young journalists - 10,000 Words

Eminent EICs Offer Advice to Aspiring Media Pros

Mona Zhang — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 18:26:35 +0000

Previously, we gathered some of the highlights of last night’s “Media Talk” panel at NYU. Here, we’ll bring you advice from all the panelists: James Bennet of The Atlantic, Joanna Coles of Cosmopolitan, Chris Hughes of The New Republic and Jane Pratt of xoJane. The panel was moderated by David Carr, who asked the panelists to offer their advice for students who want to get into the media biz. Here are their edited responses:

Joanna Coles, editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan:

This business is all about ideas. If you have a good idea, I or one of my team, will hire you to write it. It can’t be a subject or topic you happen to be interested in, it has to be a genuine idea, you have to have a story. continued…

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Ed Gordon: YouTube is ‘the Future of Broadcasting’

Mona Zhang — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:02:10 +0000

For a journo who has found success with decidedly old-school methods, Ed Gordon has some advice for aspiring broadcasters: get on YouTube. “In today’s world… it’s about producing and owning your content,” he told Mediabistro in the latest installment of So What Do You Do?. Gordon also advises young people with dreams of being on the small screen to “learn where your craft is headed,” and talks about the importance of perseverance when it comes to career success.

“There are a lot of people who’ve given up trying to get on commercial television and have gone to securing their own YouTube channels, and I think, at the end of the day, that’s going to be the future of broadcasting,” Gordon said. “People are just going to put stuff out there. They’re gonna have their own YouTube channels, and eventually you’ll be able to buy things from those channels. But I think one of the things that people have to understand is it takes perseverance.”

Read the full interview in So What Do You Do, Ed Gordon, Host of Conversations with Ed Gordon?

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Will Write for Food: The Digital Freelance Journalist Dilemma

Karen Fratti — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 11:27:41 +0000

I am exhausted from following the explosion of opinion about how much freelance journalists should be paid after writer Nate Thayer took on The Atlantic for offering to publish his work, for free.

It used to be that freelance meant you were a free-agent. Now, it just means you work for free, or scraps.

I understand Thayer’s anger, and I’m glad he started the conversation. And as much as I respect (want to be?!) Matt Yglesias or Alexis Madrigal and hear them on the fact that there is no easy solution to pay smart writers and writers have to write and gosh, darn, they never did really make any money anyway– hearing them talk about why I should write for free makes me envision doing very mean things to them. Because they’re in. And they’re not even trying to tell us — digital natives who aren’t entirely shocked by the fact that we can’t make a decent living, yet still hopeful — that it gets better. What they’re saying is “write for free and maybe you’ll be able to make your own brand someday, but we sure as hell can’t pay you for it. We definitely can not even hire you for menial writing labor.”

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Is Learning HTML/CSS ‘Like Learning How to Use Commas’?

Meranda Watling — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:00:43 +0000

How important is it for journalists to know HTML/CSS? How about for journalism students, who will be entering a job market with more digital and fewer traditional job choices? This point has been discussed and debated to death. We’ve talked about it and covered sites and organizations that aim to help teach journalists to program.

But reading a recent post by University of Florida professor Mindy McAdams, it occurred to me how these skills have increasingly become expectations for job-hunting journalists. It’s not been enough for a long time to be a writer or a photographer, you need to be very good at something and at least good enough at others to be competitive in a world where writer’s send standups back from crime scenes and photographers produce slideshows, with intros and captions on the fly. But HTML? CSS? Javascript?

Her post is primarily aimed at journalism educators and why they should learn and teach HTML and CSS so their students are better equipped. But it’s beneficial to all journalists. She writes:

The system we use to present information on Web pages begins with HTML, a markup language that structures the content of the page.

I’m starting with HTML because I know a heck of a lot of journalism educators have never tried to learn HTML, and that’s just wrong. You know how to use a comma? Good, I would expect that. The basic use of HTML is just as important as correct use of commas, and it’s certainly not harder to learn.

The web is littered with comma splices, so certainly not everyone learned that skill. Nor will everyone be willing to learn HTML and CSS. (I say willing because I agree with Mindy that’s they’re very learnable. I taught myself starting when I was 10.) But she’s right, if a journalist wants to be competitive, to place themselves in the best position to land and keep a job, to have the best and most opportunities open to them, they’re going to want to know the basics or be willing to learn.
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A New Internship Program at Patch, Complete With Scholarship

Mona Zhang — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:09:05 +0000

This summer, Patch will be partnering with the Dow Jones News Fund to provide their summer interns with a unique experience: Interns will complete a week-long training program at Western Kentucky University before heading back to their prospective posts across the country. Not only are travel expenses and housing covered, interns get an hourly wage and will receive a $1000 scholarship upon completing the program.

All in all, about 40 students will be selected in 18 states. The program will have two start dates: early June through August and mid-June through the first week of September. “[We're looking for] someone who’s really passionate about community journalism,” Andi Morrison, college recruiter at Patch, told 10,000 Words. “That kind of entrepreneurial spirit is the first thing I really look for.” To apply, students should have some online journalism experience, whether it’s writing for campus media or freelancing for a local news outlet. continued…

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Google Offers Journalism Fellowship

Mona Zhang — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:50:25 +0000

Though Google may have contributed to the ailing journalism industry, the search giant will now be offering journalism students 10-week long fellowships. The first of these fellowships will start in the summer of 2013, and are open to both undergrads and graduate students.

The fellowship is aimed at “students interested in using technology to tell stories in new and dynamic ways,” said the announcement. Fellows spend their first week at the Knight Foundation and the last week at Google. The program is especially suited to readers of 10,000 Words, as the intersection of journalism and technology is exactly what the fellowship is about. Below are the qualities that the program is seeking: continued…

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Students Can Win $5K and Publication With Multimedia Story

Mona Zhang — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 14:35:30 +0000

Students of the journalism craft have a chance to show off their multimedia skills with The Digital Storymakers Award. Not only do entrants get the chance to win a grand prize of $5,000 and publication, but all participants get to use the Atavist’s spiffy software to craft their stories. Here’s how it works: continued…

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Lola Ogunnaike on the Journalism Degree Debate

Ji Hyun Park — Wed, 23 May 2012 15:43:03 +0000

Whether you’re a graduating senior or a professional switching careers, you know the debate over the true value of a journalism degree is always ongoing. In mediabistro.com’s So What Do You Do? interview, freelancing heavyweight Lola Ogunnaike settles the score.

“If you studied journalism in undergrad, then I don’t think a graduate school degree in journalism is necessary,” said Ogunnaike, who has penned more than two dozen cover stories for everything from Elle to Rolling Stone. “But if you’re new to the craft, I definitely think some education is required.”

Ogunnaike, who earned her Master’s degree in journalism from NYU, says it’s not crucial to shell out $70,000 or $80,000 to understand the intricacies of the field. “I think people underestimate how difficult journalism is. It’s not just sitting at your computer and spouting off your opinions about Beyoncé’s dress at the Met Gala. There is a structure to it, and I feel like that is sorely lacking in a lot of what’s being passed off as journalism today.”

Read the full interview.

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Get inspired by journalists’ graduation speeches

Meranda Watling — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:38:39 +0000

Amid the journalism industry’s doom-and-gloom, it’s hard to remember sometimes that there are thousands of young journalists ambling to enter this profession each year even if many young journalism students bail for a different profession even before graduation or soon after. So, what better way to inspire them — and other new graduates — to fight the good fight than with a inspiring speech from a stellar journalist?

Several of my journalistic idols delivered speeches this year, and others I don’t follow also imparted very wise words on the class of 2012. The beauty of technology is I can catch up on all of them and watch most of them on video. With graduations coming and going this month, Poynter’s Andrew Beaujon did a great job rounding up some of the commencement speeches from journalists this year. I won’t try and repeat it, so visit their list.

While some of the speeches have been gloomy, here are three of the speeches that spoke to me:
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3 Simple Goals For Summer Interns

Meranda Watling — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:03:52 +0000

Photo by Nathan Wells, on Flickr

It’s mid-May, which means it’s about time for journalism schools to send their army of relatively inexperienced student journalists and recent graduates out into the professional world for a test run. Yep, in a few weeks if not already, young, impressionable cub journalists will turn up in newsrooms eager to do everything.

If you’re among the intern ranks this year, here’s your short and simple to-do list for this summer gig.
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A Dose of Optimism: J-school Grad Prospects and Website Traffic Growth

Mona Zhang — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:47:23 +0000

There is plenty of evidence for gloom: the newspaper industry is the fastest-shrinking of them all, and the online ad shares of newspapers have sunk to an all-time low. Hopefully, two studies released this week will help lower your blood pressure; auspicious statistics are a rare commodity these days.

As I’ve written about before, studying journalism may not be such a bad idea. A new study from Georgetown University showed that it’s certainly no worse than studying social science, arts, architecture or law and public policy. Recent graduates with journalism degrees had a 7.7 percent unemployment rate (lower than the aforementioned areas of study), with architecture faring the worst at 13.9 percent. Like any other industry, the unemployment rate in journalism decreased with experience and the attainment of a graduate degree. On average, recent grads can expect $32,000, which increases to $58,000 with experience, and $66,000 after graduate studies. The fields with the lowest unemployment rates were health and education, both at 5.4 percent. continued…

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How To Avoid Getting Fired For Your Blog

Meranda Watling — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 05:00:01 +0000

When I started blogging about journalism, I did so at the urging of a hiring editor (who didn’t, ultimately, hire me but did inspire me). I had all these great digital skills, she told me, but she asked why had I presented her with carbon-based clips (i.e. paper) instead of a URL. I left the job fair and put the years of web design experience I’d been amassing to good work, and by the end of the weekend had built myself a website with clips, a resume, a bio and a blog about, what else, journalism and my place in the evolving industry.

That was a few months before my college graduation. And after putting so much work into the blog, I proudly stamped the URL on my resume and included it in my cover letters to prospective employers. To be honest, the blog’s inclusion wasn’t so much a way to show off my work as to cover my ass. When I interviewed for jobs, I discussed it. When I was hired, I searched the employee handbook and intranet for information about personal blogs. Soon after I arrived, I sat down with the executive editor and we discussed it. See, what kept me up late at night wasn’t the prospect of graduating without a job, but rather I did not want one of those editors to plug my name in Google and come across my blog, assuming I had hid or was hiding it.

I had flashbacks to that period and those decisions when I heard the story of Khristopher Brooks, who was fired this week from the job he hadn’t yet started because of the way he announced his new job on his tumblr blog. Brooks did a silly thing, but in my opinion, the folks he thought would soon be his new bosses did an even sillier one. (In my honest opinion, I think they come off looking out-of-touch and overly cautious for a news organization currently force-feeding its employees the “digital first!” company line, and he comes off probably having dodged a bullet.)

Here’s what got Brooks fired, and then, here’s my been-there-done-that advice on how to not get fired for your personal journalism blog.
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What Are Basic Social Media Skills Journalists Need?

Ben LaMothe — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:52:44 +0000

By now the consensus is that most journalists should “know how to use social media” in their day-to-day jobs.

But what does that really mean?

Here’s a short list of skills that I believe should be part of the basic social media skill set for a journalist today:

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Google and AP Announce Winners of Journalism and Technology Scholarships

Elana Zak — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:27:59 +0000

Six ‘new’ journalists – also known as students – have received $20,000 scholarships from a joint initiative between Google and the Associated Press.

As we wrote about last August, the AP-Google Journalism and Technology Scholarship is geared at both undergraduate and graduate students interested in the “intersection of journalism, computer science and new media.” Funded by the AP and Google, it is administered by the Online News Association (ONA).

“There’s nothing more exciting than seeing these new journalist hybrids emerging from our colleges across the U.S.,” Jane McDonnell, ONA Executive Director, said in the press release. “While digital media professionals continue to evolve the game, these students will transform the playing field.”

The recipients range from a sophomore at the University of Minnesota to a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. They each submitted proposals and a team of digital media leaders reviewed the applications and eventually selected the winning six students.

The press release included the students’ proposals. Here they are, in a slightly boiled down version. The full proposals are available on the ONA Press Room.

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How To Get Social Media Experience While In School

Ben LaMothe — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:11:03 +0000

In my last two posts here, I drew from experiences I had as a guest speaker to journalism, mass media and public relations classes at Central Michigan University.

This post will touch again on those experiences, but will look at a common question I was asked by students in many of the classes I spoke to.

In every class I spoke to, there was one student who always asked the same question: How can I get a job in social media?

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