Becoming a successful journalist is definitely no easy task, it requires a ton of effort, knowledge, energy, and experience.
However, if you really strive to become a journalist, then let nothing get in your way, do your job to perfection, and get noticed and you will surely thrive as a journalist in whatever field you choose.
Do You Need a Degree to Become a Journalist? You don’t necessarily need a degree to become a journalist, however, landing a job with a degree is a lot easier than without. If you have no degree in journalism, you need to prove yourself otherwise. This can be through extensive effort or relevant experience in past jobs or internships. Being expressive and showing interest is vital to becoming a good journalist, with or without a degree.
Keep reading this article for much more information regarding the necessity of a degree when becoming a journalist, as well as different paths you can choose as a journalist.
Is a degree required to become a Journalist?
A degree is not required to become a journalist, but if you acquire one it will definitely be easier to land jobs or good internships.
Becoming a journalist, and a good one at that, requires nothing but hard work, curiosity, energy and the ability to express yourself clearly.
Taking a college degree or higher is something that could help your career as a journalist substantially.
It is a great way to both get more journalistic knowledge and also a great way to figure out what field of journalism you’d like to explore.
The great thing about educational institutions is that they often have their own newspapers.
Becoming a part of this newspaper is a great way to kickstart your journalistic abilities, and showcase your skills.
This means that when you leave school, you actually have some relevant experience as well as education – 2 birds with 1 stone!
If your school has no newspaper you can instead try to contact local newspapers and see if they’re either hiring student assistants or maybe could use you for an internship.
Overall the best idea seems to be, that acquiring a degree is something you should definitely do if you’re able to.
It will help you kickstart your career as a journalist, and land you that nice starting job or internship after your education is over.
5 Types of Journalism
There are many different types of journalism and in different types of industries.
For example, you can become a sports journalist, a business journalist or a news reporter.
Being a journalist is a very broad title, and actually fits into a ton of different job descriptions.
However, when we talk about types of overall journalism, there are some rather set-in-stone specifications that describe various types of journalism.
Here are some examples of 6 different types of journalism you can explore in your career:
- Watchdog Journalism. Watchdog journalism is a genre of journalism where the journalist strives to keep society safe from illegal activity, especially in large corporations or even government branches. They monitor activities of these institutions heavily, and always strive to shine a light on the criminal or unethical activity happening and make sure the people doing these things are accountable.
- Investigative Journalism. Investigative journalism involves heavy research on a certain topic, often to reveal or expose a certain truth that is unknown to the public. They conduct extremely heavy detective work and collect evidence through often months or even years of work. In the end, they show their findings which often leads to many scandals or perhaps gives the public a new understanding of a certain subject.
- Broadcast Journalism. This one is pretty straightforward, it simply involves a journalist who broadcasts stories and information through a certain platform. This can be both facebook live, TV, radio or any other online platform. Most often, people depict it as primarily TV and Radio.
- Sports Journalism. Sports journalism is a very popular type of journalism and involves a heavy focus on sports events or certain specific sports and the broadcasting information from these areas. It can involve the reporting of scores, standings, rankings or even scandals and other aspects in the large world of sports.
- Trade/business journalism. This type of journalism revolves around the business world, and often the private sector. Here trade journalists analyze and report on certain factors in the business world that could have an impact on the economy. Some trade journalists also focus on a certain product or a certain company, but often they have an overall industry where they focus their attention.
These were just some of the most popular types of journalism, there are a lot of other ways you can approach journalism, like for example entertainment or politics.
Whatever you choose, make sure it’s something that speaks to you, and that you really want to work with.
Your curiosity about a certain subject is the main spark that really decides whether you’ll become a good journalist or a great journalist.
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