course Basics of Journalism held by Prof. Dr Tatjana Ćitić, had an opportunity to visit the newsrooms of Sports Journal and Sports Club. The goal of the visit was to provide students the opportunity to become acquainted with the manner of functioning of one printed and one electronic media as well as to comprehend similarities and differences in the work of these institutions.
In the Sports Club commentator Ilija Kovačić hosted the students from whom they had the opportunity to hear interesting anecdotes concerning the job of a commentator and to get insight into the challenges in front of them if they choose this kind of a journalist job.
– When you are giving a running commentary of a match, it is necessary to be well prepared. It is not enough to prepare several hours before the match since this job requires everyday preparations and following of your sector. When I started to work in the 1990s it was very difficult to get to information. Every piece of information was precious. Nowadays, when there is much information, the main quality should be the virtue of selecting significant facts. When you decide to follow one sport, you have to be well acquainted with it, with the rules of the game, updates, to know the players… A commentator is not only describing what he sees in the field, but he has to be a sort of analyst of an event – Kovačić said.
While he was showing the studio to students, Kovačić particularly emphasised the distinction between a channel and a television.
– Sports Club has been still a channel since 95% of the broadcasted programme is not our production. Televisions make their own productions, and we mainly buy the broadcast rights. Based on our production, we make shows and daily news – Kovačić explained.
For those who are more skilled at writing, the visit to the Sports Journal, the only specialized daily paper in Serbia, was especially interesting. Predrag Sarić, the editor in chief, advised students concerning the career in journalism.
– You have chosen a great profession especially if you don’t like to get up early. This is a very dynamic job with flexible work hours. None of the editors won’t force you to come and sit in the newsroom from 9 a.m. till 5 p.m. Actually you are more useful if you are sitting in a café where are five basketball players and making contact with them. Contacts are crucial in this job and thrust with them. It is highly significant to respect your interlocutor and in the situations when the source asks you not to publish certain pieces of information to respect that. Thus, you’ll make that player, trainer or official always be of assistance in the future – Sarić said.
Development of technology has brought changes to the speed and the manner of news publishing, as well as to the scope of job that journalists should perform.
– You always have to keep up with the times and to follow all technological innovations and trends since that makes difference compared to others. Nowadays it is not enough that a journalist writes a text. He has to know to make photographs, to film, to edit. Journalist of today is a ‘one man show’ – Predrag picturesquely explained.