Resolutions for journalism students, part I: Become invaluable
Author: Suzanne Yada Date Posted: December 31st, 2008 (9:38 pm)
If I only had two career resolutions for this year, it would be these:
1) Become invaluable, and
2) Network like mad.
Every goal I can think of would fall under these two categories, and it works with any career. But since I am currently a journalism student, I naturally have a lot of specifics for those of us in the same boat.
But these resolutions are more than just some j-school student spouting off edicts from on high. Many extraordinary people in the profession and in the schools have submitted their advice via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook. Also, having been a copy editor for three years myself before returning to school, I have seen glimpses of the other side of the equation, and I can see exactly what it takes to be really, really good at your job. And in the interest of full disclosure, I still have plenty of work to do — many of these goals are for me, too.
So with that, here’s what every journalism student should aspire to accomplish this year, in a two-part blog post (EDIT: Part II is now up here.):
Become invaluable
- Write like crazy.
If you’re not composing pieces for student media, write anyway. Write in your blog (start a free one here), write for a local blog, or even keep a private journal and write every day in it. This is my big resolution right here. I have to force myself to get into the writing habit. Digital media project director and former photojournalist Anne-Marie McReynolds (Twitter: @amcreynolds), gives some good ideas via Twitter: “Collaborate w/citizens, launch hyper-local blog, pitch investigative stories to Spot.Us.” (See the “Start pitching stories to publications” for an explanation of Spot.Us.)
- Produce multimedia like crazy.
Robert Courtemanche (Twitter: @teach_j), a journalism/media teacher in Houston, Texas, says this: “Learn EVERYTHING you can about the web. Learn how to make good visuals. Learn video editing. Learn to shoot video/photos.” A perfect starting point is KQED’s Digital Storytelling Initiative, which you can download for free and includes audio/visual tutorials and advice on crafting a good story. Also, Brandon Mendelson (Twitter: @BJMendelson), a graduate student at UAlbany, says, “Journalism students should learn the basics behind web coding (php,ect.); Others in the newsroom will depend on this knowledge.” A great resource to learn anything computer-related is Lynda.com, which for $25 a month will offer you video tutorials on just about ANY piece of software you can imagine. I have heard rave reviews and will be using it this semester to learn Flash, another skill that employers are clamoring for. EDIT: Alfred Hermida (@hermida) of PBS’s excellent MediaShift blog interviews several industry professionals about what they’re looking for in a journalism grad. All of them say that in addition to the basic core of journalism skills, you need new media skills.
- Meet your deadlines.
Every journalist I know is a natural procrastinator, including me. That’s why we thrive on tight deadlines. But you won’t thrive in the industry if you don’t meet them. This is my confession: while I meet deadlines, I don’t pace myself well AT ALL. It’s always a last-minute rush, and quality suffers as a result. This is my other huge goal for this year: Start on an assignment either the moment I get it, or within the hour.
- Grow some cojones.
Let me level with you. The world doesn’t need more music reviewers or opinion spouters. The world needs more people willing to ask tough questions. The first step to reversing journalism’s tarnished image is to have the guts to dig for information the public can’t easily find themselves, and be an advocate of unbiased, straightforward truth. If you can show depth and research with your reporting clips, if you can show you can ask the tough questions and be more than just a parrot for your interviewee, if you can fact-check the living snot out of your articles, you will rise to the top of the crop. EDIT: Alan Kellogg commented here with an important addendum: “Have the courage to acknowledge and correct your mistakes. You will make mistakes. When you err tell people you erred, where you erred, and fix your error. Your audience will think better of you.”
- Dig for better stories beneath the surface.
Former CNN anchor Miles O’Brien (Twitter: @milesobrien) was kind enough to send me a short yet complex New Year’s resolution: “I resolve to stay relevant amid tectonic changes.” The world may seem to be crashing in on journalism, but if we don’t stay relevant to people and their information needs, we might as well dig an early grave. That also means finding different, deeper angles to the same old stories and providing context to the public. Alex Kellner (Twitter: @kellnaaah), a political blogger and Master’s student at GWU, says it best: “Bring intellectual curiosity to the profession of journalism, don’t just write about what MSM and Drudge tell you is a story.”
- Know AP or Chicago style, and LURN TOO SPEL.
You can’t aspire to be a cabinetmaker and not know how to use the tools. Likewise, you can’t write without knowing the mechanics of English and the standard rules of media style. Make it a goal to plow through your stylebook page by page, and if you’ve already done that, do it again to refresh yourself. That’s my goal. The AP Stylebook is used more widely and is available in a searchable online format here for $25 a year (a fair price!), and the Chicago Style is also available online here for $30 a year. Or buy a hard copy and a good old-fashioned highlighter.
- Be absolutely, 100% ethical.
In my emails to my San Jose State professors, this one was the common thread. Professor Tom Ulrich says he has the same simple resolutions every year: “Meet all deadlines. Write bullet-proof copy. Abide by the ethics of the profession. Sounds quaint, but your reputation means everything.” Read, reread, and re-reread SPJ’s Code of Ethics. Then use it to decide beforehand what you would do in certain situations before those situations even arise.
- Treat all your school assignments like your next ticket to a job.
Because they are. All of them. Even reading that stupid textbook, the one the teacher never teaches from. Don’t tailor your homework assignments and projects to meet the teacher’s standards; tailor them to a potential employer’s standards. I wish I took some of my school projects more seriously, because I would have loved to have shown them off if they were done to a higher quality than just the instructor’s expectations. The more material you can flaunt in your portfolio, the better.
- Apply, apply, apply.
You can’t get internships or scholarships if you never apply. Find internships at Journalism Jobs, ASNE for newspapers, Ed2010 for magazines, on this list, through your school and via your instructors. Apply for scholarships through FastWeb, CubReporters.org, American Journalism Review, and again, through your school and via your instructors. Make a goal to submit a predetermined amount of applications in a predetermined amount of time.
- Talk with your teachers about something other than class.
Psst, here’s a secret: Teachers are itching to swap real-world stories and insider information with students, but not nearly enough students ask. If you can’t make their posted office hours, take them out to lunch. They’re also a gold mine of connections, and they really, actually, DO want you to use them.
- Start pitching stories to publications.
Just start. See where it gets you. It could get you 100 rejection letters, but you might break through somewhere. Make this the year you got published and — *gasp* — got paid for it. Look at Writer’s Market, select the publications for which you want to write, learn how to write a good query and start pitching stories. If you can’t find the book at your library or bookstore, subscribe to the online version. It’s searchable, current and affordable. Also, if you live in the San Francisco area and have an idea for an in-depth report, you may want to consider Spot.Us, a Web site where you can pitch a story idea and ask the public to fund your freelance wages. It’s a bit harder for students to convince the public that they are qualified enough to handle a story worthy of their money, but the platform is there. EDIT: Came across a great blog post from Ben LaMothe (@benlamothe) explaining why writing for the student paper may just not be enough anymore.
- Take a business course, or five.
It’s not easy, and I hate math, but I’m minoring in business for several good reasons. I don’t need to tell you this economy is in the dumps and this profession is in trouble. Adam Hemphill (Twitter: @ahemphill), a graduate student in Washington D.C. and a team member of CoPress, says, “Journalism students should resolve to make their news organizations self-sustaining.” Your knowledge of the world of business will help you tenfold in landing a job — or creating your own (see next item). If you’re not able to take courses at your university, try the community college nearest you, or contact the Small Business Administration. They often give free seminars across the nation and are ready to give you advice. Also dig up information on the business side of journalism: I keep tabs on Poynter’s Biz Blog, Reflections of a Newsosaur, Newspaper Next and Monday Note as well as devouring the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s annual State of the Media report. (I also keep a few StumbleUpon and Delicious bookmarks tagged “business of news” and am working on a series of blog posts.) EDIT: Just found this excellent blog, The Media Business, written by Robert Picard. ANOTHER EDIT: Now Poynter has another must-read business blog, NewsPay.
- Be prepared to go entrepreneurial.
Entrepreneurial journalism is something every single j-school graduate should be prepared to jump into. MediaShift agrees, as does Eat Sleep Publish. The Online Journalism Review has a number of great posts on it here, not the least of which is this one. Don’t attempt this until you 1) network like mad (see tomorrow’s blog post) and 2) learn how to talk business (see goal above).
- Learn something that doesn’t earn school units.
Do you feel like your j-school not teaching you what you need to know? With impossible budgets and a crazy bureaucracy to battle, they try to do the best they can, but they can only do so much for you. Your education is in your hands, so take command of it. I already mentioned Lynda.com for learning multimedia software, something every journalism student should know. Another fantastic resource is NewsU to relearn (or learn) everything you only skimmed over in class. On top of that, if you want to be a reporter and your school shamefully doesn’t require a minor or academic focus outside of the journalism department, dive into a second subject of interest that you want to cover as a reporter. Environment? Politics? Schools? Crime? Business? International relations? Make it a goal this year to do some research online and read books (remember books?) on the subject. Which reminds me…
- Read.
Read for fun. Read for learning. Read voraciously. But read quality materials. Scott Fosdick, a professor at San Jose State University, has this excellent resolution to offer: “I resolve to regularly monitor my media consumption, with an eye toward increasing the meaningful and deep and decreasing the trivial and shallow.
- Teach.
Chrys Wu (Twitter: @MacDivaONA), a journalist and editorial consultant, puts it eloquently: “A respect for experience and a willingness to teach.” All of this information you’re soaking up should be passed along, don’t you think? Teach others what you’ve learned, whether it’s to fellow students, through your blog, or even your teachers and other professionals. Yes, you might know something they don’t (but don’t let that get to your head!). Jeff Jarvis posts here about journalism students who learn new computer applications and turn around to teach the professional journalists how to use them. It’s an excellent idea. Nothing ensures you know a subject more than having to teach it, and programs like the one Jeff mentions ensures that others in the profession know it too.
A bit too much? Well there’s more. Tomorrow there will be a barrage of New Year’s resolutions all linked to networking. Part II: Network Like Mad is now up!
Greg Linch also has a great list of top 10 things journalism students should do. Also indirectly related, Howard Owens has advice for journalists of all types to get more wired.
Want to add a resolution? Please add your own in the comments below!
EDIT 1: Added another bullet point at the end of the list, Teach.
EDIT 2: Also, thanks to Ryan Sholin (@ryansholin) and Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) for the shout-out!
EDIT 3: And Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) for his tweet! My, you people flatter. :)
EDIT 4: Just discovered this very interesting wiki called How To Be A Journalism Student, which was based on a post on OJB by Paul Bradshaw (@paulbradshaw). Excellent. I will be adding bits and pieces to it, and you should too. (Psst: the password is “howto.”)
EDIT 5: Thanks to Andy Dickinson (@digidickinson), I stumbled on this post by Shawn Smith (@shawnsmith) called “Forget survival: The Journalist’s Guide to Owning 2009 and Beyond.” It’s in a very similar vein as this one, and it’s great stuff. Enjoy.
EDIT 6: And Whitney Rhodes (@wrhodes) at the CourierPostOnline has her new year’s resolutions for graduating journos.
EDIT 7: Gina Chen at Save The Media makes another good post with her hopes for journalists in the future. (I don’t mind all these edits, do you? :) )
EDIT 8: Alan Kellogg commented here with an addendum to the “Grow some cojones” item. It’s been added.
EDIT 9: Many commenters say they appreciate my post was mostly positive. But Chris Boese (@chrisboese) fairly asks in the comments if I’m “whistling past the graveyard” and warns against seeing business school classes as the answer to everything. She makes many valid points, but I have a lot to say in response. I will do in a follow-up post, and also in the series of posts I began and will continue on the business of news. I also wanted to make sure I am not coming across as saying “If only people like Miles O’Brien did a better job and became more invaluable, he’d still be employed.” That is simply not the economic reality right now, and not the reason for the post. However, please do read Chris’ full comments here; it’s important to get another side of things.
EDIT 10: Just posted Part II: Network Like Mad. Hope this helps.
EDIT 11: Added a great link from Ben LaMothe (@benlamothe) to the “Start pitching stories to publications” item.
EDIT 12: Added this link to the multimedia item that features interviews from industry professionals themselves. It’s a good one.
EDIT 13: Just added Robert Picard’s The Media Business to the “Take a business course or five” item.
EDIT 14 (2/21/09): Added BizPay to the “Take a business course or five” item.
Tags: resolutions
Category: journalism students, resolutions
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
@suzanneyada very nice piece on advice for journalism students. Loved focus on digging for truth over spouting opinions. http://is.gd/ekJB
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Once again.. Tip for Journalism students http://tinyurl.com/7qcbow
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Retweet: @suzanneyada. Great resolutions/advice for us j-students. Part I – http://tinyurl.com/7qcbow Part II – http://tinyurl.com/7lynza
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
If you’re a young journalist, you need to be reading @suzanneyada‘s last two posts on networking: http://is.gd/ekJB and http://is.gd/evT1
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
@journalismnews I wrote a whole blog post on resolutions for journalism students here: http://is.gd/ekJB
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Suzanne Yada’s advice to J students: http://tinyurl.com/7qcbow
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
If I only had two career resolutions http://tinyurl.com/7qcbow
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Good read. Resolutions for Journalism Students Part I on Suzanna Yada’s blog http://tinyurl.com/7qcbow
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
@suzanneyada offers great career advice to journalim students (and those in the field): Become invaluable. http://bit.ly/FSg6
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
@suzanneyada your post spans beyond journalism – http://is.gd/ekJB … cohones FTW
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Resolutions for journalism students: Become invaluable, and network like mad. http://bit.ly/FSg6 #journchat #media #jschool
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Some New Year resolutions for journalism students – most of them are applicable to professional journalists too: http://tinyurl.com/7qcbow
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
@suzanneyada‘s post about resolutions for journalism students: http://tinyurl.com/7qcbow
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
@suzanneyada‘s advice is aimed at young journalists, but it works for the rest of us too. http://is.gd/ekJB (in case you’ve missed the buzz)
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
RT @jayrosen_nyu: Some remarkably savvy, well informed and spirited advice for young journalists from a peer, Suzanne Yada http://is.gd/ekJB
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
@suzanneyada It’s a great post! Advice we can all live by http://is.gd/ekJB
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Getting mad hits on my latest post! http://is.gd/ekJB Time to freshen up about page, portfolio, blog roll…aaaah! *becomes self-conscious*
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
rt @ryansholin @jayrosen_nyu well-informed and spirited advice for young journalists from a peer, Suzanne Yada http://is.gd/ekJB
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
(RT @jayrosen_nyu) Suzanne Yada’s new year’s journalism resolutions: Become invaluable; network like crazy http://is.gd/ekJB
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
RT @jeffcutler: I know it’s still early, but this is the best thing I’ve read all year. Good work @suzanneyada http://is.gd/ekJB Yup it is.
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
RT @jeffcutler I know it’s still early, but this is the best thing I’ve read all year… Good work @suzanneyada http://is.gd/ekJB
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
via @ryansholin. Some remarkably savvy, well informed and spirited advice for young journalists from a peer, Suzanne Yada http://is.gd/ekJB
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
I know it’s still early, but this is the best thing I’ve read all year… Good work @suzanneyada http://is.gd/ekJB
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Thanks @RyanSholin and @JeffJarvis for the shout-outs on their blogs! Glad I had the cojones to post this: http://is.gd/ekJB
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Resolutions for Student Journalists (by @suzanneyada): Become Invaluable (write, shoot, video edit) & “network like mad.” http://bit.ly/FSg6
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
New blog post: Resolutions for journalism students, part I: Become invaluable http://tinyurl.com/7qcbow
September 5th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
@simaocc #pktwitterej Sugesto: de @suzanneyada “Resolutions for journalism students”: http://is.gd/ekJB & http://is.gd/evT1 incl. Twitter
December 31st, 2008 at 9:42 pm
A good list indeed! :-)
December 31st, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Great list. Thanks for including me, I plan on sharing it with my students.
December 31st, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Nice list! I’m glad to see that my “top ten” still has some life left in it after almost a year.
Good luck with your goals and happy new year!
January 1st, 2009 at 2:48 am
@TeachJ My pleasure! Thanks for responding and sharing with your students.
@Greg Well, good blog posts have long shelf lives!
January 1st, 2009 at 10:36 am
[...] Suzanne Yada’s resolutions for journalism students in 2009, this bullet point: “Grow some cojones. Let me level with you. The world doesn’t need more [...]
January 1st, 2009 at 11:01 am
[...] Ryan Sholin on Twitter, I find a post by journalism student and practitioner Suzanne Yada (what a great name for blogging) with great advice [...]
January 1st, 2009 at 11:02 am
Superb post with super advice.
January 1st, 2009 at 11:59 am
[...] Resolve To Be Resolute Journalists need to stand up and get some guts, that’s what San Jose State j-student Suzanne Yada says. And her list of resolutions for [...]
January 1st, 2009 at 12:04 pm
You totally get it and you’ll be a great journalist when you’re done, I’m absolutely sure of it. My best advice to aspiring writers is to write. Simply put, writers write. It’s what we do and as you stated in one of your goals, if you’re a J School student in 2009, you absolutely must blog.
It gives you an outlet to do what we do. It provides an unfiltered sample for potential employers and it provides a personal publishing platform, which any writer should grab with both hands and take full advantage of.
As a student, and in the coming years, you will probably write for someone who owns the publishing tools–the web site, the press or both. You will write what they tell you, how they tell you and you will have little control over the content, but that blog will always be all yours to write about whatever you want whenever you want.
I wish you good luck, even though my instincts tell me you wont need it because you already understand what it takes to succeed as a modern journalist.
Ron Miller
By Ron Miller Blog
http://byronmiller.typepad.com
January 1st, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Indeed good post. Well-thought out, with obvious research, as displayed with your links. As you note, these are applicable to working journalists and students. And, it’s positive! No “we’re in trouble, the journalism ship is sinking…” Instead, focusing on issues that can make for better journalists and better journalism for the consumer. Also, fyi, I made my way here from a tweet by jayrosen_nyu.
January 1st, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Under blogging: write more posts like this. I’ve already graduated, but I’m all about continuing my education. Thanks for the business resources; I wish I had done a business minor in school.
January 1st, 2009 at 1:42 pm
[...] 2009 by allthenewsblog Based on personal experience and the advice of experts, journalism student Suzanne Yada offers two career resolutions for her fellow [...]
January 1st, 2009 at 1:52 pm
This is great, enthusiastic advice, and not just for students. We all need to learn more about the business side, for example.
Your post, and the impact it’s having, is more proof that this is an exciting time to be a journalist. Someone may have written an early-’80s version of this when I was in school, but how many people saw it? I certainly didn’t. Gotta love the Web.
January 1st, 2009 at 2:46 pm
One thing I’ll add: There’s a fine line between “invaluable” and “irreplaceable.”
Funny thing about “irreplaceable” is that it quickly becomes a synonym for “unpromotable.” That’s something I learned as a bartender — always train the next person in line so you don’t leave a void when you step up to what’s next.
That goes double for online news rockstars in student media newsrooms.
January 1st, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Needs to go further. Under Cojones add. . .
“Have the courage to acknowledge and correct your mistakes. You will make mistakes. When you err tell people you erred, where you erred, and fix your error. ”
Your audience will think better of you.
January 1st, 2009 at 3:52 pm
While this is a hopeful list, how can you be sure you aren’t “whistling past the graveyard”?
I popped out of J-School right in the midst of the Reagan recession of the early 80s, and the Reagan media ownership deregulation of the late 80s, which came to dominate my experience of the field just as this massive die-off of newspapers and news organization staffing (hollowing out of corporate properties, in B-school speak) is dominating the experience of current journalism students.
What I can tell you of my recession: an entire generation of J-school grads were never able to enter the field at all. And entire generation. I’m talking mostly about radio majors especially, as the rural landscape of the U.S. was turned over to taped repeaters masquerading as local stations.
Consolidation and mergers with mid-size dailies in places like Little Rock, Tulsa, Anchorage, all resulted in the layoff of 800+ people per paper. Those people either left the field altogether, or spread out to the next level down of (in those days) Thomson chain dailies, the kind of places that generally provided entry-level jobs for new j-school grads, grads who never got those jobs.
Now folks like Jeff Jarvis and others say the problem is with the ideology of journalism, that the “Chinese wall” of pseudo-objectivity that enforced crucial journalistic ethics by keeping business operations separate is at fault, because now journalists are so busy being objective, they can’t even comprehend the notion of audience-centric, or user-centered design, let alone a news-content enterprise that puts social media in the center.
So we get this push to get J-school students into B-school classes, as if taking a business course or two (or learning Flash and PHP?) will somehow save their vanishing careers. I’d like to be hopeful, but to me this sounds like someone blowing so much smoke up your butts.
B-schools do not suddenly impart entrepreneurial brilliance. Generally, J-school students can go a bit cross-eyed in B-school courses, as they can appear quite bone-headed and obvious to the average well-read Renaissance person who is drawn to J-school. One tends to react to those classes with a stifled “Duh!”
I’m not saying all J-school students can academically run circles around B-school classmates, but the ones who dance with the idea of taking the LSAT after graduation if they can’t find a job… those will be bored to tears, as would most people who read books and are curious about the larger world and its condition.
I know some Mass Comm programs tend to be the “flunk out” major for college athletes and partiers and the like, but some of those do sandbag along into journalism majors too, just as some of those sandbags even end up in law school.
But until you get to MBA-level in B-schools, you generally are not gonna get much intellectual stimulation so much as you will just “learn the lingo” that allows you to move in their circles with credibility. In B-school courses you can learn the insider baseball stuff while mastering with little study the stuff that seems so bone-headedly obvious.
Journalists are not so unaware of conventional business practices so much as they don’t drink the Kool-Aid with glazed eyes. And that, it appears, is their deficiency, their main sin, according to the business community. Too much skepticism. Go figure.
We built that Chinese wall for a reason: to approximate something closer to credibility in regard to the subjects we were writing about. Now they say that construct is putting journalists out of business? Why? Because we believe bloggers who are taking kickbacks from their advertisers and from the products they are mentioning have more credibility?
Or because it is in SOMEONE’S interest (corporate media owners) that the Fourth Estate as it is known now should disappear, and a general atmosphere of all communication must = interested PR should prevail?
Ask the basic skeptical journalist question: Who benefits MOST from the disappearance of traditional journalism?
How much is economics being used as a convenient excuse for a POLITICAL POGROM to gut newsrooms of experienced veterans who ask impolitic questions?
I’m all for online media, citizen journalism, blogging, and have been an active promoter of such things for many years. But don’t dress up this current purge as something that could be “cured” if journalists just took a few more bone-headed business courses, as if somehow their knowledge of business was deficient. Pile O pooh.
Most journalists have business knowledge from their focused study of beats and story subjects that runs circles around narrow B-school knowledge-making filters. They just don’t give the answers that their business-owner overlords want to hear.
January 1st, 2009 at 4:08 pm
BTW, as someone at CNN who respected and understood how invaluable Miles O’Brien and the entire sci-tech dept was, it sure didn’t do them any good, being that “invaluable,” did it?
You can make yourself as invaluable and irreplaceable as you possibly can, and when some accountant in some office decides that intellectual capital is worth little, that a cheaper 25-year-old doing factory assembly line wire copy rewrites can replace Miles O’Brien’s entire team, logic and values, even BUSINESS logic and values, have nothing to do with it.
Business logic would have assigned a weight to the intellectual capital that team represented. But shareholder profit margins, AOL debt service, moving interchangeable pieces around on a corporate game board, that’s what passes itself off for pseudo-business logic in this world. That, in and of itself (not to mention the widespread corporate collapses brought about by financial industry “logic”) reveals the deeply rotten core of standard B-school knowledge-making.
January 1st, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Great post!
I like your positive spin; I’m so tired of the doom ‘n’ gloom, although I realize it’s very real. (I’m living it, too.) But crying in your drink only helps for a while — you have to try to change things. I think you’re doing that.
I like your two points about networking and being invaluable. (And, yes, even invaluable folks get laid off, and that stinks, And it’s painful, and it’s unfair and wrong. But you won’t prevent that by not trying to be as invaluable as you can be.)
One point I’d add to your list is for j-school students to take some classes at iSchools (Schools of Information Science.) To me, the way journalism is headed, it’s a no-brainer to understand of information transfer and how people use information (not just journalists.) Plus you get a lot of technical know-how, and iSchool profs that I know are really into the blogging scene and understand search-engine optimization, page rank and such more than many journalists.
I look forward to your post on networking.
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:41 am
[...] commented that it put me in mind of advice to journlism students from Suzanne Yada (a journalism student herself) that I’d just read on Buzzmachine: Grow some cojones. Let me [...]
January 2nd, 2009 at 5:30 am
[...] :: everyday journalism :: » Blog Archive » Resolutions for journalism students, part I: Become inv… (tags: journalism media writing) [...]
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:07 am
[...] Yada has written the blog post Resolutions for journalism students, part 1. I consider it essential [...]
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:54 am
[...] point out that the reason I’m writing this post is because of a particular sentence in a resolutions for journalists post on everyday journalism: The first step to reversing journalism’s tarnished image is to have [...]
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
[...] my students will be seeing this when they get back along with the widely circulated (and excellent) Resolutions for journalism students from Suzanne [...]
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:26 pm
[...] who’s is on Twitter (@sarahsodyssey) was responsible for me finding Suzanna Yada’s Resolutions for journalism students, part I: Become invaluable, the essential post I mentioned earlier [...]
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:01 pm
[...] Yada also has a lengthy list of resolutions for journalism [...]
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Loving it! So much to remember and to which to recommit.
:)
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:13 pm
[...] an excellent post by Suzanne Yada summarising what she thinks journalism students – yes, that’s you, regardless [...]
January 3rd, 2009 at 6:41 am
Great post Suzanne. Now is the perfect time to be entrepreneurial. I wish I was smart enough to take biz classes in school instead of learning it all on the fly. But that’s the life of a communications grad :)
January 3rd, 2009 at 9:47 am
I love the write like crazy tip. Imagine a group of journos participating in National Novel Writing Month (50,000 words in November – nanowrimo.org) … surely a decent story a day would get them past the 50K marker by the end of the month.
January 3rd, 2009 at 10:03 am
[...] Suzanne Yada’s Resolutions for journalism students, part 1 [...]
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Great words of influence…I especially like the one about doing your class projects as if creating them for the workplace. I am going to take that suggestion back to my students as I am always trying to get them to think ahead of how to present themselves and their work to an employer. It is good to hear such wise words from a current student. Keep up the good work. I look forward to future posts.
January 3rd, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Thanks @Ron Miller, @Carrie, @Mark Dodge Medlin, @deb @Shawn Smith @Whitney Rhodes and @dkzody for all your kind words.
@Alan Kellog, that’s a great addendum. It’s been added.
@Chris Boese, I have much to say in response but I have hoisted your comment in my post, because you bring up a lot of good points.
January 3rd, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Thanks Suzanne! I’m subscribed, so I’ll be interested to read your thoughts in response.
January 3rd, 2009 at 3:15 pm
BTW, can I disavow that awful dangling modifier I left in my first sentence of comment #100?
January 3rd, 2009 at 3:41 pm
@Chris Boese: Hahaha! It did take me a second (and a glance at your Web site) to realize that you once worked for CNN. But consider it disavowed.
A short response to your comment: I hope you don’t think of me as stupid or incapable, because business school is kicking my ass right now. These classes are not yawn-inducing, they’re panic-inducing. I know nothing about business, hence the reason I chose it as my minor. Many other journalists feel the same way.
But your warning about drinking their Kool-Aid is a good one, and I have specific examples I experienced in one of my classes that I will write about soon enough.
Not sure about your statement that a political agenda is responsible for gutting newsrooms. I don’t doubt it’s possible, but I would like to hear more evidence.
January 3rd, 2009 at 9:57 pm
FYI, Part II: Network Like Mad is now posted. Please tell me what you think!
January 4th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
[...] Suzanne has some really great, specific advice on how to do that: write and produce multimedia like crazy, meet deadlines, ask tough questions and dig for better stories, always be ethical, put yourself out there, talk to your professors (or bosses) about more than your homework (assignments)… and more. Read the full list and explanation on how to make it happen. [...]
January 4th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Here’s my grizzled, cynical, ex-journalist addition to all that: Don’t kill yourself to get a leg up in the news biz. I’m not advocating laziness, just be calmly aware that your boss will never, ever reward you commensurately with all the sweat you pour into your work. Even if she really cares about you, loves your work, understands and respects what you’re doing — which is rare enough — her bosses simply will not make it worth your while to damage your health, your love life, your friendships.
What you describe here and in your follow-up post is classic, red-blooded-American, get-ahead, type-A advice. Which is to say, if you take all of it to heart, you’ll give yourself a heart attack — as if deadlines and headline busts weren’t enough.
Even in flush times (which we may never see again), news chews up journalists. You invest yourself in the work so deeply that, when the crash or the betrayal or the disappointment comes, you’re hamstrung. And, unless you’re freaking Thomas Friedman, it’s not like you have a fat stack of cash built up to retire on or escape with.
Use your time in school to scan for opportunities and creative moments outside the realm of news. Open your horizons and build in options.
January 4th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
[...] that people like to see their names/faces in print. 10. Don’t forget to apply for contests.) und Suzanne Yada (Write like crazy. Produce multimedia like crazy. Meet your deadlines. Grow some cojones. Dig for [...]
January 5th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
This advice is invaluable, I would like to thank you for publishing it! Part two is also fantastic and I will follow the advice as much as I can.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:00 am
[...] Yada’s Resolutions for Journalism Students: Become Invaulable | Network Like Mad – Here’s some actionable items for all journalists, not just students. [...]
January 6th, 2009 at 7:50 am
[...] POSTS essenciais: Resolutions for journalism students, part I: Become invaluable Resolutions for journalism students, part II: Network like [...]
January 6th, 2009 at 8:10 am
[...] Yada: “Resolutions for journalism students, part I: Become invaluable” and “Resolutions for journalism students, part II: Network like mad” If I only [...]
January 7th, 2009 at 8:04 am
[...] She wrote two brilliant posts with a list of resolutions for journalism students, that you must read if you’re still in school (and even if you are not), in which she talks about the importance of self promoting. I wrote about this too, and it worries me that professionals (and especially the younger ones) aren’t taking this seriously. [...]
January 19th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
I think that this post is something that every student wich starts at j-school should read. I’m no longer a j-school studant, in fact, I’m a post-graduated j-school studant, but I really found myself in those resolutions.
Well, I’m a big procrastinator too. I agree with you, we all are.
Congratulations for the excelent post.
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:12 pm
[...] kind of great, as are many of the people on it. Today I got some sweet journalism tips from @suzanneyada and learned about the physics of time travel in Lost from &jakedobkin. I also tried this [...]
February 26th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
[...] Resolutions for journalism students, part I: Become invaluable Resolutions for journalism students, part II: Network like mad [...]
April 5th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
[...] blogger in the midst of so much negative news about journalism and new media. Yada has resolutions for journalism students and I think journalists as [...]
July 24th, 2009 at 7:26 am
Great advice, Suzanne, but I’d make one big change. Above “Write like crazy,” you should have “Report like crazy.” In our rehashed, retweeted world, it’s often forgotten that reporting — getting out there, finding out what’s going, talking to people — is the bedrock of journalism. I am a British foreign correspondent who reports from across Asia. Mark Twain’s words are pinned above the desk in my office in Bangkok: “A journalist is a reporter out of a job.”
Keep up the great work — and please follow @journotopia. I will be tweeting from foreign assignments very soon.
Andrew
January 3rd, 2010 at 4:22 am
Great list of advice. I shall tag it on Bighow. I might as well suggest the online journalism handbook over at Bighow.com URL: http://bighow.com/journalism
Keep up the good work in 2010.
January 27th, 2010 at 11:00 am
[...] journalism-related pontificating all goes on suzanneyada.com. On there I wrote a couple of posts filled with advice for journalism students, and it went a little [...]
June 18th, 2010 at 10:33 am
…
You guys have a excellent web site planning the following, KIU!…
July 9th, 2010 at 1:32 am
[...] mantra was the centerpiece of a late December 2008 blog post that laid out her new year’s resolutions for j-students worldwide. The ‘cojones’ [...]
July 9th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
[...] my j-school experience (read: the Spartan Daily, SJSU’s student paper), I spouted off a laundry list of advice for journalism [...]
August 27th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
[...] Aug I loved Suzanne Yada’s two posts on resolutions for journalism students (Part one: Become invaluable, and Part two: Network like mad) in this week’s class readings. I found it really inspiring- [...]