Tomorrow's News, Tomorrow's Journalists

TNTJ April: After graduation? Stay in school!

David Molloy is a Senior Sophister majoring in English at Trinity College Dublin. He is the editor-elect of the college newspaper, Trinity News, and has worked in the national press on placement.

I am staying in college without being a student.

That’s basically it right there. Job prospects are so dire, and freelancing at a level where I can earn a living so improbable, that I’ve elected to stay in the warm bosom of university. The fact that I graduate come autumn and haven’t enrolled in another course is a mere technicality.

The reason I have this luxury, of course, is that my university in its documents specifies that the editor of the college newspaper must be a student at the time of their election, which offers a beautiful loophole for me to stay on in a sabbatical-like position. This might seem like a bad thing to some: like I’m stranded, stuck in limbo, neither professional nor amateur. Well, that’s pretty much correct.

Which, right now, is perfect.

If you think about it, a well-run college newspaper is essentially identical to a local paper (the traditional training route for those who cannot secure employment in the national press straight out of university; i.e., most students). It serves a hyper-local community (excuse the buzzword, please) and is an excellent training ground.

More importantly, from an editor-in-chief’s perspective, it is staffed by a relatively small, nimble, and dedicated team, with the flexibility to experiment with their approach to print journalism. The next eighteen months are going to be incredibly interesting in the professional media: there are going to be a number of changes in the way in which things are done. Now, in my paper, the editor has virtually zero oversight, except in the financial area; we’re non-profit, so there’s little to be lost by experimentation.

Meanwhile, I’ll be running my local publication to a high standard, upskilling myself in the business side of media, improving my technological competence, and developing my ability to manage others. This is the reason why applications for journalism schools are up: there’s a hope that we can ride out the storm, increase our skills base, and come out the other side as better journalists. And it’s a good plan. Every little edge becomes increasingly more important in a competitive job market. Now, I’m a great believer in practical experience, but for those who think academic study is the right way to go about making yourself a more attractive candidate, at least you’re doing something.

TNTJ April: Pushing ahead despite the industry’s difficulties

My postgraduate course, a Master of Arts course in Web Journalism at the University of Sheffield, actually lasts until September – or more accurately, whenever I finish my dissertation which will take up much of the summer.

I’ve been pursuing work experience – one can never apply for enough – and gained three placements over the summer so far: a week at Wales Online, a week at Worcester News and a week at the Press Association in Howden.

One of my most recent applications was to the Press Gazette. Recent news leads me to doubt I’ll be hearing a reply, ever. I’m of course not giving up on more placements, be they before or after graduation.

My mentality has been that I must get some work experience under my belt before applying for jobs. Unlike many of my fellow students, I haven’t yet undertaken the placements that we all know are so necessary.

I’m under no illusions as to how difficult and how competitive it will be to find a job in journalism right now. Every day I read or hear of cutbacks, closures and even graduate schemes no longer going ahead. Whether we like it or not, many of those graduating from journalism courses this year will have to decide if continuing down their apparent career path is worth it, considering the difficulties in the industry.

This is all the more alarming given the 24% rise in applications for journalism courses this year.

Our department has a ran a series of guest lectures, including Darren Thwaites, the editor of the Teesside Evening Gazette, Ed Rousell of the Telegraph and David Randall. All of them have given a surprisingly upbeat assessment of the industry and our job prospects. But when you’ve got dozens of bright-eyed wannabe hacks staring at you, giving them some hope is merciful at least.

I adore journalism, but quite what comes under that definition for me may end up widening considerably. The wide communications/think-tank arena is looking just as attractive as the traditional role of a hack.

So, like Michael (whose experience I look at with envy), I can only state that journalism students should be doing all they can to make themselves as attractive as possible. It still astonishes me how many of my fellow postgraduates hardly blog, use Twitter or are on any social networks beyond the compulsory Facebook.

It would seem prudent now to apologise for the continued self-promotion throughout this post, but come on, I’m a journalism student trying to enter a dying/changing industry in the middle of a recession. What did you expect?

TNTJ April: Now I’m qualified. Watch out world.

This post originally appeared on Applebyline, Luke Appleby’s blog.

This month, Tomorrows New Tomorrow’s Journalists are talking post-grad plans and prospects, so here’s a brief outline of where I am right now:

I have just completed a National Diploma in Journalism (Multi-Media) at Whitireia Polytechnic in Wellington, New Zealand. Read my review of the course here. Our class was the first ever to graduate with the new (Multi-Media) unit standards in a New Zealand journalism course.

I like to call myself a multi-media journalist.

In terms of internships, I had a pretty good one. I went to the Hawkes Bay Today daily in Napier for two weeks. If you’re keen, check out the video higlights here which I made for that. It was kind of rushed, but I liked it.

Quite luckily, I have stumbled upon a sweet job and you’ll never guess how? Well, I was at the pub of course.

I now work for a small media company which updates news slide-shows in airport lounges and banks in Australia and New Zealand. It’s a fun little number: grabbing Getty and Reuters images, resizing, researching, captioning and uploading. Best of all, I do it from home.

I absolutely LOVE having access to Getty and Reuters – the images are great to browse through for photography ideas, a field which I am also planning on getting into.

I managed to take out the Canon Best Photographer Award during the Diploma, not to mention a fantastic Canon EOS 1000D DSLR camera. If you are interested in seeing some of my photos, check out my Images page here.

Freelance photography an interesting prospect and photography for a news room is also appealing.

In late May I expect to get work at Whitireia Polytechnic as some sort of multi-media production tutor for the journalism class, which will keep me pretty busy.

I expect the role to be hugely varied, containing elements of design, photography, web-media, video, sound recording, video and sound editing, format handling, updating www.newswire.co.nz and a whole bunch of other stuff.

What could be more fun, tell me?

During the Diploma, I sourced and installed the gear for a multi-media sound and video editing/recording suite on the campus, that was no problem, the big challenge is showing people how to use it all.

With an ever-growing news website, a mixing board, portable high-quality audio recorders, a 3CCD camcorder and a handful of good microphones, I think the next course is going to thrive.

Well, as I have mentioned in previous posts I’m not really one for deep and meaningful analysis. I’ll leave that to the academics.

I’m sure the effects will be widespread and numerous.

To be honest, I think that the New Zealand journalism industry will welcome graduates more versed in several different media with open arms.

When choosing the right way to cover a story, I think a lot of editors and chief reporters would be pretty keen to have more options. Sometimes print just doesn’t give as much emotion, or misses vital audio intonations. There are many situations where the obvious choice would be video. Basically, the key word here is options. More ways to tell a story will be better.

Ideally, a newsroom should be able to present news in any conceivable medium, but I feel that some newsrooms lack the fundamental technological skills to present them quickly and effectively.

Hopefully, the influx of these newly-trained journos will contribute to news being presented in the most effective medium.

TNTJ: April Summer plans and soul searching for jobless journalism graduates

So there is to be more soul-searching about the lack of prospects for journalism graduates after our national news agency joined the long list of companies to cancel their trainee scheme. I found out the Press Association‘s decision on Twitter thanks to a fellow applicant but was not too surprised. The Guardian and Telegraph have already come to the same conclusion as economic and advertising trends continue to conspire against us. The Times stands alone as the last shot for a trainee position at a national and, as probably the most prestigious, it will get a enormous number of applications.

It makes impressing at Telegraph.co.uk, where I am currently working as an ‘Innovation Intern‘, all the more pressing. The internship gives the opportunity to work with Tim Rowell and hopefully some of the other journalists (like Julian Sambles, Justin Williams and Shane Richmond) who are behind the successful online operation. It is a commitment for the Telegraph, providing training on their CMS and the ability to experience different desks – perhaps even a stint in the Lobby. This seems different to the vast majority of work experience placements where students are often seen as free labour. I am also planning on holding their Digital Editor Ed Roussel to his offer of coffee as a bit of networking never hurt anyone.

After my current position, I will be working as a Media Intern for the Fabian Society, a ‘left of centre’ think tank affiliated to the Labour Party. This will be a great opportunity to continue using and developing my journalistic skills by blogging for Next Left, making podcasts or broadcasting live video with Qik. I think many young journalists will have to move into related fields because of the paucity of available media positions. Taking opportunities in communications or public relations could be a sound way of maintaining skills and, perhaps more importantly, contacts.

It is obvious there are just not going to be enough staff jobs to support the amount of graduates hoping to pursue work in the media industry, so it makes sense to try and gain freelance work which might be in more plentiful supply. I hope to carry on contributing to journalism.co.uk and other titles too, continuing writing for Online Journalism Blog will also help me abreast of any developments in the industry.

We all have to take a realistic – but not pessimistic – assessment of the way things stand. I’m sure that many young graduates will give up and get out of the game, but I love journalism too much to do that. Thoughts of walking into one of the best graduate schemes are gone and the aim must be making sure we are best placed for that elusive job which should eventually show up. I plan to continue blogging, interacting using Twitter and revitalising that LinkedIn presence where a personal profile might be able to help career ambitions.

However, as those less committed (or less financially stable) graduates leave the industry we have to hope enough resourceful, innovative and enthusiastic young journalists will remain. They will definitely be required at some point in the near future to help overcome all the problems that the publishing industry faces and the old guard seem reluctant to acknowledge. There are plenty on TNTJ – did I mention I am one of them?

Michael Haddon is a postgraduate student of Newspaper Journalism at City University London.

TNTJ April: What are your summer/post-graduation plans?

We’re moving through April and summer break approaches, as does graduation for many.

So it makes sense to ask:

What are your summer (internship) plans? And, if you’re graduating, what are your job prospects?

If you’re graduating and haven’t landed a journalism gig, what do you plan to do? Freelance? Get a non-journalism job? Keep looking? Leave journalism for good? Why?

No matter your situation, what implications do you think young journalists leaving the field will have on the news industry?

If you’re still looking for something, this could be a good opportunity to get your name out there (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).