by: Laurence Cawley
As many as half of all graduates say they'd like a career in the media.
That's a lot of graduates out there who want the same job you want or
the job, if you are already working in the media, you currently have.
I've heard this statistic banded about many times - often by editors or
managing directors of newspaper groups justifying the poor pay
journalists tend to get. I have no reason to doubt the statistic - I've
met a lot of graduates who say they'd like a career 'in the media'.
Most of them now work as management consultants, accountants, in
advertising or in sales. However, even if many of those who want a
career in the media never quite get there, there is a simple truth: the
route to being an employed journalist is competitive and the going is
tough (at first).
As is the case with all competitive environments it pays to ensure
that you stand out from the crowd. But to know how to stand out from
the crowd, you have to know what an editor is looking for from a
potential candidate. Put simply, editors tend to be looking for:
A commitment to a career in journalism
Self-confidence that stops way short of arrogance
An eagerness to learn and a keenness to help and get involved
We'll focus on the top of the editor's wish-list first.
Demonstrating a commitment to a career in journalism is vital and will
be something all editors are looking for in any new recruit. The
following steps all demonstrate a commitment to your chosen career:
Asking and undertaking unpaid work experience at a local newspaper
Working on a school, university or community newspaper or news-sheet
Finding a good news story and then phoning a newspaper with it whilst asking for work experience
Undertaking training to become a journalist at one of the many establishments that offer courses.
This not only shows you are committed to a career in journalism but
also that you are willing to go to the financial expense of getting
yourself ready to become a journalist.
Undertaking a degree in journalism or media studies:
Believe it or not, the last option listed above will be the least
likely to impress an editor. Many editors are skeptical about the value
of journalism or media-based degree courses. They are often tinged with
more theory than practical tuition and cover the ethics and philosophy
of journalism when most editors are more concerned with tight copy,
written in a legally-sound way which will inform or entertain their
readers. On a personal level, I think media studies and journalism
degrees are excellent and, if combined with experience of working as a
journalist, offer an excellent grounding towards becoming a considered
and insightful reporter. But unless the degree includes a certificate
to say you have got your shorthand speed to (ideally) 100 words per
minute, a thorough grounding in media law and court reporting, a basic
understanding of local and central government and proof that you know
how to construct a news story, a degree in journalism or media studies
is unlikely to lead to a job. Unpaid work experience, however, often
leads to a job - though not on its own.
Work experience:
If you don't have a cuttings file (a selection of stories published
in a newspaper written by you) then getting work experience is a vital
step. Not only does it give you invaluable experience of trying your
hand at journalism it also gives you the opportunity to:
* See how a newsroom operates and how a newspaper is put together
* Learn from experienced journalists and see how they handle
different jobs Work out whether a career in journalism is really for
you.
* Show a potential employer what you have to offer
* Develop a cuttings file of your own work under your own name
Getting work experience is reasonably straight forward. In most
cases all you will have to do is ask. But you need to make sure you ask
the right person so it is usually best to telephone the newspaper or
newspapers you are interested in doing some work for and asking for the
name of the person who deals with work experience candidates. Sometimes
this is the editor, sometimes the news-editor and sometimes the chief
reporter. When you write your letter asking for work experience,
remember two main points:
1. Check and double check for any spelling mistakes - it is often a
good idea to then get somebody else to check it a further time before
sending it off. I have always avoided offering work experience to
candidates who cannot be bothered to check their spelling before
sending something off.
2. Keep it simple. Tell them you are interested in a career in
journalism and tell them that, in the longer term, you would love to
work for their paper. Highlight any skills you currently have that
could be counted as a journalistic tool and tell them what your
intentions are regarding training.
Usually this sort of approach will get you a period of work
experience - usually a week or two. Sometimes, because newspapers have
a lot of people wanting work experience, you may have to wait sometime
before either hearing back or being offered a short term work
experience placement. If you have a number of titles in your area,
apply to them all.
When you are offered work experience with a newspaper, there are a
few things to keep in mind in order to ensure you get the best out of
the placement and that you show your best sides to an organization that
is a potential employer. It is wise to:
Dress smartly and appropriately as you would for a formal job
interview. You may be sent anywhere at any time and, even if you are on
work experience, you are still an ambassador for the newspaper. If you
end up shadowing an established reporter to court, you must wear a
shirt and tie if you are male, or be smartly dressed if you are female.
This sounds an obvious point but I've known work experience candidates
turn up wearing jeans and tee-shirts and in one case a beanie hat.
Don't be afraid to ask questions about things you are unsure of and
offer your help whenever possible. Help may include offering to get
file cuttings from the library or even just making the coffee. The
point is you want to come across as a keen learner who wants to pitch
in.
Try to find stories both during the working day and outside of
working hours. Most news-editors and editors would be highly impressed
with a work experience reporter bringing in their own news stories.
They may not get used, but they will get you noticed. If they do get
used, however, they will be more than noticed - they will be
appreciated and you will be held in increasingly high esteem.
Listen to everything that is said to you. When I first did work
experience for an evening title in Yorkshire I was fresh out of
Cambridge University and I was convinced I was one of the best writers
in the country. I was wrong, and I did not have a clue how to write a
news story. When this was pointed out by the news-editor I was taken
aback at first but I quickly saw what she meant and tried my best to
learn the craft from her and to learn fast. The golden rule really is
to do whatever is asked and to heed advice . Be confident, by all
means, but avoid coming across as arrogant like the plague. Remember,
you are there to learn.
Always turn up on time. This sounds such an obvious point that you
might be surprised it's in this list. Believe me though, it wouldn't be
in the list if it wasn't a mistake I've seen made again and again. Try
to be a little early and leave a little after you are told you can
depart. Newspaper reporters have to be punctual in their starting times
because many newspapers are deadline driven and news-editors need to be
able to bank on staff being where they are supposed to be in case they
need something covering at very short notice.
Be affable and upbeat. I've seen many work experience candidates
sit quietly in the corner looking moody. I know that in most cases this
was a sign of nervousness in a newsroom. Whilst I can sympathise with
that, I would much rather help a candidate who is making an effort to
be a pleasant presence around a newsroom.
These brief pointers should help ensure you get the best out of
your work experience placement and that the newspaper gets the best out
of you. Somebody who is remembered as smart, friendly, helpful, eager
to learn and always turns up on time will be in good stead for a job
when their training is completed. They are also the most likely
candidates to be offered further work experience in the future.
Exceptional work experience placements can also lead to a newspaper
paying thousands of pounds to get you trained up as a journalist with
the offer of a job at the end of the training. Not all newspapers offer
this, but many do. Either way, work experience is the most important
first step in becoming a journalist. The second step, of course, is
learning the craft through training.
Getting trained:
There are hundreds of educational establishments out there offering
courses relating to the media. They offer everything from degrees to
home study courses. For newspaper journalism in the UK, the
organization nearly all editors look to is the National Council for the
Training of Journalists (NCTJ). In broadcasting there is the Broadcast
Journalism Training Council and Skillset. There are other bodies in
both print and broadcast industries but these three are generally the
most respected organizations and qualifications accredited by them tend
to hold the most sway with potential employers.
The NCTJ offers the leading training system in the UK and the
pre-entry qualification to newspaper journalism is the one most
newspaper editors expect to see before offering a candidate a job. I
started out after completing my NCTJ course and while most journalistic
learning is done through experience and on the job, the skills acquired
on the NCTJ course were essential to preparing me for the proper
learning to take place. The range of courses accredited by the NCTJ
vary from year-long courses to much shorter 'fast-track' courses which
last a few months. Either way, at the end you will have a good
grounding and a qualification in:
Shorthand - the essential tool all journalists need in order to take down information and to quote sources accurately.
Media law - editors live in fear of law suits from people who have
been defamed or from their newspaper ending up in contempt of court.
Knowledge of media law is essential and you are unlikely to get a job
without this invaluable knowledge.
Public affairs - all reporters need an understanding of the
machinations of local and central government because they often form
the grist of newspaper stories.
Writing - knowing how to write a news story is obviously a vital
skill that all editors are looking for from their employees. The NCTJ
course will hone your skills and teach you the basic style guide on
which most newspaper writing styles are based.
Training can be tough and the courses thorough and exacting. During
your course you, or those around you, will endlessly debate your
current shorthand speed and get exasperated that it isn't close to
reaching the 100 word a minute industry standard (for help with this
click here). Shorthand is one of the most important parts of training
to get right and, for most people, it is the part of the course that is
both the most foreign and the part that raw intellect doesn't seem to
improve. During the course, it is a wise idea to keep getting work
experience or sending in good news stories to newspapers to help build
your cuttings file and to maintain contacts within the industry.
Once you have a clutch of passes under your wing, and your
shorthand at 100 words per minute (or near), you are ready to head out
there and seek employment. Sadly, even with the proper credentials,
competition for jobs can still be fierce. Years ago, when I was
applying for jobs I sent out 61 application letters. I had one reply,
which was an offer of an interview 200 miles from where I was living at
the time. Luckily for me, this single response turned into my first
job. But it took a few months of sending out on-spec applications to a
huge number of newspapers. I hope you will not have the experience but,
if you do, know that you're in good company.
As an aside, and because it is a question I've been asked
frequently by raw recruits, I wanted to touch on the issue of where to
start your career. Most, including myself, start out on local
newspapers. But national newspapers also offer extremely good trainee
schemes. Amongst most people in journalism training, the national press
is held in much higher esteem. This is understandable - the readerships
are (by and large) much greater, the stories tend to be greater in
scope and scale, the pay is better and the scene is more 'glamorous'.
Having worked in both the regional and national press I can see the
merits in trying to start out in both. If I was forced to make a
choice, I would always advise starting with a local newspaper. My
reasons for this are simple. Firstly, you get to learn your craft
within a defined community and, if you make a mistake, your community
will be quick to point it out. This is a useful fact of life and
constantly focuses the reporter's mind on the all important task of
getting things right and making sure stories are accurate. Secondly,
you will tend to get more scope to practice your new skills and cover a
plethora of different stories. Thirdly, your chance of getting a front
page story or a page lead (the main story on a page) in print is far
higher. A friend of mine spent 18 months on a trainee scheme with one
of the quality British broadsheet papers. At the end of the 18 months
she had only a handful of stories of stories with her name on it - the
one I remember best was an interview with a bee-keeper. In the same
period, I had covered bus and plane crashes , murders, major education
stories and an armed siege. All of my stories were national stories,
but I was writing for a local paper (indeed some of them were bought
from me by national titles).
I had about 50 or so front page stories and countless page leads in
my portfolio. And my cuttings portfolio is nothing out of the ordinary
for the local reporter. My friend on the other hand was a raw recruit
in a field of highly experienced and very established (often
specialized) national level journalists. The chances of her ever
getting into print were slim when it came to writing hard news. I
respect views different to my own, but I nevertheless hold firm to my
view that the local press offers the best grounding in journalism.
That, I feel, is demonstrated by the fact that nearly all of the
reporters working for the national press started out on local
newspapers.
A DEGREE OR NO DEGREE
Does having a degree help get a foot on the journalistic ladder?
Not necessarily. It never hurts, of course, to have an expertise in
some area to degree level and many journalists have degrees in subjects
like history or English. For specialist titles it can pay to have a
degree in, say, science or information technology. But for a general
reporter a degree is by no means necessary. I have worked with many
people who do not have degrees or A Levels and those people have often
been editors or news-editors with a razor-sharp news sense and an
incredible ability to generate and produce great news stories.
What is necessary is a good command of the English language and
numeracy skills. Usually a GCSE qualification in English and maths is a
requisite. But to get on in journalism a degree qualification will pale
into insignificance compared with the following:
An ability to write accurately and quickly
An ability to generate news stories on your own initiative
An interest and knowledge of your own community
An ability to ask the right questions of the right people
Many people who have not gone into higher or further education have
been picking important life-skills in the 'real world' which can become
a real asset for a would-be journalist. The same goes for people
wanting a career change into journalism. Such people are likely to get
a warm response from editors, whatever their age might be. The reason
is simple: mature candidates or those who did not go into higher
education are likely to be more 'street savvy' than those fresh out of
college.
About The Author
who has worked in the regional and national media for the past 10
years. A dedicated shorthand practitioner, he is also the editor of http://www.shorthandworld.co.uk.
Permission to freely re-use this article is given provided a link is provided to its source and copyright holder at http://www.shorthandworld.co.uk.
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