A Professional Speaks (Part II)

When becoming a journalist, one of the first things you may want to do is ask technology out on a date.

Throughout this blog, I have been pushing the necessary use and understanding of technology as a tool for journalists. Technology is not going away, so it is time to begin a torrid love affair with it.

Cautionary with Necessary Technology

The increase in technology means that incoming professional journalists must have sustainable knowledge about how to use it correctly. Otherwise, competitors for the job you are applying for may have an advantage over you.

“With the way technology you either embrace and accept it or you’re going to get left behind,” Kurtz said.

While a journalist does not have to have software engineering or information technology expertise on their resumes, they need to find a way to understand the basic functions of the tools they will use. Despite being early in a journalistic career or as a student studying journalism, it becomes important to try to display some creativity and try to reach different audiences.

Creating accounts on Twitter and Facebook take little time, and will connect you to more information. Following verified accounts of newsmakers on Twitter allows for instant news feeds from them, with a potential story being found as a result.

As mentioned before in one of my blog posts, however, solely relying something such as Twitter for news is not recommended.

“Twitter has made it so easy to report quick hits and breaking stuff that people don’t take the time to check facts,” Kurtz said. “They hear something and throw it up on Twitter rather than make a phone call or two and verifying things first.”

This is where journalists can pay dearly for not going through the process of correctly verifying information before putting it on the internet for anyone to see. The credibility that Kurtz made a priority could be lost for the reporter if they are caught in a situation where they went for immediacy rather than proper fact checking.

“Everyone wants to be the first to get a story out, but what good is that if it's filled with shoddy information and inaccuracies?” Kurtz said.

Kurtz made sure to look at the other side of the argument with social media, though. He knows it has greatly helped in areas of the profession when used properly.

“The job has definitely become easier when it comes to information gathering, there is no questioning that,” Kurtz said. “Sometimes you still need to go to a court house or police station to get something, but the internet and online databases are a wonderful asset.”

Journalists work long hours trying to get the right story. Reducing travel time, in some cases, allows for more attention to be paid to the actual writing of the story. The vast amount of internet resources, at least the trustworthy ones, can potentially add to a sharper story being written.

Next Up

For Part III of my discussion with Jake Kurtz, I am going to talk about aspects of networking, what you can do early in your career that will help you in the long term and summarize what a day in the life of a journalist is like.