AP provides career tips, tricks for young journalists
By Jamie Zega
The Associated Press: the largest and, arguably, most important news outlet in the world.
Some of the freshman Ernie Pyle Scholars and Journalism Ambassadors from The Media School began their Friday morning with a visit to the central headquarters of this well-regarded outlet.
IU alumnus and the AP deputy managing editor for the central region Shawn Chen guided students through some of the AP’s statistics regarding its reach and readership. One main topic was stressed throughout the visit: the ever-changing nature of online journalism.
Chen and his colleague, a user-generated content specialist and recent Mizzou grad, gave some advice regarding how to stay afloat and find a job in this ever-changing career field.
- Using Twitter puts you ahead of the older generation.
Millennials are at an advantage here. With newsrooms relying more and more on Twitter, the ability to navigate social media is growing in importance for reporters. This generation already spends enough time on social media. If we can learn to use it for good, it will give us a slight edge over our elders.
- Don’t be afraid to reach out to people.
Job opportunities are out there, but connections and networking are crucial. Casually inviting someone you know at a media outlet out to coffee can perhaps end up in a job opportunity. In seeking jobs, we must create our own opportunities.
- Do your best to figure out how to tell a story interactively, not just with words.
News is changing. We don’t just read what happens, we want to see what happens. Learning how to do this can be crucially important.
- Learn from your screw-ups.
As with all else in life, learning from our mistakes is important. Things that we mess up now in college should serve as learning opportunities for when we get into the “real world.”
- Try different things in college.
Rather than just stick to one thing like the IDS, reach out and try things like Arbutus or WIUX or IUSTV. But don’t just write about one specific thing. Write about multiple things and try to incorporate multimedia.
- Be curious about everything.
We’re journalists. It’s what we do.
Not only did these tips help the Ernie Pyle Scholars and ambassadors, but they also came as a reassurance.
“It was really reassuring when the journalists were discussing how important it is to diversify yourself going into the field as it is changing so much,” said Ernie Pyle Scholar Alexa Chryssovergis. “It made me feel like I am on the right path with my interest in pairing journalism and informatics and it really solidifies my decision to continue to pursue that area in the future so that I can be more versatile.”
In addition to helping the freshman, other students found the visit useful as well.
“I think the most important thing I learned at the AP visit was to just set your goals and go for it,” journalism ambassador Holly Hays said. “Diversify your skill set so you can do multimedia, social media, photo and print so you can be the whole package.”