Oh my gosh I'm so glad that I discovered your account HAHA I'm planning on taking journalism/broadcasting too in the future, do you have posts/videos with maybe some tips that we can follow?
Thank you so much in advanced!! ❤😭
Hi there! Thank you for reaching out and asking!
I haven't made any posts/videos specific to journalism, but I can definitely give some pointers. Obviously this is all from my personal experience, but I hope it's helpful. I'm not in broadcasting, but I was an anchor, like, twice on my campus news channel. It was awesome.
1. experience, experience, experience Journalism is most definitely all about getting your feet wet. It's super important to be hands-on and get clips for your portfolio. I'm talking about your school paper, or just pitching stories to local newspapers/mags, etc. These clips and these experiences are so valuable. You get to learn about how they operate, what is newsworthy, the process - to me, being hands-on actually made me sincerely passionate about journalism. Before, I just liked writing. 2. socializing This one is a difficult one, but when I say socializing I mean COMMUNITY. Mentors and seniors are really incredible in this field, because oftentimes, as a journalist, you really shouldn't pledge allegiance to your corporation because at the end it's a business, but INSTEAD you should put your belief and trust in your peers, in your communities, in the actual work you do. Networking and socializing and having a support group I think is so valuable in journalism. It's going to get you leads, get you resources, get you a community that will support your work.
3. find your niche (but branch out) You're probably going to be thrown into a beat/topic that you're not interested in. My personal horror story was that I was thrown into public health & safety which I had no interest in. I was so annoyed that I couldn't just write the stuff I want to. But that's how the real world is. I think it's super important that you know the stories you want to write and work from those angles, but you should also be general and have an interest even in things that you're not interested in, because that's what journalism is about. You can't stay within your own box. 4. have more tools in your arsenal I know for a fact the market is looking for people who are skilled in EVERYTHING. They're looking for that Gen Z kid who can do multimedia, social media, writing, reporting, pitching, etc. Learn how to work some Adobe programs or some coding languages. It's really going to help. Promise.
5. it's ok if you end up not liking it! It's so beyond normal to end up switching gears. Some people end up preferring marketing or PR. That's fine. Don't feel like you're responsible for a failing democracy or something LOL (guilty as charged) but just know that journalism is an awesome field actually, and it's a super important one. So, don't be like me and feel pressured by random people who say journalism is useless, and go for it if you want. Good luck!
