It is crazy to think that a music/film major whom after college worked at a vitamin shop is now one of the most brilliant business journalists in Journalism.
Ron Insana went to Loyola Marymount University to study music (which is where I went to school before SMU), and then transferred to Cal State Northridge to study film. He had taken NO business classes prior to his first job. He worked at the Financial News Network and really got his start after he covered the 1987 stock crash.
Although Insana does not anchor, his plate is still very full. He was written three books, and still appears once a month on "Squawk Box" and other NBC shows.
I, personally, was extremely happy to hear from Insana, although I pretty much know I need to work a lot harder if journalism is what I want to do. What a brilliant man. He not only reaked of intelligence, but he was very funny. Although a lot of what was said went over my head somewhat...I still learned some things that I really would never had thought of before. I learned that as a journalist, we need to know both current events and buisness oriented events...he said they effect eachother.
I never even really thought of a category in journalism called business journalism, but now, as I read the "business" part of the news, I feel pretty dumb that I have no clue about stock market type news. Its pretty good to know that business journalist find out about political news before even political journalist because money is so interconnected to everything, if that makes sense. "Markets move first, news comes second," he said. How true that is now that I think about it.
Insana pushed us to realize we need to "use the maket " instead of just watch it...which I do neither...yikes. Maybe business news is not my "thing," but regardless of that, Insana has made a little red light come on, inspiring me to become more informed. So what if I want to write for a health or travel magazine? I don't want to be the dumb blonde journalist at some cocktail party that can't discuess stocks with other journalists or associates. I want to become a more well rounded journalist that can hold my own and atleast be able to keep up with the business "jargon."
Insana says the stock changes are what we need to be paying attention to, man I wish I were taking some sort of business class so I could actually understand the stock. I am definately going to buy a book for dumbies to figure out the "jist" of the stocks...because as Insana said, the stocks effect the markets which effect major political events. That idea now, makes total sense to me.
Insana said he just "got lucky" with his first job, ya, I would say that is a little bit more than luck. From working at a vitamin shop, to tearing down sets, to producer, anchor, busines journalist...amazing. It really excited to me see that not everyone knows exactly what they are going to do in college, but somethings will just fall into place.
Also, its good to see a speaker with a sense of humor. Although I was lost with some of the concepts, he definately kept me on my toes by throwing out his bald jokes. Love this guy!
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Good post.
One of the essential point Insana made that I'm trying to reinforce in these blog assignments is that business trends affect other aspects and beats.
It's not so much that as a travel or health writers need to have intelligent conversations at business parties, but that even those writers need to understand how business trends affect their beats.
You can't write travel without understanding how currencies and financial agreement work between nations. Should travelers carry Euros? Use credit cards? Carry a bank card? Traveler's checks? It really depends on the exchange rate and the local economy.
When evaluating health products, knowing which come from larger corporations and how much money those companies invest into research and development (and to whom) should be part of the analysis.
The economy drives our way of life. We need to understand it better if we're going to understand how entertainment, fashion and politics work.
I did appreciate your personal voice. Be careful with words like "dumbies." I believe the colloquial is "dummies."
And think through where you do and don't place quotation marks.
Keep up the good work.
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