Writing is Not Enough For Journalists

Sunday, February 7, 2010

These days everybody is practically a journalist. Typically, people wrote only when the teacher told them to, but real journalists wrote and reported stories outside the classroom.

The Internet has made it easier for anybody to become a journalist. Blogs and sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow people to write what they want, when they want.

Therefore, people who desire to earn a living as a journalist will need to acquire new traits in order to get hired or accepted into journalism school.

According to Robert Niles, a writer for the Online Journalism Review, journalists must be able to discover and analyze new information that would be of interest to their audience.

In order for this to happen, journalists are going to have to develop several characteristics, including strong analytic skills and the ability to uncover a story.

Just as the publishing market is competitive, so too is the market for journalists with numerous different skills.


I think it is very important to have multiple skills. In today's environment, it's not enough to just be able to write.

Social journalism is imperative for journalists. They have to be able to engage their audience and find and share stories that would be of interest to readers.

3 comments:

Hanna Russmann February 9, 2010 at 8:47 AM  

This is very true that anyone these days can be a journalist, if they really want to be one. I just hope Simpson College teaches me all of the extra skills that every journalist needs to have now a days. It is scary to think that not being able to do certain things could keep someone from getting a job with a major news organization.

Julia Robinson February 9, 2010 at 10:51 AM  

Everything in this blog was very true, and very relatable to those of us in this class who are considering a career in journalism. Our Beginning Newswriting and Reporting class is going to do it's best to provide us with skills talked about in this blog to help us in the future.

Also, I liked the style that you wrote this article in. I was drawn to it because it was less intimidating to look at the shorter paragraphs you wrote, rather than long ones other blogs featured.

Cory Keasey February 9, 2010 at 11:14 AM  

Nearly everyone is a journalist in this day. It just takes the work and effort to achieve the credit. This is all very true and I been discovering just how large the field of journalism is becoming. I agrre with you Julia, our BNR class is really let us expand our journlist skills into that of the social media aspect. I do like it now that I have got the hang of it.

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