July 9, 2011
A little bit of journalistic advice
To be honest with you, I’m no good at ledes (I attempted to make a Bambi reference in a lede in one of my articles but it failed). It takes me forever to think of one, and as such it’s really hard for me to think of what to say at first with these things. But firstly, I do want to apologize for how utterly negligent I have been with this blog! Eight days without a post is just lazy. It’s also because sometimes I just can’t talk about what I do; as with most internships, I’m not allowed to blog about it, even though I would only have excellent things to say!
But for today I thought I would share some tidbits that I’ve picked up in my journalistic life. I’ve been doing journalism in one way or another since I was a sophomore in high school–that’s six years–and I’ve loved it. On the way I’ve met lots of lovely journalists who have given me tips on the trade, and here are some of them. Keep in mind, these aren’t my ideas.
1. To be a journalist, you have to be really, really annoying – I posted this on Twitter a few days ago and I got a good response from it, mostly because it’s 100 percent true. A journalist doesn’t necessarily have to be an annoying person (although quite a few of them are) but you absolutely have to be annoying when you’re tracking down sources. You have to call a politician’s District Office, Capitol Office, talk to their press secretary or legislative director and track them down after a committee meeting all to get that one piece of the puzzle. Be annoying. It’s not a bad thing. Persistence is the only way a lot of these people are going to talk to you. Even after you invest all this time, sometimes it doesn’t work out, when that happens just move on and try and get someone else, don’t forget you’ve got a deadline.
2. Journalism is not art – I just got this advice yesterday from my boss and it’s really good. When you start out in journalism you are not writing art, you are writing news for a business. You can’t get emotionally attached to your piece because your editor and the copy desk may/probably will cut it up to pieces. It doesn’t mean they don’t like you or your work; journalism is just a business, it’s just a job. I suppose this is hard for some people to hear, probably the writers turned journalists, but this is just part of the business. Journalism can be really glamorous sometimes, but in the end, we’re just a cog in a machine. Well, we’re better than that, but you get what I’m saying. It’s a business first and foremost.
3. Give yourself permission to suck – This was taken from a recent Institute for Humane Studies’ summer seminar that I went to called Journalism & a Free Society. I blogged about it a few weeks back, and like I said then, it was fabulous,and I highly recommend it. This little nugget was probably one of the best pieces of advice I have ever gotten. We all start out somewhere and really when you go to press conferences, committee meetings or whatever, all the fancy looking journalists there are at different levels. No one expects you to write a Pulitzer winning piece. Give yourself permission to suck sometimes, it really helps. Your editor will help you make it less sucky. There have been times where I’ve thought, “I can’t believe they’re letting me cover this,” but there is a reason your boss sent you. They obviously thought you could do it, and you can.
4. Get a beat – This is one of the most important points in this list and is absolutely necessary for when you go out in the real world. You need to have a particular knowledge about some not too broad, not too specific topic. You have to be the go-to person on whatever it is–African religion, modern baseball, Rococo-era art, legislation dealing with (fill in the blank). I don’t have a beat yet but I’m still pretty new. You don’t need one today, but start thinking about it, start considering it. Pick something you like it, because like everyone says, it’s not work if you enjoy it.
5. Build yourself a brand – I also learned this at the IHS conference, although it is advice that many journalists give out. Build yourself a brand. Use social media; get a Twitter, get a LinkedIn account (I don’t have one), make a blog (but update it regularly), post your clips and resume. People may not read it, but it’s there if someone is looking and I certainly hope that someone is! Remember that you are a professional when you go out, use whatever opportunity you can to get a job and move up the totem poll. Be charming (although I’m sure you naturally are). Speaking on professionalism, I don’t necessarily know that you have to be particularly professional with your Twitter. You can use it to send out your work, but in my opinion anyway, don’t be afraid to be silly. I send out my clips through Twitter, but I also complain about stuff on it. Just don’t be too crass and keep in mind that what you say can really piss off people, or maybe even possible employers. I don’t really think there is a consensus on Twitter usage at this point. I know journalists who exclusively use it to promote content and engage readers, and others who do that while inserting personal commentary. To each his own.
6. Get a recorder – If you are a journalist and you don’t have a recorder go walk out the door and buy one, now. My recorder is my best friend, I would be lost without it. That being said there are appropriate and inappropriate times to use it. Always ask permission to use it, it’s illegal to record people without their knowledge in most states. Going along with that, sometimes people just don’t like to be recorded. They won’t say what they really want to because they are afraid. Make a judgement call when using your recorder. I try to tell people who seem wary of it that I’m only trying to make sure that their quote is 100 percent accurate and that they won’t be misrepresented. Make sure that while you are using your recorder that you are still jotting down notes as you cannot rely on the recorder entirely. Something I have been doing lately is when someone says something important I write down what time in the recording it was said in my notebook. This really helps. Nothing sucks worse than going to a meeting and then having to listen to it all over again just to find one quote.
7. Buy an AP Style book – No explanation necessary. It saves you from making egregious mistakes that your editor will hate you for. Oh, and by the way, Washington Post, it’s website, not Web site! So hideous.
I think that’s about all the advice I can muster up this morning (I started writing this at 5 a.m.). I hope this helps you a little bit, but it’s pretty standard stuff. Do you have any advice that I missed? Comment on the article and let me know!
Filed by yasmintadjdeh at July 9th, 2011 under Uncategorized
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