How to overcome your fear to became a successful media professional after B.Sc. in media science course
Not all are born or groomed being a confident individual. The media industry, however, seeks smart, proficient and confident professionals who can take the industry forward and to the next level. To overcome your fear of becoming a successful media professional you first have to identify things like causes of fear, your purpose in the chosen industry and strategies to become successful.
From body language to passion, from convincing power to listening skill, everything matters in the media industry. so without much delay, start preparing yourself.
Causes of fear: what are your causes of fear? Is it stage fright? Is it performance anxiety ? or is it lack of knowledge?
The stage fright can be overcome by memorizing your lines, by meditating and believe it or not, by relaxing your body. Talking to a pro and taking cues always help. Imagining your favorite person in the audience can boost your morale.
Lack of knowledge can always be ratified by reading books on related subjects.(iLEAD has a huge library with over 20,000 books)
Then there are factors like research. Once you are in a particular field, like let’s say journalism, and you have been given a particular theme to cover, for example, a city, it is always better if you do your home-work first and know about the person whom you are about to interview, or the incident which you are about to cover. So, being prepared is one of the ways to become confident and not have fear.
On the other hand, you have things like self- grooming which includes your dressing style, how you present yourself to others, keeping a business card ready so that you can network well, focusing on things like networking rather than just socializing.
The initial fear often comes from being a freshman and when you have lots of experienced and seasoned people around you. But always take their criticism and compliments in a positive way and learn from them instead of taking them personally. Most graduates of media science start at the level of internship and they move on to the job sphere. Both are good training grounds and there will be lot of pressure, competition, the fear of meeting deadlines, but the first thing you have to understand is that this is a very natural thing for anyone. So, do not be nervous when you are actually stepping onto something new, and when you are covering a report, or recording and editing an audio or a film, mistakes are bound to happen but these mistakes should not be so big that they destroy your career. Learn from your mistakes and keep reinventing. You may like to keep a notepad handy and also keep a report of what you are learning on a day to day basis. Try to apply that on everyday life. So these are strategies of overcoming fear in a nut shell . There are many books available on soft skills, there are books by Mr. Pradip Chopra, there are short term courses on personality development at iLEAD too.
Also, public speaking is a huge part of mass media , because be it in the radio or television industry, you have to interact on a daily basis, over the phone, face to face, via email, so you have to know many codes of conduct on how to speak but there is nothing to be afraid of. You can always start off with the basics of communication like introducing yourself over the phone or mail , how to be polite, what time to call a person, and so on.
Fear will never help you become successful in the media industry, because in the media industry, interaction, research via interaction, stepping out into the world, speaking to people from stage, these things are very basic so fear is obviously not helpful there . You have to first learn , you have to research, you have to overcome and you have to strategize. Once you get these things in your grip, the rest is a cakewalk.