Studying Television as my major is far more than just watching it

I study TV. Yep, that’s right, TV. Television. Get your jokes out now. No, a Netflix subscription isn’t my version of books, and no, I don’t just watch TV.

One of the most popular schools at Ithaca is the School of Communications and within that, one of the most popular majors: Television-Radio.

While you’re on your couch watching the news, we’re in a newsroom gathering all the information you need to know. You can choose to laugh at your favorite sitcom one night rather than hearing the tragedy around the world, but we’ll be there reading it to you regardless of whether you tune in or not.

As you straighten your hair for Thirsty Thursday, we’re spraying down our wispies so the HD cameras don’t catch them on that night’s show. Most college students reach into their closet to grab a crop top and high waisted shorts, but we pull out a blazer and pencil skirt.

You’re tailgating before the big game as we’re preparing questions to ask the coach and frantically trying to catch b-roll of the player to watch. Then when you hit the after party, we hit the editing bay. And chances are, we’re up later than you.

If you make a typo in an essay, you might lose a point. If we make a mistake, it’s broadcast live.

When we do get to go to a party, we’re lugging along a camera to film for our documentary.

Telling students that walking into the party is their consent to let us film them, possibly underage drinking, isn’t the quickest way to make friends, but it’s part of the job.

Summer concerts are fun for you outside, but we’re inside enjoying them from the control room so you see the act on the screen from your $80 nosebleed seats.

Getting up for your 8 a.m. might seem like a struggle, but we’ve been up since 3 a.m. on a field trip to New York City in order to get there before Good Morning America wraps for the day. But we’re not there to watch. We’re there to learn and network.

You might have to stow six biology books in your tiny dorm room, but we’re storing cameras, tripods, lights and microphones. And no, they don’t fit in our backpack.

We don’t have to pay $300 dollars for books, but if something happens to the equipment we’re borrowing, our tuition for the semester just doubled.

Studying TV is so much more than watching TV, but that’s exactly why we love our major.

We study it because it’s our passion, not our past time.