Advice on entering the Journalism field

Two word answers show so much class. Most of us had the passion like this kid does. Petty I'm curious. What advice would you give this kid if he was your nephew?

 

wise up.

get out.

 

Man, you take no prisoners, Petty. Who is your idol, Lou Grant? Bob Knight?

 

I thought BYH and Petty were channeling the Amityville Horror house.

 

we were.

(see what i did there?)

 

If you're approaching college with a "think you can do better" attitude, you'll approach your first job with a "think you can do better" attitude. And let me tell you, odds are your first job is going to be something that you "think you can do better" than, especially if it's in newspapers. And that's if newspapers are even still around in five years.

Take a look at the jobs board, kid. Look at the places where there are openings. Enid, Oklahoma. Glasgow, Kentucky. Shawano, Wisconsin. These are the places where you're going to start.

We have these threads a few times a month. They seem always to take the same course: Bright-eyed kid comes in, looks around and asks for advice. When he/she gets that advice, it's often not what he/she expected. He/she then typically argues, is reminded of what we already said and proceeds to say something along the lines of, "well, thanks, but I'm gonna do it anyway because I think I'm special and different!"

Well, you may be special, and you may be different. You may even be really good. But a lot of really good people have gotten dumped. The Rocky Mountain News won Pulitzers, and Scripps just shut it down. And, frankly, your writing's not that good. (I know, I know. It's "only" a message board. Still, I'd be trying to make a good impression if I were you.)

So, what advice to give you? I really don't know. I'd tell you to learn to blog, or Twitter, or whatever, but every time we fogies figure one of those out, something else comes along. If you want to be a good writer, though, you've got to do two things: Read and write. That's the only way you get better. College? It'll help, but the name on the degree only means so much.

 

Petty NEVER disappoints, especially on these types of threads.

Plus, your avatars dominate. TP, this may be your best one yet.

As for Fullerton, Marc Stein and Bruce Bowen would like to have a word with you, Klasky.

 

1) Do not major in journalism.
2) Work for any paper that will have you.
3) Start a blog, but make it fact-based, rather than opinion-based. Or just call teams asking for interviews with the lowliest of players. Start somewhere.
4) Don't expect to ever get rich or even make a liveable wage. Just know that going in. It cannot happen.
5) Read everything you can get your hands on, starting with the works of Jim Murray and Joe Posnanski.

 

Double major.

If it means going five years, then go five years.

 

Interesting....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/06/journalism-school-applica_n_183756.html

 

If I were awake right now, this would be a good time to post the "LOL WUT?" picture.

 

As an English/journalism major, don't do that. I definitely like the idea of double majoring, but major in one very practical, pre-professional-type major (accounting, education, pre-med, etc.) and then a humanity - history, philosophy, English, etc., etc.

Keep your grades up. You'll be told by journalism people that they don't matter. Don't buy it. They matter it almost every other profession. When I began looking into law school, I really had to overcome a "poor" GPA - a 3.4. And that was 10 years ago.

And string. There are plenty of tremendous writers who never set foot in a newspaper. There are other ways to write. There are plenty of authors and magazine writers who started off doing something else and branched out. This is something I've had a hard time convincing my own family and friends - that I can be a writer and not work full-time for a newspaper.