Preparing for a Career in Journalism

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm here to talk about preparing for a career in journalism. I think the first thing we have to do is define what we mean by a career in journalism. I am going to talk about a career in conventional journalism for example working for a newspaper, a television station, a radio station and a career in other kinds of journalism, for example writing a blog on the web or putting up a website. So first things first by conventional journalism I mean working as a reporter or an editor for a newspaper, television station a magazine something like that. Generally preparing for that career is going to require a Bachelor's Degree at the very least. Usually a Bachelor's in Journalism and sometimes a Bachelor's in a related area of social science or the humanities even some technical degrees, English for example, history majors sometimes become journalists so those are all possibilities. You are also going to need as part of your education to do some sort of an internship which is going to result in a set of newspaper clippings that you have written, stories you have written that have been published in a newspaper. If you are in broadcast perhaps clips of you on camera or audio recordings of you working on the radio. These are things that a potential employer is going to look at to make sure that you have the skills to be a journalist. So that's what is typically in involved in preparing for an entry level career in conventional journalism. Now let's talk about the other kinds of journalism. There are lots of things that qualify as careers in journalism. We have bloggers now. We have people who put up websites. Basically if you can find a way to attract an audience and present content that will keep that audience engaged then you can have a career in journalism. Some examples of this perhaps would be the Drudge Report for example or maybe the Huffington Post on line. It is now possible even on You Tube to attract an audience and with the audience will come advertising dollars and that could be a career. In terms of preparing for that really all you need is a good idea, a good idea and perhaps an internet connection."