Confused. So very confused.. Career path to journalism.

The Adversary

Hi all,

I'm looking for some advice regarding building a career in journalism. I'm doing the leaving cert this year and wondering what viable routes/options I have. I'm thinking of doing an arts degree and majoring in english and doing my minor in either sociology or law, I think I would prefer to minor in sociology, as I believe I would find that more engaging. However perhaps law is more applicable or useful for an aspiring journalist?

I have some doubts though. An arts degree is not a degree in journalism albeit I could always go on and do a masters but I believe I am correct in saying experience and a portfolio of work is essential so could I possibly do a level 5 fetac course in journalism for a year and get work experience and then move on to a level 8 arts degree? If not how would I go about getting this valuable experience? I doubt there's many internships around?

Any advice is appreciated.

spurious

DT582 in DIT?

djpbarry

The Adversary wrote: »

I'm looking for some advice regarding building a career in journalism.

What would you like to report on? Economics? Sport? Politics? Science? Technology? Culture?

I ask because a more specialised primary degree might be a better option, followed, potentially, by a masters, although that is by no means essential. I would also suggest you get actively involved in anything that be construed as a "journalistic activity" while you are attending university. Oh and start a blog. Now.

There are a lot of aspiring journalists out there. It's a tough industry to break into, especially with the impending death of print media. If it's what you really want to do, then by all means go for it, but be prepared for a tough slog. This would also be my primary concern with doing a journalism degree - it leaves you with fewer options if the journalism career doesn't work out.

randylonghorn

djpbarry wrote: »

This would also be my primary concern with doing a journalism degree - it leaves you with fewer options if the journalism career doesn't work out.

Agreed.

In my (completely personal!) opinion, it also produces graduates who know a lot about journalism and media, but struggle to understand the topics they're writing about in depth or to analyse them, or interpret them for a broader audience or comment on them, leading to more superficial journalism ... a phenomenon probably compounded by the "soundbyte" nature of modern media.

Most of the older generation of journalists did their primary degree in some combination of history / politics / economics / sociology / law ... and to my mind anyway, it showed in a positive way in their journalism.

I wouldn't even be all that sure about choosing English tbh ... most English degrees are primarily English literature degrees, and while you can learn much about good writing from reading good literature, you don't actually need to take your degree in it to do that.

correa cristobal

Hey there!

I'm not familiarized with how higher education works here, but I'm a journalist myself with over four years experience (in my country, 'cause here I wash dishes -yay-).

In my humble opinion, if you want to pursue a career in journalism you must first know what you want to specialize yourself in. Like it was said before in the thread, either economycs, politics or sports (this is what I did). For the first two I would HIGHLY recommend you go to school and pursue a degree within those branches or social studies, as that will give you a much MUCH broader range of knowledge than studying a bachelor's degree in journalism; if it's sports you're interested (if not skip to the fourth paragraph) in then you're in "luck" since most sports journalists (not here but around the whole world) are empirical people, meaning most of us didn't study to be SPORTS journalists, just the latter.
Now, I said "luck" because actually there are quite a few unis out there where once you finish your BA in Journalism you can go for a Masters Degree in Sports Journalism (my thesis was a proposal to create one in my country, and that's something I'm very proud of hehe), and this all means that you're gonna have to be really good if you want to compete with someone who has already been through a BA and a MA.

And finally I can tell you this without a doubt: anybody who has the will, the passion and most importantly the knowledge can be a great journalist, it doesn't matter if you went to school for it or not. So ask yourself what you wanna be good at, then start studying that and I'm 100% sure you're gonna be able to report on it. (Reminds me of many MANY great journalists who didn't study journalism, and doens't take any credit off them).

Cheers man! Hope this helps a bit.

Richmond Ultra

If its sports your interested in then pick a good site to start in preferably online or else if your in college the college newspaper would be the next best thing. I'd go online first though as you'll get better feedback from proven editors and they can give you tips and pointers in how to improve.
Secondly go to games where you can possibly make contacts that will get you into the paid work. Keep an online profile busy enough by tweeting every now and again. Ask the current journalists questions on twitter this will get your name out there and you might even get a follow from them.
Always look for improvement and see if you can spot a gap in the market that will lead to paid work. Some of the volunteer sites give brilliant training in scenarios that can only improve your journalistic skills. i.e Extratime.ie allow you to attend matches, live updates and interviews after the game. While others like PunditArena.com allow you to write opinion pieces and will give feedback on them in order for you to improve your skills as a writer.

The Adversary

I appreciate the replies. I think my area of interest would definitely be political.

I'm thinking of possibly a Major/minor combination of Sociology and English. I always assumed I'd major in english but the advice here has altered my thinking. The point about english being literature heavy is a good one and seems unnecessary tbh so perhaps I'll take that as my minor just for writing skills in general.