Journalists use Facebook to launch their careers

By: Erin Floro

Facebook isn't just to chat, write on walls, look at pictures, and send bumper stickers. In fact, it isn't just a network for college students! Some journalists have launched their careers by opening a Facebook account. In the article "Beat Blogging" Khristopher Brooks, an education reporter for the Omaha World-Herald who writes about higher education institutions has relied on Facebook to do his job. If he needs to talk to a certain student with a certain major he can just get on Facebook and search instead of wasting a day on campus trying to find the perfect candidate for a story. He searches students by major, hometown, sports, and activities and can get a lot more students involved in his stories because he can find the students easier. I think that editors who are struggling to find a job should use Facebook or another social network to put themselves out there. In a different article I read it talked about a Facebook group called "Journalists and Facebook." This group was started by a man and his editor who invited 25 people to join, a little over a week later 650 journalists had joined the Facebook group. Pat Walters said "And that's what Facebook is doing. It connects me to people I know, and to information I care about." Young or old reporters, editors, and journalists out searching for a career should give facebook a try!

http://www.beatblogging.org/blog/2008/09/using-social-ne.html
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=127211

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Journalists in the news industry

Of course everyone knows that journalists write about the news to intrigue their readers to get them coming back for more, but is that all their job entails?

I had asked few students (out of curiosity) about what they think journalists do. Each one answered that journalists only write stories, and that is it. They could not think of anything more. Well, that is interesting.

To further our education, journalists do much more than just write the news. According to an online site, journalists gather the information and have to generate ideas in order to keep the reader informed and interested in the subject. They also include pictures, videos, maps, and other assets that go along with the story line. They proofread and edit more than once to make sure it is correct and in the right sequence. And on top of all that, journalists are expected to do this in a matter of seconds or minutes depending on the immediacy of the news industry.

See, journalists are not just expected to write the news, they are to make the news creative and in a limited amount of time. Most all of us know that news that does not have any punchline or excitement is boring and not worth reading. Journalists know this, and that is why they work hard to keep us engaged.

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