Sportcasters Nthabiseng Mamabolo, Lindiwe Nxumalo and Karabo Mokgalagadi have been making their mark in the sport media space, especially in a predominantly male-dominated area. They have risen above to succeed as they continue to shatter barriers.
Speaking to gsport, these incredible women who have ample knowledge and experience under their belts, share their top tips on becoming a sportcaster.
Mamabolo, who features on Radio2000’s weekend sport bulletins, says that one should be teachable if you are looking to enter into the sport media space.
-The first point is passion. Be passionate about what you doing because at the end of the day a lot of obstacles will throw you off and that’s where the passion and the love for what you do will come into play because you can’t be passionate about something and it doesn’t show off in the work that you do, all the work that you deliver. At the end of the day, it all comes down to passion, we will be able to see, we’ll be able to hear, we will be able to read if this person is really invested in what it is that they are doing.
-Have a teachable spirit because it’s an ever evolving and ever-growing industry. You don’t want to be stagnant, you want to continuously learn and be open to constructive criticism but criticism from people who have been in the game for longer than you have and people who come from a point of wanting to help you and wanting to see you grow. So, having a teachable spirit will allow you to also learn other things that you didn’t know of because a lot of time to interact with different people on a daily basis in the industry and you are able to see that, this I can do better, instead of doing this, let me try that so having a teachable spirit really helps.
-Another point, and a very important one is that you need to be kind and you need to make connections right, and the only way you will get connections, is if you are kind and you are friendly to people in the industry. That’s where you’ll get sources from different stories, that’s where you’ll be able to pick up the phone and say, “Hey can you help with this or that, are you able to assist if I can’t, I can refer you to someone else…” and that’s something a lot of people don’t get, that you need to understand that in this industry, you need to be kind, it’s not a competition. We are all here to deliver one thing, which is sport content.
“You need to be knowledgeable, passionate, be willing to learn and stay hungry.” – SuperSport Presenter, Lindiwe Nxumalo
Nxumalo, who started her career at YFM and worked her way to SuperSport studios, is a great example of a woman who strives to make her dreams a reality.
Her tips on how to become a sportscaster starts with “why” you want to be in broadcasting.
– It’s Important to establish the “Why” you want to be in broadcasting, people want to get into the industry for various reasons. But it’s not as easy as it looks, there’s a lot of work that’s required.
– Passion, nothing beats that, you have to be passionate about it, you can’t cheat sport. You need to be knowledgeable, passionate, be willing to learn and stay hungry.
– Start somewhere, whether you blog, volunteer or shadow someone on campus radio or newspaper, just start…
– Consume as much as possible, that’s how you learn and grow, from different analysts, presenters, channels, etc.
– The industry is broad, you can write, present or produce. There’s a lot to do apart from being in front of the camera.
– It’s the little things that set you apart from the rest…
2019 Momentum gsport Awards Woman in Radio winner, Karabo Mokgalagadi is a sport editor at You FM. Her tips include being passionate, being creative, researching and finding a mentor.
-You need to have passion for sport, because if you’re passionate for sport then you don’t mind going the extra mile, you don’t mind putting in the extra work and the hard work, so passion is number one.
-Research is very important so that you know what you are talking about. You need to read a lot, you need to do a lot of research so that you can understand where certain issues come from.
-Confidence is very important to understand, so it then goes back to number two and number one regarding passion. So, if you’re confident with the content that you going to bring in this after your research and your passion then confidence just takes over once you are behind that mic, because that mic is intimidating for the fact you know that there’s so many people listening to you, you definitely need the confidence.
-Creativity, because a lot of people may run with the same story, but if you’re creative you can look outside the box or the conversation that everyone else is having, then you can have a different angle to the topic and you know you can still also just make it fresh so that your content doesn’t sound stale so creativity is also very important.
-Have a mentor as well, because in the media space there usually isn’t feedback on how you are performing, and also when you have a mentor, you can always rely on them when it comes to giving constructive criticism because we are always hard on ourselves but if you’ve got a mentor then you can talk to them.
(0 rating, 0 votes, rated)
Loading...
