Time to get that portfolio online

Take a look at Mindy McAdam's post from yesterday.

She tells us that

Mark Luckie has posted screenshots of (and links to) the personal Web sites of 15 journalists. They could be used to inspire journalism students to master the art of self-presentation.

It is an important aspect of a journalist's portfolio,something that I must remember to pay attention to

Tips on surviving as a journalist in web 2.0

Over at Media Shift Lisa Williams writes of the 10 things that journalists should know about surviving in what has become a high tech industry.

1. It is boom and bust-ie you get laid off when the economy is good, and you get laid off when the economy is bad.
2. Everyone gets recycled. Act accordingly
3. Bring your values to online companies; bring your skills back to news companies.
4. Forget about company loyalty
5. Time is on your side, but only if you take it.
6. Progress is about alternating breaking and fixing. Anything 100% working is 100% dead.
7. No manual? Write the fine manual
8. The web rewards narrow comprehensiveness - "everything about something."
9. On the web, the most successful companies don't build, they collapse. They take something that used to cost money and make it free. What costs money in your region that you can make free?
10. Yes, read the manual. The whole thing. Really.

Talking the talk while walking the digital walk

Via Roy Greenslade who has been alerted to a new blog by Richard Waghorn called Out with a bang which is dedicated to

Talking the talk whlist walking the digital walk which

in short how we can ever hope to make a difference when it comes to the survival of quality local journalism

Richard is inspired by the words of Clay Shirley

“In the same way that there’s a split between the music industry and the recording industry, there’s a split between writers and the newspaper industry.
“The recording industry is in trouble but the music industry is not, because musicians still make music and people still care about music enormously. The people who sell plastic circles with the music on it, on the other hand, are in real trouble.
“So if you base your business model on producing plastic circles, or, by analogy, staining wood with ink, you’re going to be in trouble.
“Do people care about good writing? Of course they do, and it’s the writers who can adapt to the new technologies. The only technological innovation that the newspaper industry is waiting for is a time machine so that it can turn back the clock

BBC challenges youngsters to set the agenda

We had a seminar yesterday which discussed the challenges for quality journalism.The usual suspects were aired,economic arguments,churnalism,the internet etc.

Perhaps its greatest challenge is getting the younger generation to participate in hard news.

Helen Shreeve writing on the BBC's editors blog today asks

Can the gap be narrowed between how teenagers create and broadcast their own content via the internet and mobile phones and the traditional news broadcasters?

And tells of a project tomorrow where

BBC News is working with more than 250 schools across the UK to turn thousands of teenagers into news broadcasters for the day.

Some of the topics being covered are,living with cancer, and campaigning on Darfur.No mention of Heath Ledger or Britney Spears.I wish them well

I wish them well

Journalism degree is no preparation for being a journalist

Not for the first time,we have some more anti journalism school comments this time from former Indy Editor Andreas Whittam Smith in this morning's Indy.

Following last week's report from the The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority that showed that:

sixth-formers can achieve A grades in media studies with "less impressive" performances than are required for English or history.

Andreas comments that

there is a problem with media studies. For they borrow ways of thinking from other disciplines such as literature, history and even economics and then apply them to TV, film, radio, newspapers, magazines, advertising and the like. This approach, second hand in its nature, has limited utility

But furthermore he goes on to say that the journalism profession

"has the characteristics of a trade rather than a profession.Work experience, which is an informal version of apprenticeship, is the best way to learn the job.......Least of all is it an academic discipline, though undertaking a demanding course in something else at university is the best preparation for it.

Tips for freelancers-get out of your pajamas

I am not sure how many people on our course will end up in a freelance writing career but if we do then it might be worth reading Anna Goldsmith's tips on how to get by(via Martin Belam)



They are

1.Create a division between work and home

2.Take off your pajamas

3.Get to work on time

4.Don’t watch TV in the middle of the day

5.But do go out to lunch.

Journalists suffering from burnout says Study

Editor and publisher reports that a quarter of newspaper journalists wanted to leave the profession.
The survey of 770 journalists conducted by a Ball State University professor,Dr Scott Reinardy found that

With a moderate rate of exhaustion, a high rate of cynicism and a moderate rate of professional efficacy, burnout among journalists demonstrate higher rates of burnout than previous work. Additionally, journalists expressing intentions to leave the profession demonstrated high rates of exhaustion and cynicism, and moderate rates of professional efficacy, making them “at-risk” for burnout

and he concludes that

So in an effort for newspapers to raise revenues, maintain circulation and provide readers with more information in more ways, another crisis might be upon us. Perhaps lost in this evolutionary period of newspaper journalism is the news worker. When he or she is no longer able, or no longer willing, to provide quality journalism, the journalism of crisis won’t be found on Wall Street or in the circulation data. It’ll be found in the newsroom.

So hands up who wants to be a journalist

How to get a career in media

A must read post by Richard Sambrook which looks at the three eras of getting into the media.Note that it is allabout blagging your way in


1950-1990

Go to University, preferably Oxbridge, and take an arts degree to develop your mind. Join a local newspaper or radio station. Blag your way in

1990-2015

Take a media studies course that will teach you digital production - or computer science that will teach you how to build web pages. Blag your way in.

2015-

Take a series of highly vocational courses to give you the widest set of skills you can manage - coding, video, business, psychology, economics, law, web science, marketing. Blag your way in.