5 useful tips before starting a journalism degree
- Social media📲
Social media is a detrimental part of journalism and being a journalist. It has many disadvantages such as, fake news and replacing traditional journalism (newspapers) and many advantages such as, excessive access to news and the speed in how fast news spreads. For example, a retweet or sharing to an Instagram or Snapchat story. It’s imperative that you create accounts on social media, especially Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Accounts such as Medium and Linkedin, are good platforms to publish your journalism work and maintain a professional profile.
Be mindful to what you post on social media. If you have been on social media for a while, go through what you have posted, tweeted or retweeted throughout the years. It is vital to prevent any posts or comments that are inappropriate which will come to the surface in the future; especially in the world of journalism, employers will definitely look at your social media.
2. Contact book📞
As you work towards your journalism degree, you will interview many different people to create pieces such as: articles, features, profiles and listicles. It’s important that you start thinking of people who you would be interested in interviewing. What topics are you interested in? What topics will push you out your comfort zone and make you produce something informative? What is something that you are passionate about and want to draw attention to it?
You need to start thinking about the answers to these questions; be ahead of the game and make a list of all the people you would like to interview. They could be: athletes, journalists, coaches, individuals in your community, the manager of a company, a leader of a group. Then, during your degree you can tick off the people that you have interviewed and are now in your journalism contact book.
In addition, it is important to write to your audience. Each story you create, think of who is going to read the article and what type of journalism techniques you should use to attract your audience. If you create a piece of visual journalism, turn it into a Twitter thread; attract a younger audience by using memes and GIFs.
3. Portfolio📁
Adding previously to what was said about the importance of social media, starting a portfolio in journalism is just as crucial. During your journalism degree you will create a portfolio consisting of the work you have done. Therefore, getting professional pictures taken for it is essential. You should separate the pictures you post on social media and the pictures you would send an employer. You wouldn’t send a picture of you on a night out with your friends to an employer would you? and definitely do not think about cropping them out the picture… as a journalist in the making you should have professional portfolio pictures taken.
Also, create a website (https://www.wix.com/) where all your journalistic work can go. For example, radio interviews, vlogs, podcasts, your blog. Medium is great, however having your own website where you can create a blog and other forms of journalism is vital.
4. Work experience👔
Although you haven’t started your degree and thinking about what you should do after university could be overwhelming, it’s beneficial to be one step ahead. Finishing university with a high grade is a huge achievement and will serve you well when applying to jobs, however work experience is what stands out just as well. It’s helpful to think about what type of journalist you want to be (for example, a writer or a presenter) in order to gain the best work experience that is suited to you and will be effective later on.
In depth, research media companies and local newspapers that do work experience; make sure the dates they offer don’t clash with your lectures or seminars. It’s important to find companies that interests you due to -what they stand for, what type of audience they attract, or what projects and departments they have that would suit you. Watch YouTube videos to inspire you as well as reading reviews.
5. Choose the University that’s right for you!🏫
Attending the right university will effect how well you do in your degree, especially if your not studying at home, this decision is important and will determine your university experience as well. Loving your course but not your surroundings will negatively affect your work ethic more than you think. It’s important to choose a university that you believe will suit you. Think about factors such as: the area, the opportunities, their reviews.
Birmingham City University, was a great choice for me due to the connections and opportunities the university has given me, as well as the admiration I have for BCU. However the city was a big factor to why I chose BCU. Being from London, I knew the transition to live in a small town or village to study wouldn’t suit me, therefore the balance of the course and the area had to be right.
Attend as many open days as possible; being there is very different to researching and relying on the word of others.
