Posts published on October 22, 2015

6 Best Tips for Students in Journalism

By Rochelle Ceira

 Journalism is one of the more difficult or rather risky occupations in the contemporary world today. It’s not just about keeping the public informed about the events that occur in our everyday lives and making sure that it’s accurate, but that you also have to put your life on the line in some intense situations. That’s the kind of future that awaits students who want to major in news reporting or journalism.

 The more information you report and provide, the better your credibility will be. If you think you have the spirit to excel in such a highly esteemed environment, then here are some of the most important things you need to do:

1.    Develop a news story following the inverted pyramid method

 The inverted pyramid method is another way of saying that you must answer the six most important questions in order to construct a great news story. These questions are known as the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.

Once you have procured the aforementioned elements, you can then structure them into a stunning story for your audience.

2.    Focus mainly on the truth

 The first priority of every journalist is to stick mainly to facts, or more precisely, the truth. This means that whatever sources you have used to gather all of your information from, has to be mostly legit and objective. While it is not possible to be 100 percent accurate on these sources, it’s the effort that really counts.

This is because everything that we see before our eyes is only a fraction of how reality plays out. That is why it is important to question eyewitnesses so that we can draw a relevant line that is mostly close to the truth.

3.    Don’t just focus on classes

 There are more ways to establish yourself as a potential journalist for the future. You can read dissertations on journalism or even offer masters dissertation help to someone so you can improved your knowledge, or you can start up a blog so that you can always write riveting articles about world affairs and share them among friends, relatives and more.

You can even host a podcast where anyone can listen to your reports in audio format and if need be, download and listen to it whenever it is convenient for them.

4.    Get started before you go pro

 The ideal thing to do for every student is to work out as many kinks on their end before they get cracking into the professional world. Apart from attending classes you can even opt for internship programs that specialize in the field of journalism.

You can view the samples of other renowned reporters out there in order to get an idea about where you can start. Just be sure not to ride on any one of their reports and pass it as your own because plagiarism is a serious federal offense.

5.    Work on a beat

 Naturally no reporter can work every news reporting category, so that is why it is imperative that you establish your own niche or in terms of journalism, a beat. There are tons of genres that make for reporting and some of the best known ones include sports, entertainment, health, politics and sports.

If you’re working on blogs, you must understand the overall mindset of your target audience and which categories pique their interest more.

6.    Take advantage of social media

 These days, potential journalists can work on their roots from simpler but impactful platforms including that of social media. Whatever status you post on your Facebook timeline or tweet on Twitter can be certified as journalism itself.

Things that are shared by you or your online contacts, which mainly revolve around the latest news updates and happenings from around the world, are a form of beat journalism.

Rochelle Ceira is a professional consultant with extensive experience in the education sector. When not working, she invests her time analyzing latest ed-tech trends and ways o trends can be implemented