The road to becoming a journalist starts with earning a degree, gaining experience, and starting out with, usually, a lower level job in the field.
Earning a degree from a college with a major in journalism is the place to start. Indiana University is a great place to start with the writing journey. They have a media school and offer careers such as news reporting and editing, public relations, and social and digital media.
Nicolas Napier, business reporter at The Post and Courier Myrtle Beach, started out at the Megaphone at Cathedral’s prior Irish newspaper, learned that he really cared about telling stories about people in their community, and this helped him to decide to pursue journalism.
Photo from IU News Net
He said, “At IU, I worked for a student newspaper all four years , I fell in love with the writing process, and making sure the community was informed of the truth.”
According to Forbes Advisor, some important skills journalists have are “communication, dedication to facts, endurance, being familiar with technology and interpersonal skills.”
It is important to learn about journalism in school, but it’s also about getting experience in the world from different types of media. Students get internships to gain real world experience. Just like Cathedral’s Irish Connection, colleges allow students to run the newspapers and media on college campuses.
Matt Bryne, a 2024 IU Media School graduate, felt he was groomed into being a journalist all by family. He stated, “My love for sports journalism rooted from my Dad, who had an exceptional memory of events and retold them with so much detail I could picture what it was like to be there. At 21 years old, three days after college graduation, I was lucky enough to begin covering Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever. My best work happened when I was out of my comfort zone—asking the necessary questions without any fear as the youngest in the room. An incredible experience.”
At Indiana University the student- run newspaper is called the Indiana Daily Student, according to the IDS website. A staff of about 200 students gain experience in writing, editing, and sources. Journalists in America are free to write stories to the public which is the cornerstone of a strong democracy which is taught heavily in college.
Lastly, Napier stated, “ I learned now that I want to be an Investigative Journalist, because there needs to be people in this world that holds accountable to check governmental bodies and ensure that everyone in the country is living freely and not being harmed.”
