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comment by thenewgreen
thenewgreen  ·  3191 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What do employers want in Journalists and discussing the field as a whole.

Do you have a more specific goal in regards to your career? What type of journalism would you like to pursue? What medium? What interests you? What got you excited about journalism to begin with?

I was a journalism major for a bit but then I dropped it and went for business. More specifically, I was a photo-journalism major. This is back in the days of dark-rooms (yes, I'm old) when digital photography was a new phenomenon. While I loved journalism and really ate up the whole Edward R. Murrow romanticism of the profession, I couldn't help but notice that I wasn't a very good photographer. I mean, I was alright... but others were wayyyy better than me. I figured that photojournalism would be very competitive and if I wasn't one of the best, it wasn't worth pursuing.

I grew up a student of NPR. To me, that was the gold standard. I loved, and still do love, some of the radio programs they air like Radiolab and This American Life. I suppose it's my time studying journalism as well as my love for NPR and their programming that led me to start making the Hubski podcasts:

But, I'm not sure what employers want out of journalists these days. You are entering a tumultuous field. The landscape is changing so fast that nobody could possibly predict what media will look like 5 years, let alone 10 years from now.

Good luck! Never compromise your integrity!





Donpatch  ·  3191 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Thank you so much for your answer. I love to write. I guess you would say that first and foremost I am a news writer. I completely agree with you on the environment of journalism right now and it keeps me with a very open mind. I am an anthropology major as well as a Journalism major and really am trying to write and let that be my biggest selling point. While I too have a romantic side to my love for journalism in that a newsroom has always been a selling point to me and the old integrity of newspapers is appealing but as someone who would want nothing more than to succeed in this line of business, Im very open minded in what I would write for. I love to write and being a student of culture, I have many interests that I havent even scratched the surface of. As of now I enjoy the front page and want to pursue news writing.

I am a junior in college and it is painful to already be able to admit this, but even by my second year (and already mostly done with my journalism major) I had realized that as a major, Journalism is one of the more useless avenues to take since most publications know that you understand reporting and writing if you have clips. It seems as though one thing more young people going into the discipline need to know is that your writing goes before many other things and a poli sci major with 3 years of clips behind him or her will get the job before the journalism major with the same experience. (obviously this is pretty theoretical haha)

taking a look at your podcasts right now! thank you for the recommendation.