The branded journalist: how journalists pursuing hosting are gambling on a brand to get a piece of the media landscape

2012-12-11The television hosts of today face a challenging media landscape. Many people label a host as the “face” of a certain show, unaware of how the world of hosting has changed drastically. There are two types of hosts. The first type is host-journalists who have experience in journalism and are transitioning into hosting. The other type is celebrity-journalists whose strong level of fame has allowed them to pursue hosting. When hosting originated, television personalities were limited from pursuing other jobs due to the contractual limitations. Now unbound by a contract, today’s host must be able to transcend multiple platforms and garner exposure across multiple demographics from stay-at-home moms to media savvy teenagers. The top hosts wish to build media empires, which consist of multiple projects including endorsements, shows, books, appearances, and production companies. As a result, most host-journalists must brand themselves. Through branding, hosts-journalists desire to maintain their journalistic side; however, it becomes difficult to do so when protecting a business takes precedence to protecting the human interest. ❧ This thesis wishes to shed light on the business side involved with developing the brand of a host and the complications of journalists desiring to pursue hosting. Hosts must be strong businessmen who not only know how to use their brand in the most lucrative way but protect themselves from losing everything from one single business slip. That just happens to come at the cost of their journalistic integrity