Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

NUJ - Worth it?

  • 07-01-2011 5:17pm
    #1
    fatgav
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 627 ✭✭✭


    Hey all.

    Been working as a broadcast journalist (local radio) for a couple of years now, and while I have steady work I would still regard myself as starting out in the business. Was wondering if anyone with a bit more experience, hopefully in a similar field to myself, be able to advise on whether membership of the NUJ is worth it, and what benefits that would have?

    From what I can tell it's around 17 euro a month to sign up.


Comments

  • #2
    jdivision
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,260 ✭✭✭jdivision


    It's only handy if you get sued, otherwise it's got little or not impact.


  • #3
    PCPhoto
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,584 ✭✭✭PCPhoto


    my experience .... if you live in England... they're great, doing all kinds of work for the people there.(well...from reading the propaganda they send out)

    if in Ireland ... keep your money, because thats all they want.


  • #4
    fatgav
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 627 ✭✭✭fatgav


    Disappointing, but thanks for responses


  • #5
    FewFew
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,746 ✭✭✭✭FewFew


    PCPhoto wrote: »
    my experience .... if you live in England... they're great, doing all kinds of work for the people there.(well...from reading the propaganda they send out)

    if in Ireland ... keep your money, because thats all they want.

    Seems accurate enough based on the disparity between fees for English and Irish students. Apparently they sorted it out, but the fact that for years Irish students had to pay about four times the price for the same union... pft.


  • #6
    frostie500
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,444 ✭✭✭frostie500


    I'm in a somewhat similar position to the OP. For the last year I have been writing for a local paper on motorsport. This year however I am looking to expand my coverage and start covering events. In the application processes for accreditation I have been asked for a photocopy of my press card, is this membership to NUJ or is there an international standard press card?

    I am also being asked for insurance guarantees, but I am unaware of the type of coverage I would need and the cost of it, does anyone know off hand the best providers of this?

    The work I have been doing has been unpaid up to this point so I don't want to rush into purchasing membership/insurance if there is alternatives out there.


  • Advertisement
  • #7
    Snickers Man
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,301 ✭✭✭Snickers Man


    If you ever need to travel to America on an assignment, even to attend a conference or exhibition on which you might be reporting, you are supposed to get a Journalist Visa. You will ONLY get one of those from the US embassy if you have a valid NUJ card.


  • #8
    Horsebox_twenty
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24 ✭Horsebox_twenty


    Snickers Man wrote: »
    If you ever need to travel to America on an assignment, even to attend a conference or exhibition on which you might be reporting, you are supposed to get a Journalist Visa. You will ONLY get one of those from the US embassy if you have a valid NUJ card.


    Not quite accurate. I've never been in the NUJ and I've gotten a US media visa umpteen times in the past. A letter from your news outlet explaining the nature of your trip will do for visa purposes.


  • #9
    Snickers Man
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,301 ✭✭✭Snickers Man


    Horsebox_twenty wrote: »
    Not quite accurate. I've never been in the NUJ and I've gotten a US media visa umpteen times in the past. A letter from your news outlet explaining the nature of your trip will do for visa purposes.
    Only going by my own experience. Or more accurately, the experience of two colleagues who applied for journalists' visas well in advance of a planned trip a few years ago and were rejected because they did not have NUJ cards.

    I know that I was specifically asked to produce mine when I got a visa two years ago.


  • #10
    kevin99
    Closed Accounts Posts: 315 ✭✭kevin99


    The days of the closed shop are over. You don't have to be a member of the NUJ for anything.
    What has the NUJ done for the hundreds of regional newspaper journalists who lost their jobs over the past two years?
    Diddly squat.
    What have they done to protect the working rights, pay and conditions of journalists, locally and nationally in the print and broadcast sectors?
    Diddly squat.
    The only time I ever hear of the NUJ is when their general secretary Seamus Dooley gives a sound bite to RTE news about the latest batch of newspaper layoffs or closures.
    Waste of money being a member.
    Bring back the days of Jim Eadie and Patsy Dunne who weren't afraid to take on the might of newspaper managements the length and breadth of this country.
    Is TV3 unionised? Does management recognise the NUJ?
    Same question for City Channel TV and the locla radio stations?
    Oh forgot what about Newstalk and TodayFM do their managements recognise the NUJ?
    And if the answer is no to all those questions, what is Mr Dooley and others in the NUJ office doing about it?


Advertisement