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Journalism
- Thread starter Doooofus
- Start date
Benefit
Bluelighter
You'll probably work for the school paper, learning how to report, how to use the wire services, how to investigate stories, of course the ethical and legal constraints of journalism, learn how to work with a deadline, if you stick with it you might end up editing a specific section or the entire paper. There are tons of career options open to journalism majors including but not limited to, editor, copywriter, journalist, working in some area of publishing. I'd go for a summer internship with a magazine or something at some point to get a feel for it.
Strawberry_lovemuffin
Bluelighter
I studied journalism, of sorts.
My degree was in fact named Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing (with a double degree in Media studies), so it wasn't "hard nosed" journalism I studied, but more so feature-story writing, which was my favourite subject, and I did other peripheral studies including editing, film, philosophy, and various other arts stuff.
I was in fact, the only person in my graduating class to end up actually working in the writing field, from what I know. Actually, no, that's a lie, one of my friends is now an editor for an online women's magazine thingy (Shesaid.com.au) and has written a book... but most of us found it really, really hard to find jobs after our studies. Not hard - impossible. Even internships or work experience. Perhaps it was the city I lived in - Sydney is the mecca for publishing, not Melbourne.
Staff writing jobs were scarce as hen's teeth and hotly contested in the city - and freelancing was fine if you were lucky enough to have written a fabulous piece and it got accepted, but that money might only last you a month, tops, then you're back scrounging for more work. In fact, in my freelancing days I'd often submit pieces for free, just to get published, to get a portfolio started.
I ended up going back to my country home town and taking a job on the newspaper there... well, actually "taking" the job makes it sound like it was a piece of cake, but let me tell you, even getting a job THERE was hard. I went through 3 interviews and numerous exhaustive writing tests just to get a job on my hometown paper (!), and that was 12 years ago.
I worked for them for 4 years, in the advertising features department, mostly writing lifestyle articles and stories on local businesses, features for the paper on weddings, travel, housing developments, agricultrural festivals, blah blah... anything other than hard news, which suited me fine.
Then I travelled for a few years, and on my return ended up getting into Public relations, which is kind of like the sold-out bastard-child of journalism... you write with an agenda, and get paid by a company to do it. It's fucking awesome money. But it's not art by any stretch of the imagination. Been there 6 years now, and happily sold my soul to the luxury of a 9-5 lifestyle, writing what I'm told to write, being paid handsomely, sucking up corporate butt and pretending I'm still a 'writer' of sorts.
don't know if that helped.... but that's my journalism story!
My degree was in fact named Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing (with a double degree in Media studies), so it wasn't "hard nosed" journalism I studied, but more so feature-story writing, which was my favourite subject, and I did other peripheral studies including editing, film, philosophy, and various other arts stuff.
I was in fact, the only person in my graduating class to end up actually working in the writing field, from what I know. Actually, no, that's a lie, one of my friends is now an editor for an online women's magazine thingy (Shesaid.com.au) and has written a book... but most of us found it really, really hard to find jobs after our studies. Not hard - impossible. Even internships or work experience. Perhaps it was the city I lived in - Sydney is the mecca for publishing, not Melbourne.
Staff writing jobs were scarce as hen's teeth and hotly contested in the city - and freelancing was fine if you were lucky enough to have written a fabulous piece and it got accepted, but that money might only last you a month, tops, then you're back scrounging for more work. In fact, in my freelancing days I'd often submit pieces for free, just to get published, to get a portfolio started.
I ended up going back to my country home town and taking a job on the newspaper there... well, actually "taking" the job makes it sound like it was a piece of cake, but let me tell you, even getting a job THERE was hard. I went through 3 interviews and numerous exhaustive writing tests just to get a job on my hometown paper (!), and that was 12 years ago.
I worked for them for 4 years, in the advertising features department, mostly writing lifestyle articles and stories on local businesses, features for the paper on weddings, travel, housing developments, agricultrural festivals, blah blah... anything other than hard news, which suited me fine.
Then I travelled for a few years, and on my return ended up getting into Public relations, which is kind of like the sold-out bastard-child of journalism... you write with an agenda, and get paid by a company to do it. It's fucking awesome money. But it's not art by any stretch of the imagination. Been there 6 years now, and happily sold my soul to the luxury of a 9-5 lifestyle, writing what I'm told to write, being paid handsomely, sucking up corporate butt and pretending I'm still a 'writer' of sorts.
don't know if that helped.... but that's my journalism story!
Excellent replies guys, thanks heaps =) Are most journalism degrees centred solely on writing? I'm actually interested in other mediums like radio, film, TV etc... is it better to target these specific areas with a degree or will a Journalism degree set the foundations for all of these??
johnmortons
Greenlighter
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2003
- Messages
- 1,403
i never quite understood the point of studying "journalism". studying how to deal with deadlines? learning to "write"?
my advice is to study a subject that is actually going to teach you something proper and new, which will give you a certain perspective on things and a fund of knowledge and exposure on which you can fall back upon in the future. like history, or economics or law... just make sure to work for the local university paper and try to get an editor job there.
if i were hiring for a newspaper (actually, i have no newspaper experience whatsoever, so take this into account), i would be much more interested in people who have real knowledge of the law, economics or history (plus student newspaper experience) so that they can write something fundamental about whatever they are covering, rather than just be able to construct a set-piece article and meet the deadline. i mean, meeting a deadline, christ, that's a given. any proper university will teach you that anyway.
after all, good journalism (and also film, radio and TV) is all about CONTENT, style is important but secondary. hence i suppose it would be much better to study a subject with real content, study how our world has worked and still works. not how you best report it. if you have any talent at all, and get some experience, you should learn the "how to" yourself, and ideally acquire your very own style in the process.
as i said, i don't know much about the newspaper world. yet, i would be willing to bet that if you study history, economics, law or literature and make sure to get newspaper experience while doing so (student newspaper or voluntary work for local papers) will give you a much better chance to actually become a journalist.
my advice is to study a subject that is actually going to teach you something proper and new, which will give you a certain perspective on things and a fund of knowledge and exposure on which you can fall back upon in the future. like history, or economics or law... just make sure to work for the local university paper and try to get an editor job there.
if i were hiring for a newspaper (actually, i have no newspaper experience whatsoever, so take this into account), i would be much more interested in people who have real knowledge of the law, economics or history (plus student newspaper experience) so that they can write something fundamental about whatever they are covering, rather than just be able to construct a set-piece article and meet the deadline. i mean, meeting a deadline, christ, that's a given. any proper university will teach you that anyway.
after all, good journalism (and also film, radio and TV) is all about CONTENT, style is important but secondary. hence i suppose it would be much better to study a subject with real content, study how our world has worked and still works. not how you best report it. if you have any talent at all, and get some experience, you should learn the "how to" yourself, and ideally acquire your very own style in the process.
as i said, i don't know much about the newspaper world. yet, i would be willing to bet that if you study history, economics, law or literature and make sure to get newspaper experience while doing so (student newspaper or voluntary work for local papers) will give you a much better chance to actually become a journalist.
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Strawberry_lovemuffin
Bluelighter
^ Actually, most newspapers won't take you on unless you have a Journalism degree. There's barely any 'internships' (at least in Australia) anymore. Your piece of paper (as useless as it may actually be for the reality of a newsroom) is unfortunately a mandatory prerequisite for this career.
And you can be taught 'style', if not actually "how to write". But on the whole I agree with your post.
And you can be taught 'style', if not actually "how to write". But on the whole I agree with your post.
Strawberry_lovemuffin
Bluelighter
Doooofus said:
Nope, I'm pretty sure you can study multimedia without needing to do a writing degree. Although even radio, film and TV require some writing /composition skills, so it might be helpful. You should check out some course options.
The journalism degree I've been looking at has a whole year of elective subjects, which I guess is probably for the reasons that johnmortons brought up. There is an open day for University of Queensland that I'm going to head to to try and get some advice, but I don't want the faculty supervisor trying to sell me into their program just to make up numbers :/
Slay
Ex-Bluelighter
i didnt go to collage or university or something but i'm working at a national paper where i live and i'm very pissed off bout this job. i dont like doing this job. basicly i dont like working - on any job doesnt matter, working sucks to me. but i found journalism has some advantages (free tickets etc). i also show my paper id when i cop stops me on the street or something, they dont fuck with you when they see the id
. but i still think it sucks.
simply, i dont like a journalism career anyway.
, working sucks to me. but i found journalism has some advantages (free tickets etc). i also show my paper id when i cop stops me on the street or something, they dont fuck with you when they see the id. but i still think it sucks.simply, i dont like a journalism career anyway.
I'm starting Journalism at sbcc next January. While I was in secondary school I started doing music reviews for a skating magazine in England, after a few months I started writing features for the same magazine, then features and news. And at the moment I take photos for my own features in local skate magazines, and write for skating news websites. I'm 19 now. I did everything for free, or rather for the love of skating and writing. I'm increidbly over-critical of my own writing, sometimes it takes me an hour or more to write the opening sentance, but the when I'm finished, sitting infront of a perfect little story... well there's no better feeling in the world.
I'm just looking forward to going with the flow and hopefully writing about the things I love for many years to come.
I'm just looking forward to going with the flow and hopefully writing about the things I love for many years to come.