NCE award-winner and regional newspaper journalist Mary Hamilton shares her tips for passing the news practice element of the National Council for the Training of Journalists’ (NCTJ) senior qualification, the National Certificate Examination.
Got a journalism degree but can’t get a job? It’s a struggle facing countless graduates at the moment, but what is the actual value of a degree in such a competitive industry?
According to Canadian graduate Laura Drake, writing on the Macleans ‘OnCampus’ magazine website, no one should think spending a few years at university is a golden pass to employment.
What a journalism undergraduate degree will get you are amazing memories, good connections with profs who know hundreds of working journalists, marketable skills in the form of writing and communications abilities. What it will not get you, and what no one ever promises it will get you, is a job in journalism.
To be clear, in my recollection, no one at j-skool ever lied about this, either. I’m pretty sure that from literally day one, lectures included messages from profs that, if you wanted to get a job in journalism on the other side, then you were going to have to hustle outside of class. A journalism degree on its own is never, ever going to get anyone a job in media. Students, newspaper experience, community radio, working for small-town media, free work placements, academic exchanges and, at this point, extra curricular web experience are basically mandatory if you’re interested in hunting for a job.
It’s as I was always told, every qualification, experience and contact is like a key. The more keys you have, the more doors you can open.
Recent graduate Nikki Osman is keeping a diary for the Guardian’s careers’ site of her attempts to land a job and career in journalism.
Now, almost a year on, with a portfolio in progress and a burgeoning, if not yet bulging, book of contacts, I’m still feeling confident. For the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing with you the highs and lows of my perpetual endeavour to see my words in print and online, as I work on my pitching, dream up inventive feature ideas and attempt to dazzle editors with my passionate prose. With the class of 2010 hot on my heels and the world of words busier than ever, arguably there’s never been a worse time for the budding journo. But persistence pays off, right?
Read part one of Nikki’s diary at this link…
If you’re a young journalist or a would-be hack, why not sign-up to our blog network aimed at journalists under 30 to share their experiences of journalism, jobs and more.
Budding video journalists and future news presenters can apply for free TV production training as part of Bloomberg’s Broadcast Volunteer programme.
Applications are being accepted until 18 August for a September start and are open to anyone aged between 18-25, not in education, employment or training. Bloomberg advertise the programme as providing:
Eight days of intensive training in TV Production and Broadcasting skills plus three top-up sessions.
At least 80 hours volunteering at Roundhouse Studios in September and October 2010, putting your skills into practice by supporting Roundhouse TV and Film projects and documenting Roundhouse events.
Great work experience to put on your CV.
TNTJ, or Tomorrow’s News, Tomorrow’s Journalists, was set up to provide an informal blogging network for young journalists to share their experiences of the industry and debate, discuss and dissect the issues affecting their fledgling careers.
We’re relaunching the blog network under the same criteria, but with some new features planned. Every month there will be a new question or topic up for discussion. If you join TNTJ, we’d like your views on it, but we also want you to blog on your own site too to spread the word. It’s an opportunity to make new contacts, get advice and promote yourself online – you can create a user profile for all your posts on the TNTJ site.
In addition to the monthly debates, we’ll post events, opportunities, interviews and advice that we think would interest our TNTJ members. Please feel free to do the same.
To sign up, please click ‘Register’ in the sidebar or click here to register. ANYBODY can sign-up, so long as you:
1) Are younger than 30-years-old;
2) And you blog about journalism/are interested in taking part in an online discussion about journalism.
Enter your details, and soon we’ll activate your account so you can post your entry. Bear with us while we do that – it’s not an automated process, but we’ll be quick as we can.
The revamped TNTJ will be moderated by a team of young journalists, who we’ll be introducing shortly along with a question for August. You can also follow the blog on Twitter, @TNTJ.
Let’s get blogging!
Joseph Stashko is a journalism student at UCLan and co-editor of hyperlocal news site Blog Preston.
So, you’re studying journalism at university. You’ve paid your fees, bought a copy of McNae’s law, and at the end of three years slogging away at intros, pyramid writing and shorthand, you’ll become a journalist, right?
Obviously it’s a naive and unrealistic view. Getting a job in journalism is more difficult now than ever. And yet the industry saw a 24 per cent surge in applications for journalism courses last year, many of them undergraduate. Clearly people still want to be journalists, and the idea of a vocational degree is still considered attractive.
Considering the uptake in journalism courses, student media offices should be bursting at the seams. So why are so many journalism students unwilling to contribute to student media outlets?
The University of Central Lancashire, home to the first formal journalism course in the UK, currently offers more than 20 undergraduate and postgraduate courses. It has legions of journalism students at various stages in their career, with a wide range of skills and ideas. Yet the student newspaper, Pluto, is run by a skeleton crew.
Pluto’s news editor David Stubbings is hoping to hoping to refresh and improve student media at UCLan by redesigning the fortnightly paper and website and improving the means of communication to students.
“I think a lot of students arrive at university very excited and want to try and do everything. They’ll maybe write a bit but then just lapse and do the bare minimum, especially in first year,” he said.
He pointed out that the blame for a poorly staffed student media also lies with the editors, who should be encouraging more students to participate to avoid an elitist environment.
“Those who are heavily involved must make an effort to attract more contributors and crucially keep them interested. I think there are a lot of students who fail at doing that, so when you see the same writers names appear again and again people start to think that there’s no point trying to get involved.”
The outlook is, admittedly, bleak for nascent journalists. With all that’s written about mass redundancies, newspaper profit going into freefall, and seasoned journalists being laid off, you’d forgive a journalism student for wanting to crawl back into halls and stay there.
But I’d suggest the opposite. Student media, if done well, can offer a forum to throw around ideas (no matter how far-fetched), collaborate with like minded people, and practice journalism that is probably far closer to the romantic ideal of a roving reporter than any entry level job.
Journalism students have a lot to offer in an industry that is constantly in a state of flux. While interning at a national newspaper, I recall pointing out to a senior editor how to integrate his articles into Twitter, engage the readers and help tell a story better with data visualisation and diagrams. Skills which my generation take for granted are still thought of as innovative by many senior journalists, and what students lack in experience they can make up for with imagination and a little creative nous.
Student media can, and should foster this. At worst it can be self indulgent, and have the best interests of its writers, not its readers, at heart. But at its best it can be a melting pot of new ideas, encouraging experimentation and unusual content, all the while in the stable incubation stage of higher education.
In this uncertain time, journalism students can hold the key to unlocking a lot of different possibilities for the future of the profession. So lose your inhibitions, put down your pints, and get involved in your student media.
The Parliamentary Press Gallery has launched a diversity scheme aimed at getting journalists from a black and ethnic minority background into political journalism.
The scheme places the journalists in the role of a temporary member of the Press Gallery, for around three months. Applicants must be from an “established media organisation” which they will be expected to file stories to while on the programme.
You will get a desk, security clearance and a warm welcome. The first few days would include being shown around the facilities for reporters in Parliament and introduced to useful colleagues. The Serjeant at Arms’ department has offered to arrange a tour of Parliament for each person taking part.
The rest is up to you. After a settling-in period, you will need to find fresh news stories to keep your employer happy. There are plenty of reports, interview opportunities, fascinating statistics and lively debates to report at Westminster. The scheme is aimed at self-starters with a mature attitude who can manage their own time, although help and advice will always be close at hand.
Young US journalist Brian Manzullo lays down three challenges to journalism students and those leaving training for the big, bad world:
1. Propose major curriculum adjustments to your journalism school – and get support;
2. Form a news start-up online and compete with the student newspaper;
3. Form a network of students that meets regularly to discuss readings and projects.
Why? Journalists need to make the most of their pre-professional experience, says Manzullo.
This industry needs more bold thinkers and innovators, and it really does start from the ground up. In school.
Editorial safety training organisation Future Voices is offering 10 spots on its next four-day training course to Journalism.co.uk readers.
The course will run for four days from this Thursday night (22 July) at a location in Hampshire, UK, and is aimed at working journalists and students considering work in conflict or crisis zones. The courses have been designed to teach safety and survival skills to journalists, while keeping the editorial process in mind.
Developed with safety specialists and the support of the army, the courses are intended to be as realistic as possible to working in the field. Journalism.co.uk readers will have the opportunity to take part for free – the only cost is £75 for food and transport.
Journalism.co.uk took part in an open day to experience some of the training available first hand – you can find out how we got on at this link.
To register your interest email course organiser Chris Green at christopher.green [at] fvmedia.org.uk.
Last week Journalism.co.uk wasn’t just reporting the debate about unpaid internships in the media industry – we were part of it after a six-month, unpaid placement with Tesco was listed on our forums. The ad was placed in error – we do list unpaid internships, so long as they are within a reasonable length of time.
We had some useful Twitter conversations about the listing and the ethics of listing unpaid internships at all – these have helped us update our policy for posting such listings on the forum.
As part of the discussions, I was contacted by Tanya de Grunwald who runs the website GraduateFog.co.uk, which is campaigning for an end to unpaid internships for graduates, to answer some questions on the issue. Not all of my responses were used in the resulting blog post – such is the editing process – so I thought I’d reproduce them here.
It would be really useful to hear your views on what kind of internships we should be listing on our forums, if any, so if you’re an employer, would-be recruit or recent graduate, please leave your thoughts in a comment.
My answers to Tanya’s questions (in bold) were as follows:
What is Journalism.co.uk’s policy on advertising unpaid internships? Are you aware that it is legally dubious to do this, not to mention ethically?
Internships – paid and unpaid – are listed on our forum. We don’t receive any money for those posted on the forum, such as the Tesco ad (SEE BELOW – question 3).
We currently carry these rules for posting work experience/internship listings on the forum:
This forum is intended for genuine, time-limited work experience placements and internships (of no longer than a month’s duration) only. Placements should involve shadowing (and learning from) working journalists at an in-office location. We reserve the right to remove at our discretion any posts that are deemed to be in breach of these rules.
You can post in this forum free of charge – however, in order to get a better response (and much wider exposure) we would recommend posting on our jobs board at http://www.journalism.co.uk/75.
For more information about what constitutes a good work experience placement/internship please read the following post by forum user and freelance journalist Louise Bolotin: http://www.journalism.co.uk/journalists/forum/index.php/topic,519.0.html
These can be found at this link http://www.journalism.co.uk/journalists/forum/index.php/topic,2426.0.html and were updated yesterday to include a time limit of ‘no longer than a month’s duration’.
We want to provide a service to journalism students and job hunters who are looking for internships – either as part of their course requirements – or as a way to dip their toe into the industry and gain more experience. There is a balance to be struck between gaining experience with short-term placements and those employers that seek to exploit journalism students and graduates in a saturated market. Internships, conducted properly, can hold tremendous value for journalism students and graduates and we’ve reported on Skillset and the NUJ’s work to encourage better industry standards in this area. I hope we can continue to be part of the debate and drive to give better work experience placements and deals to new journalists.
We will be reviewing our policy on listing unpaid internships – starting with rooting out any that have been posted with a duration of more than one month. The Tesco/Cedar ad was posted in error and has now been removed. I was interested to read in your blog post about the potential legal implications and I’ll be looking into this further as part of our review.
Do ads undergo any kind of screening process before they go live? What responsibility do you feel advertisers have towards protecting your applicants from exploitation?
I think I’ve answered this above – but just to clarify, we’re not paid for listing these work experience/internship opportunities on the forum, so they aren’t our applicants, though they may have been directed to the placement by our site.
Listings on this section of our forum are post-moderated: employers can list placements directly, in addition to our production team listing opportunities that they come across elsewhere. As mentioned, the Tesco ad has since been removed.
One thing to add: we hope that our forum and Twitter following will help us root out and flag up postings that they see as inappropriate. This discussion is useful and helps us modify our editorial and advertising policies in line with our users.
Did Tesco/Cedar pay for you to run this advertisement? How much do you charge?
None of the work experience/internship listings on our forum are paid for. We post interesting internship opportunities that we see listed elsewhere. I believe the Tesco/Cedar listing came from Gorkana.
Now that you have been made aware of this ad, will you be removing it?
We have removed the ad. It shouldn’t have been put up in the first place and we regret the error, though it has been useful in making us think further about our policy on listings for internships and work experience placements.
What will happen to any applications you have already received for this role?
See above – we’re replicating this ad, not handling any part of the application process.
Do you use unpaid interns within your office at Journalism.co.uk?
We regularly have journalism students and school students who need to complete work experience as part of their course come in to our office for one- to two-week placements. We do our very best to ensure the students have a worthwhile time here and try to tailor the placements to suit their needs. We also remember that they are students, still learning and we need to monitor and help them with this and not place unreasonable expectations on them. We do not currently pay such placement students.