Question on English for journalism ...

seanbmc

I was thinking of choosing English in Trinity as the course I want to do, with the hope of becoming a journalist. I`m hoping to become a journalist in a field that I`m very interested in such as technology or film.

Is journalism a tough career to get into? I think it would be as there isn`t too many websites/magazines looking for full time employees. Can any journalists shed some light on this for me? I`m curious

Thanks

Millicent

Hi Sean. I did English in college and found it next to impossible to get into journalism (having to do a Master's now). Your best bet is to study a certain field such as film and go from there. IMO, it's a better way to go about cracking into journalism.

seanbmc

Millicent wrote: »

Hi Sean. I did English in college and found it next to impossible to get into journalism (having to do a Master's now). Your best bet is to study a certain field such as film and go from there. IMO, it's a better way to go about cracking into journalism.

Yeah you can do Film Studies as well as English in Trinity,which is an option.

Millicent

seanbmc wrote: »

Yeah you can do Film Studies as well as English in Trinity,which is an option.

That's not a bad option. If you can manage it, write for the college paper while you're there. This advice was given to me and I never took it up as I had no time but it's a good way to get a portfolio of work.

If there is another subject you can do besides English, I'd be inclined to advise you to do that. Not because I don't love English (I do) but because it's best to have a couple of things you can write authoratively about. Even if you decide to do English, try to get involved in something else you have an interest in as having a couple of things you can write about with knowledge and conviction will be a big leg up. Best of luck with it.

seanbmc

Millicent wrote: »

That's not a bad option. If you can manage it, write for the college paper while you're there. This advice was given to me and I never took it up as I had no time but it's a good way to get a portfolio of work.

If there is another subject you can do besides English, I'd be inclined to advise you to do that. Not because I don't love English (I do) but because it's best to have a couple of things you can write authoratively about. Even if you decide to do English, try to get involved in something else you have an interest in as having a couple of things you can write about with knowledge and conviction will be a big leg up. Best of luck with it.

Thanks for the advice

OctavarIan

I'm in my final year of a journalism course, so my advice comes from actual experience in the industry and frequent contact with national level editors/journalists.

You don't need better than Leaving Cert english to become a journalist, unless you plan on writing lengthy feature articles for a posh rag (not a good plan to start off with). News stories all follow the same structure and formula, the job is actually recognising what news is, the angle to tackle it and getting the information you need. You won't learn that in an english course.

I'd also advise against planning that specifically. When I first started out I wanted to become a videogames and tech journalist. However I found the production and design side of things much more satisfying and ended up going down that route instead.

Journalism is a craft and a career that takes years to build up, the four years spent studying english in university would be better applied to either a journalism course or writing as much as possible for as many publications as possible.

It sounds harsh but it's the truth. An english degree will make you a pretty writer, not a journalist. If I were you I'd look into journalism courses instead, because you will regret choosing an english degree.

Sophsxxx

If anyone is doing journalism and new media in UL, I'd really appreciate some info on that!:D

seanbmc

OctavarIan wrote: »

I'm in my final year of a journalism course, so my advice comes from actual experience in the industry and frequent contact with national level editors/journalists.

You don't need better than Leaving Cert english to become a journalist, unless you plan on writing lengthy feature articles for a posh rag (not a good plan to start off with). News stories all follow the same structure and formula, the job is actually recognising what news is, the angle to tackle it and getting the information you need. You won't learn that in an english course.

I'd also advise against planning that specifically. When I first started out I wanted to become a videogames and tech journalist. However I found the production and design side of things much more satisfying and ended up going down that route instead.

Journalism is a craft and a career that takes years to build up, the four years spent studying english in university would be better applied to either a journalism course or writing as much as possible for as many publications as possible.

It sounds harsh but it's the truth. An english degree will make you a pretty writer, not a journalist. If I were you I'd look into journalism courses instead, because you will regret choosing an english degree.

Thanks for the advice

RHunce

Sophsxxx wrote: »

If anyone is doing journalism and new media in UL, I'd really appreciate some info on that!:D

have you tried here?? theres videos that i found very helpful

http://www.ul.ie/courses/LM039.html

not bakunin

Sophsxxx wrote: »

If anyone is doing journalism and new media in UL, I'd really appreciate some info on that!:D

I'm doing this course. It's fine, covers design and production, journalistic writing etc, and also some sociology modules to help you "get inside the mind" of who you're writing for. You'll also do Shorthand, which can be a serious pain, but may give you a slight edge, as I think it's the only journalism course in Ireland offering this module. The choice of electives are decent enough, I'm doing Politics and History (though I wish there was a straight up English option, and Politics may lead to severe hatred of anything to do with governance). You'd better forget everything you learned in Leaving Cert English for the journalism bit though. It's all about concise minimalism. However, one piece of advice I'd give would be that if you are going to do the degree and hope to get a sustainable life out of journalism, it isn't really enough just to go to the hours and leave it at that. It's a notoriously tough industry to break into, so you might as well start while you only have 18 hours of college a week and can justify the hardship, rather than getting your degree and suddendly finding yourself in the cold without a clue of where to start. Write for the college paper. Start a blog. Look for work placements etc. That's what I'm doing, and I can only hope it pays off. You should check out the News and Media forum here to get a feel for how it all works and how difficult it is at the moment.

Hope that helps, and if I come across as downbeat, I don't mean to! I definitely recommend the course, do what ya like, life is short and why bother waste it doing some boringly safe course to please others?