To become a journalist...
The Publisher writes...
It's that time of year when another generation of aspiring journalists - media or English or history degree in hand (or any degree really) - get in touch to ask just how they go about getting that first job in journalism. Our advice is that if you want to become a journalist then you should, well, become a journalist.
So, what do I say to those people? Well, keep an eye on the jobs section of the Media Guardian every Monday, obviously, and try to apply for at least one job a week. Write on spec to any newspaper or magazine you love to read (if only to ask for work experience). Take any journalistic opportunity that may come your way – jobs like ‘editorial assistant’ are great first jobs, even if the pay isn’t. Get lots of work experience. And keep an eye on Unicorn Jobs and our sister publications CMU and ThreeWeeks for all the brilliant practical work experience programmes we offer.
But what else? Well, the Unicorn Jobs Editor pointed out the other day that I’ve developed something of a catchphrase in this domain – “to become a journalist, become a journalist”. It’s a catchphrase I should probably explain, it’s not as useless as it might initially sound.
If you want to write for a living, you should write for fun too. All the time. And when you do write, publish it yourself. This is incredibly easy to do these days, you just need to set up a blog or a Facebook Group or something similar. Once it’s set up, write about anything and everything.
Someone to whom I had just delivered my “to become a journalist, become a journalist” mantra the other day replied thus: “but why should anyone care about what I think about a film or whatever?” And yes, why should anyone? Truth is, few people probably do care what you think about that film, or whatever.
But that’s not the point. You’re not really writing and publishing your work so that people will read it. You’re doing it firstly because the best way to get better at writing is to write a lot (and believe me, however good you think you are at writing, everyone can always get better). And secondly you’re doing it so that when an editor finally looks at your CV and thinks “well, they look good on paper, but can they write?” they will have somewhere to go and see your work.
That said, it’s not to say no one will want to read your blog. Especially if you can make it a bit different. People might not care about your opinions about the big blockbuster film release of the moment – but are you a fanatic of French cinema? Or do you know lots about your local town? Or are you an avid collector of something? If you have a wide knowledge about anything, write about that. There will be people out there who will appreciate being able to share in that knowledge.
And don’t forget, as soon as your blog or website is live you are officially a ‘freelance journalist’. It means that if you write a story (and perhaps interview people for it) to pitch to magazines and no one takes it, well at least you can publish it yourself. This makes the freelance option – an increasingly important ‘way in’ for young journalists – much easier to do, and much less soul destroying.
“But I don’t know how to set up a website”, you may say. Well, to be honest, anyone can set up a blog these days. Really, it’s dead easy and takes minutes. Or if you want something a bit more advanced but don’t know your HTML from your CSS or your FTP, well, if you’ve just graduated have a think if there are any techy types in the same position as you. At any college there is probably at least one graduate hoping to persue a career in web development with all the web savvy but no content to put on their website. That is potentially a marriage made in heaven.
So, see, “to become a journalist, become a journalist” isn’t as stupid a suggestion as it might first sound. But feel free to disagree by sending me an email – because that means you’ll be writing, and being a journalist!
Posted Thursday July 17 2008
