A Professional Speaks (Part III)

It is about who you know.

In the final entry of my summarization of my interview with Jake Kurtz, networking and other helpful tips upon entering the professional world will be discussed.

The Power of Networking
The media industry is all about communication. Members of the media try to get their messages across to an audience in a fair and objective way…sometimes.

For an industry that is so wide-ranging in possible job opportunities, it is important for job-seekers to put themselves in a position where all they need to do is pick up a phone and call a colleague for a job opportunity once school ends. This is where who you know means a great deal.

“Networking is everything in the media industry and the best way to get a start somewhere,” Kurtz said.

According to Kurtz, one of the best ways to network is to do a good amount of freelance work for minimal cost. While low pay never sounds real appealing, the work that is done the right way will help attract employers who are looking to hire someone full-time.

Maintaining a relationship with decision-makers at companies gets your foot in the door, and could potentially lead to something down the road.

“Make it so when they hear about an opening, they think to toss your name out or tell someone to give you a call,” Kurtz said.

Kurtz is a real-life example of what good networking techniques can accomplish. Upon graduating in 2006, the editor at the hometown newspaper he had kept in contact with already had helped him set up three interviews in three different states. In the media industry, everyone talks to everyone, meaning that relationships established can help guide an ideal career path.

Take that Odd Job-Experience is Crucial

Any opportunity that presents itself that can give valuable experiences is worth considering. No matter how uninteresting or strange the beat may be.

One of the only ways to get to a better job in this business is to start near the bottom and work on up.

“Whether it's catching papers in a print shop, covering a car crash at 1 a.m. or having to talk to the wife of a homicide victim,” Kurtz said. “It's all stuff you can put on your resume and use to get better as a reporter.”

These jobs will not pay well. It is important to keep realistic expectations of what type of salary you will take on early in your career.

“You're not going to make $60,000 a year immediately out of college and be prepared to work some terrible hours with some bizarre people and places mixed in,” Kurtz said.

Once locked into a job in the early going, it is important to keep it for at least a year according to Kurtz. Journalists want to do their best to not get a reputation of someone who is always looking to leave for other opportunities.

No Normal Days for Journalists

If interested in a 9-5 job that requires the same exact type of work every single day, then journalism is not the profession for you.

The news never stops. Neither do the weird and wacky events that occur on a daily basis. Each day offers a new opportunity to do something you did not do the day before.

Kurtz estimates that he could leave the office anywhere from 5 p.m. on some nights to 3 a.m. some mornings. If a story has an urgent aspect to it, the necessary time needs to be put in to get the story right and timely.

While every day is not typical in terms of the stories being covered, Kurtz provided an example of what a typical day is in terms of the responsibilities he has:

“Get to work in the morning. Check e-mails and make calls looking for potential stories. Catch up with the local police chief, City Hall folks, local county sheriff. I read a few newspapers every day, including the Wall Street Journal. If I'm working on human-interest or feature stories, I'll set up interviews and meet up with these people to talk or get photographs. In the evenings I attend a lot of meetings. City councils, school boards, different commissions or operation groups.”

Practice Makes Perfect

Learning a new style will only help.

In a typical journalistic job, writing style will differ from previous academic writing. It could come as quite of a shock when writing an early article in a journalism course in college, and getting it back full of red ink because of not adhering to proper journalistic writing.

A student must be adhere to the Associated Press style of writing that professional journalists do. Purchasing an AP Stylebook, such as the one pictured to the right or the new 2011 version, will allow for a great opportunity to study some of the rules that are expected to be followed for publications.

The book features thousands of entries A-Z concerning correct usages of spelling, punctuation, grammar, and abbreviations. There is quite a bit of explanation with man of the entries to gain a better understanding of what exactly is the best usage for any given problem.

The stylebook offers a great resource, not to mention a reasonable price. On Amazon.com, the 2011 style book is listed at $13.59 brand new and will be available June 7. The 2010 stylebook is listed as low as $12.53 used.

Despite learning the essentials of the book away from the beat, it is still important to carry it around at all times to double-check if the style is being followed correctly. Proofreading and checking sources are always necessary, but style and structure remain key points of emphasis.

Practicing writing in this style in any public forum will only help acclimate the future journalist to the preferred writing method of journalists. Stylistic writing is habit-forming, and the more practice, the better the writer can be.

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.

A Professional Speaks (Part I)

A little bit of professional expertise never hurt anyone.

The purpose of this blog is to act as a helpful tool for current and future journalism students to understand how journalism is evolving. A main goal to achieve a real-world feel to what journalism is all about at present time was to interview a professional journalist in the field.

I wanted to interview someone who had not been too far removed from attending a journalism school and that could identify some of the essentials that could help in the competitive job market. I chose to interview Jake Kurtz.

Kurtz, a 2006 graduate of Iowa University’s School of Mass Communication and Journalism, has worked with me for the better part of the last year at BlueDemonBulletin.com. Kurtz is the publisher of the college basketball site covering DePaul men’s basketball, along with being an editor and writer.

The 27-year-old is an associate editor at The Storm Lake Times in Storm Lake, IA. He also works as a reporter and photographer for a number of community newspapers in Northwest Iowa.

The Series

There was so much great information in the interview that I plan to split up my blog posts to highlight different components of the discussion. This first part of the series details key characteristics that journalists must make sure to have to advance to where they want to be.

The Essentials

With so many ideas of the specific qualities a journalist should have, it is occasionally hard to remember what the most important ones are. When entering today’s field, Kurtz described five qualities that are essential to every journalist.

1. “The ability to write clearly,” Kurtz said.
Kurtz reinforced the importance of the all-important hook contained in the lead at the beginning of the story. The reader must feel compelled to read on, making the effectiveness of a lead crucial.

2. “The ability to edit and evaluate carefully.”
It is a reporter’s job to sift through bad information from sources and find the accurate and unbiased facts.

3. “Keeping your word,” Kurtz said. “Your word, honesty and integrity mean everything in this business.”
Credibility continues to be one of the most important aspects of journalism.

4. “Not being afraid to pick up the phone.”
New reporters have been seen to be too reliant on e-mail according to Kurtz. This can present problems because it is very easy to get lost in someone’s crowded e-mail inbox, and messages may not be returned in a timely manner. Kurtz mentioned that it is much harder to ignore a number of phone calls than an e-mail.

5. “Don’t use five words when you can use two.”
This has been a fact that was drilled into me in my journalism course last semester. It is great if someone has an extensive vocabulary and can use a number of big words, but this applies more to book writing rather than journalistic work. People are reading the newspaper for news, period.

The “not being afraid to pick up the phone” aspect intrigued me the most. In this age, a lot more reporting is done specifically through e-mail or possibly text messaging. In my experience, text messaging has been an effective way to informally let someone know that you are interested in talking to them, but there is not substance to be attained through this.

E-mail will always be a great tool for contacting sources, but it does lose the personal feel a phone call might have. There is more time for the subject to prepare and possibly talk to public relations people to put a spin on their answers. Phone calls offer the chance for spontaneity and possibly more accurate answers.

Next Part

The next blog post will delve into the social media aspect a bit more from a professional perspective.

School is in Session

The schools are changing as well.

As a result of the evolving journalism field, journalism schools have adapted their curriculum to better prepare their students for the professional world.

Picking up new technological skills are becoming more common in the classroom. Using social media as a way to share pictures of the night before or update your friends on what you are doing has transformed into a valuable tool for teachers to help their students get their name out there.

In researching last week, I came across a great article-"10 Ways Journalism Schools are Teaching Social Media"- that reinforces this point about schools making the necessary adjustments to better equip their students with the necessary skills to keep up with the changing field of journalism. Although being published nearly two years ago, the article detailed the top 10 ways that journalism schools are involving social media in their class.

1. Promotion of Content
This step is crucial for any journalist to get their name out to an audience and maybe even a potential employer. Social media allows for quick posting of stories for everyone to see. Every time you write an academic or professional article, make sure that it is seen. A blog allows you to get your stories on the internet, and you can then promote them through the use of Twitter or Facebook.

At Columbia University, they are now offering a social media skills course to help expand on what you already know.

2. Interviews
The article references a case at the University of North Carolina where a professor teaches his students how to interview subjects of a story using social media. Skype, which allows you to have a real time face-to-face chat on a computer allows for a more personal touch with your interview subject. Saves on travel time and produces a more intimate setting rather than just e-mail.

3. Gathering of Information
Journalism teachers are now more encouraging of their students to use social media as a way to get information quick. As I have mentioned in previous blog posts, though, the necessary background checking that has always been a part of journalism especially applies to everything you take from a social media site.

4. Acquiring Sources
Students are now being taught to use social media as a way to acquire sources. The article speaks about a social media site such as FriendFeed, where you can subscribe to a number of feeds from friends to get information, to ask questions of people to be potential sources for a story.

5. Publishing with Social Tools
Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism taught students how to create a site that would help them learn how to publish material using social media tools such as WordPress, Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr. This is a way for students to learn what the appropriate tool is for what type of information-Twitter for quick updates, Facebook for articles, Flickr for pictures, etc.

6. Blogging
At the University of Wisconsin at Madison Journalism School, students learned how to use an application called CoveritLive. This tool allows for people to embed a live-running blog on a site so that they could post information quickly and have real-time conversations with their audience. This certainly appeals to the immediacy the audience is looking for. There is no waiting around for someone to answer a question.

7. Relevant Content
Journalism teachers are emphasizing the correct use of social media. They do not want to see their students not just put up unimportant messages that only apply to themselves. Their students should be posting content that is relevant and important to society. Joining certain groups that share these ideas can help a student network.

8. Brand
Students are taught to use social media in a way that establishes who they will be as a writer. Being a member of a group can help the student reach out to experts in the field for advice.

9. Ethics
As I have written about before, the same ethics that apply to you as a real-world journalist apply to you in the digital world as well. Teachers are making sure to drill this point home to their students. Teachers are also making sure to inform students to be careful of what groups they are joining. If a journalist joins a group, that can be seen as a potential bias towards that group by some.

10. Use all of them
Students are being encouraged to experiment with all the social media so they know how to use it, and are able to become familiar with the applications. Potential employers maybe will be making sure that journalists know to properly use these tools before hiring them.

Future journalism students should see this as a need to embrace the social technology that is all around them. Constantly experimenting with different ways to use social media could possibly give you a leg up on your competition.

There are so many ways to be creative with social media for current journalism students. They can possibly use a project they did in school that involved social media and show it to a potential employer as proof of their ability to correctly use the technology.

References
Lavrusik, V. (2009, June 19). 10 ways journalism schools are teaching social media. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2009/06/19/teaching-social-media/