Journalism students’ three big mistakes
I’m not sure whether I should feel sorry for Alex Myers, or jealous of him.
After all, it’s not every Aussie journalism student who finds themselves in both The Huffington Post and Gawker.
Particularly if it enhances your reputation as a writer of hard-hitting, non puff-piece profiles.
Of course, as it always is, the story was a tad more complicated than that.
As a UTS journo student, I learned these lessons pretty quickly this year when I first started studying. Now when I see friends making these mistakes I point them out – I never realised how shy I was until I started the degree and how much it can hold you back, luckily I’ve gotten over that and learned to suck it up!
You do have to wonder if misrepresentation is such a big no-no when professionals do it fairly regularly too. Or is it a question of how much obfuscation is acceptable? Case in point: the journo who broke the Alan Jones story failed to declare he was a journalist when getting access to the event.
Did a student journalist score a job on the SMH? This from a story today…
“…he noted that the home faced either the street or the backyard for the majority of the year”
It seems the word “majority” is misused nowadays the majority of the time … sorry, most of the time.
As a teacher of journalism, I’ve had to deal with numerous students who find making a phone call a terrifying prospect.
Regarding transparency, I would have thought the lecturers would have made it clear that before you do an interview, you explain what it’s about and where it will be published.
A lot of students drop out when they realise journalism isn’t a glamorous career and that it is hard work.
I agree with two of those, but from my experiences so far, admitting I’m a student journalist within the patch we work in can severly set me back.
There is another mistake. I have had students emailing or phoning for information about an assignment. While happy to provide background or data, I expect them to do the research using the information sources I identify. I am wary of taking student calls now due to expectation I will do part of the writing for them.
I often get approached by students to answer questions on behalf of my clients. I refuse to answer questions by email because I don’t want to write their assignments for them.
If they pick up the phone I will go out of my way to provide them with their answers. Don’t worry about the nerves in asking questions over the phone. I’m going to help you not laugh at you.
Think about this if you’re a journalism student. This could be the difference between a good mark and a great one. It could also see you create a new contact to add to your network – valuable for any aspiring young journalist.
Tim – Enjoyed this post. Coming from that background myself, I was running parallels while reading between the words you wrote and what young ad kids do (the same things): hype up their ad experience, email don’t call, persistence. Definitely made me think.
Their first mistake was doing a journalism course…
American J-schools ABSOLUTELY expect more than ours. I’ve done both and I wish I had never studied in Australia. What a waste of time, money and effort.
Their extra-curricular journalism activities also make ours look like kindergarten. The journalism students at the (public, fairly average) school I went to in Colorado ran a daily broadsheet newspaper, a 24/7 radio station, a monthly glossy magazine and a television channel. We’re talking a student-led sales team for advertising and paid editorial staff, too. Compare that to the University of South Australia, which has a single student-run university-wide publication with no paid staff and precious little content.