School of Communication
Face to Face with...
Jim Hickey
National Correspondent
ABC News Radio
B.A., Western Michigan University , 1969
At the time, the School Communication was known as the Speech Department. But what I found among faculty was an enthusiasm, a love for this business that was catching. Jules Rossman and R. Franklin Smith in particular got me interested in broadcasting as a career. It was really the way the professors taught the subject matter. One course back then sounded really dry - "FCC and the Law," it was called. But Jules made it exciting. He broke the class up into two teams that were competing for the license to launch a fictional television channel. We had to study Federal Communication Commission rules, come up with programming, and for our final exam, pitch the station proposal to him as if he were the FCC. Those were real life exercises for me. And, by the way, our team won. We came up with a station that featured all-sports programming - something that didn't exist in 1960s.
I think my experiences in the department allowed me to go ahead and be inquisitive, search for answers to contemporary problems, and travel the world. The search for knowledge that was instilled in me at WMU made me able to cover the end of apartheid in South Africa, the fall of the Soviet Union, the civil war in Lebanon. The inquisitiveness I learned in my studies helped me ask the right questions, or enough questions, to help me build a journalism career that's been a satisfying one.
I'd advise them to make sure their education has a broad range. Not just journalism or broadcast production or media studies, but political science, English, history. Much of what a successful journalist needs to know is how to put current events within a context. Ethics in communication is also very important right now. Competition in the 21 st Century is so intense. When I started, there were three networks; now there are many more and the competition is fierce. Sometimes that tempts reporters. Understanding ethics is good preparation for handling pressures driven by competition.
In addition to education, experience is crucial. People may have intelligence and creativity, but they need the experience. It's better to spend a few years learning the craft in a local television or radio station before heading for the networks. Because the network level is no longer a training experience; you are expected to know your craft when you get here.