A beginners Guide To Becoming a Journalist Chapter 3

How To Get Started Writing Before Graduation So, you made up your mind to be a journalist and enrolled in school - congratulations! That is the first step towards carving out a career for yourself in the world of journalism. But do not think that you are going to walk out of college and land the dream job of working for a travel magazine and taking exotic trips. It doesn’t work that way. Before anyone will hire you full time, you are going to need experience. This is just the same thing as any other college graduate who finds it difficult to land a job without experience. This is why students often intern while in college - to gain experience. The good news about a career in journalism is that you internship can pay.

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My fifteen-year career in the radio business has been relatively brief (so far) by some standards.  I’ve met some 30, 40 and even 50-year veterans of this “entertainment business.”  Yet my perspective is based on the lucky confluence of when I started on the cusp of 1994-95 to the present 2009-10 since my career began just before the infamous “Telecommunications Act” of 1996. This changed the whole ball game in which one owner/operator was allowed to own many media properties in the same market.  Previous to my experience there was only allowed a “duopoly” where one owner was limited to one radio station and maybe one TV station in the same market, or one AM radio signal and one FM signal per market.

A Beginner’s Guide To Becoming a Journalist Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - What Type Of Degree Do I Need?

If you are serious about becoming a journalist, then you need to go to school so that you can get a job in this field. Newspapers and online venues are looking for those who have a four year liberal arts degree in journalism. If you plan to get a job in the field, you need an education. While you can get some jobs reporting for local papers without a degree, you will never move up in the world unless you have that piece of sheepskin that says that you went to college to study journalism - no matter how talented you are as a writer.

There are a number of journalism schools across the country. You should apply to colleges that offer a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, such as a good liberal arts college. Generally, the more prestigious the college, the more prestigious the job when you get out, although things are rapidly changing as the internet is formidable competition for the print media today.

Many journalists who want to have a career in the news industry will also minor in broadcasting. This can be helpful if you end up being a television journalist. A television journalist will go to a news scene and report about it live on the air. In order to be successful at this type of journalism, you need to have experience in telling the story, as well as broadcasting.

The Types Of Journalism

Chances are that you are going to dabble in all of the types of journalism that are out there. When you first start out in your career, you are going to want to take any job that you can get. Some of the journalist careers that you might consider include:

• Newspaper reporter

• Magazine writer

• Internet journalism

• Television reporter

These are the main types of journalism careers that you can get if you study for journalism in school. You will most likely start out as a newspaper reporter or working for an internet publication. Not only will employers want to see a degree, but they will also want to see clips. Clips are a portfolio of your work that indicate your byline. You can build up your portfolio in a number of ways that we will be discussing in a later chapter.

While you may be able to become a newspaper reporter on a lower level, or even an internet journalist without a degree, you will need a degree in journalism if you want to become a magazine writer or television reporter. These are the more glamorous jobs that people think about when they imagine life as a journalist.

The bottom line is that if you want to be a serious journalist and have an option to move into an exciting career, go to school. Earn a BA in Journalism and you will be all set to start your career in journalism with nothing holding you back.

A Beginner’s Guide To Becoming a Journalist (Chapter1)

A Beginner’s Guide To Becoming a Journalist Chapter 1

What Is A Journalist?

(This is part one of a ten part series on a career in Journalism. If you want to be assured of reading all ten parts sign up for our newsletter.

A great many people who want to be writers say that they want to have a career in journalism. They may envision themselves going to exotic locales to cover stories or winning a Pulitzer prize. While these things do happen to journalists, it takes a long time to make your bones before you are sent on any interesting assignments.