Tom Fair: “I was really bored at work one day, and I was like, I fancy working in a TV studio or something like that.”
Getting into the journalism industry is extremely competitive. You could be rejected for so many job applications before you can work in a full-time or freelance position in broadcast or digital journalism.
Whether that is being a presenter on the BBC’s News at Six news bulletin or working for a radio station (LBC, and Times Radio), there is no one size fits all route to working in this profession.
The journey Tom Fair has taken towards pursuing a career in journalism been anything but unconventional.
After completing his A-Levels in 2012 at Cadbury Sixth Form College, the future MA Multiplatform and Mobile Journalist student held a string of jobs. It included being a door-to-door salesman, selling insulation to working as an office administrator, and online marketer over a five-year window.
In September 2017, he studied an undergraduate degree in Media Production at De Montfort University, where he achieved a first class honours degree in July 2020. Tom is starting a Masters in Multiplatform and Mobile Journalism at Birmingham City University from September 2020.
16 months on from first meeting him at a Young Journalists Network event in Birmingham, Tom spoke with me remotely on Zoom where he discussed about working in student radio, his time on work experience at Birmingham TV, and where he sees himself in the next few years post-MMJ.
“I first came upon the idea of university because quite simply, I was really bored at work one day, and I was like, I fancy working in a TV studio or something like that,” Tom explained about how he was first drawn into a career in the media.
“Something with cameras, maybe doing wildlife documentary films or something like that. That’s kind of the aim I went into media production with at DMU and I got involved with the student radio station there, Demon FM.”
While studying a Media Production undergraduate degree at De Montfort University, Tom was part of the team at De Montfort University’s award-winning student radio station, Demon FM.
His three-year tenure at Demon FM started as a producer, before progressing on to become the Head of News, and Deputy Station Manager for Demon FM. Tom was also part of the Demon FM team who won the Best Training Initiative at the 2020 I Love Student Radio Awards.
The three years Tom spent at Demon FM sparked the light bulb moment in which he wanted to pursue a career in journalism. He said: “There were opportunities for news and things like election coverage. So I was sort of sucked into the world of it,
“Along the way, I found out that I really liked talking to people, finding out weird stories and things like that. I was like, hang on, maybe I’ll make that into a job.”
While working at Demon FM for the entirety of his undergraduate degree, Tom has completed work experience with Bauer Media, BBC Radio 5 live, as well as working with local TV station Birmingham TV back in 2018.
He highlighted how his experience at Birmingham TV helped him to understand how a newsroom works, as well as learning about the fast-paced and chaotic world of broadcast journalism.
“They’re really good at throwing me into it. In my first day, they were like, alright, come with us. We’re going to do a story, you’re holding the camera, you’re doing sound or whatever, let’s go. I think that sort of approach to work experience is probably the best one for me for sure.
“I got to shoot and edit loads of stuff. It was quite cool learning about how they edited stuff as it was down to the exact frame.
“If you didn’t get the exact frame, someone would call up and go right, you’ve got to shave off three frames off this file or it’s not going in. You’ve got to do it by five in five minutes. It’s a really cool way to understand how that particular place worked, because you were thrown into it.”
Tom mentioned that while the Media Production degree at De Montfort University taught him lots of technical skills, the reason behind him wanting to do the MMJ course came down to wanting to develop his storytelling skills.
“The course taught me a lot of technical skills, but it didn’t teach me a hell of a lot about storytelling, I suppose. I’ve done loads of projects in big TV studios or going out and making my own five minute documentaries or for my tech projects, I made an audiobook of almost entirely third-party sounds.
“What I want to get out of the MMJ is storytelling skills. I love tech, but I’d love to be able to communicate to people in that same kind of way that they would talk to me I suppose.”
In his spare time, Tom supports Wolverhampton Wanderers, as well as being an avid gamer and someone who idolises Sir David Attenborough. “I have been playing a bit of Football Manager recently. That’s been going rather well,
“It’s at the same time that I started getting interested in football and with Wolves. I was like, oh, this Football Manager 18 is on sale. Maybe I’ll buy that and give it a go. I sort of fell into it. It’s really fascinating.”
When mentioned about his future career plans post-Multiplatform and Mobile Journalism, Tom added:
“I don’t really have a fully-formed picture in my mind, but to go to LBC and, be part of that online revolution of turning radio into something completely different and measuring it in completely new ways. I think that would be really cool being a producer for them.”
