Getting into journalism is hard. The traditional route of college to local paper to national paper to career has been smashed.
The one question people who are interested in a career in the media ask is how you start out, and there's no one answer. What can be useful though, is practical information that can help people improve their writing and learn how to pitch an article. That's how I approached giving free journalism classes to a small group of people who work on News Four, a local newspaper based in Ringsend, Dublin 4 .
For the past two Tuesday evenings, six or so of us have sat in a prefab out the back of the community centre talking about journalism; how to get better at it and how to earn money from it. These days, plenty of journalists will tell you not to go near the profession, that the entire industry is collapsing and we should all run away from it like we would a falling building. ‘I understand that point of view, but I also think that if you have a passion for something, talent, drive, and are willing to work hard, then nobody should say you shouldn’t go for it.
Sure, it’s a tough industry to crack, but hard work and a spark are nearly always rewarded if you stick at something. New models are emerging in journalism all the time, and there’s no reason why a new generation can’t continue to reinvent the industry.
Running through the basics of reporting, interview techniques, feature writing skills, how to generate ideas, fact-checking, how to structure articles, you realise how essential these skills are even at a time when “news gathering” is mentioned more often than “reporting”.
The students are enthusiastic, perceptive, smart and fun. They ask practical and specific questions, and an hour and a half flies by. Equipped with the right skills and experience, all of them would make fine journalists across several disciplines. When you're starting out, sometimes you just need someone to tell you that.
See newsfour.ie