Topic: Journalism.

_{Yes, I am attracting a certain individual with the creation of this topic but feel free to contribute.}

Once I finish school, which is in a year and a bit, I'm looking to enter into Journalism at uni.

I was wondering what it consists of, looking at more the print side of things, rather than television and radio.

Would be great to get some responses, thanks.

• Pay isn't great
• You have to deal with stress and dead-lines
• You will end up writing about stuff you could really care less about a lot of the time
• People will be constantly critisizing you for what you write (doesn't even matter what you are writing about it's gonna happen)

Those are the biggest down-sides I can think of really. Hey, at least you will have women falling all over you. n_n (not really...sorry)

I can't talk for the Australian Universities but over here in the United Kingdom it depends on the university you go to.
I'm about to enter the third year of my Journalism course at The Robert Gordon University in Scotland and it has offered plenty practical experiences in: Print, broadcast (television and radio) and online platforms.
I imagine most universities will teach you and provide experience somewhat in all the platforms but some may have a heavier focus on some platforms over others, I've been told that Napier University (Another of my choices for universities back in school) has a stronger focus on broadcast journalism over print/online journalism.

I have had experience in writing, videoing, reporting, getting interviews, editing news packages, editorial roles both as part of a team and as an individual on my course, with a stronger focus on individual work over the next couple of years.
On the theory side of my course we've had modules in politics, law as well as computing classes such as web design, magazine design and such which have taught students in my course valuable skills such as using photoshop and dreamweaver etc.

If you focus on just the negatives like JayArr did you can make most if not any jobs sound bad. As per most careers pay varies from place to place depending on what you do, you will most likely start with a low (though usually not minimum wage) pay and work your way up if you do well. There are some very high paying career opportunities in journalism.

Stress is a factor of pretty much every job ever and deadlines affect many different careers too but it's something you get used to.

When you first start out you may find yourself writing for subjects of little interest but that's just life, many jobs don't involve doing what you love all the time anyway, as you work up your career ladder you may find yourself getting a job as a regular columnist in a particular subject like games reviewing, sports, etc

Criticism isn't always bad it helps strengthen your weaknesses. If you get a lot of criticism for your work on a constant manner you may just have poor writing and need to develop it more, on the whole though the main criticism you're likely to get would be from editors and people who disagree with your columns especially if it's on a controversial topic.

Being in the media is and can be quite an attractive job to some women, as you have a certain amount of power as to what gets published to the people.

The biggest downside to journalism is, as JayArr said, the pay sucks. Especially for new people to the industry, and especially in print. Your first couple of years will feel like scratching for pennies. Many journalists move from journalism to marketing or PR when circumstances in their lives demand they get a pay boost (such as when they have children)

That said, the good thing about print journalism in Australia is that it's a quick career path. Say you start off in a small, niche magazine (which is where most print journalists start here), work hard for a two or three years, and you'll likely end up either moving to one of the mainstream newspapers (where the pay gets to be very comfortable), or you'll end up editor of the magazine (where, again, the pay is comfortable. Not amazing, but comfortable).

The perks are there though. Depending on where you work, there may be a rule against taking gifts or prizes, but at the least, there will be organisations that take journalists to nice lunches at very nice restaurants (such as in Sydney, Quay, Aria, Coast) to hold events. If you're able to take gifts as well... well I've ended up with two laptops, about 1 TB worth of hard drives, memory sticks and the like, massive containers of M & Ms, and even weirder gifts. That doesn't include the games I get sent to review.

Away from pay and benefits, there's also a great deal of responsibility in that journalism matters. People read, and are influenced by what you write. Some let it go to their heads, but having that kind of influence provides a great deal of job fulfillment.

One other thing to note, though, is that there are very, very few pure print journalists left, and very few print journalist roles left. The Web is a very important source of revenue for media organisations now, and as such, most print journalists now find themselves writing more for the Web than the print publication. It can make the day more stressful, given that the need is there to be the first to break news, but there's a thrill in seeing your story top Google news, or generate 100 comments, or have the company's managing director ring you up and threaten to sue you (it's a thrill because media organisations come with solid legal teams, and they will always back a journalist, so you're not likely to lose).

I guess the last thing I'll say is that journalists are not well liked. They're influential, but not trusted. It takes a certain personality to be able to cope with - or better yet, enjoy - that reputation. You'll start having conversations with perfectly friendly people at big events, only to find they quieten up when they discover you're a journalist. That can be uncomfortable.

As for specifics of what it consists of, our junior journalists are typically expected to write between 3-5 stories for our website per day. The really junior journalists tend to get the less interesting stories sent their way, not necessarily because they can't handle more complex stuff, but because it takes a while to build up the contacts base that allows you to go after a bigger story.

Aside from churning out the bread & butter stories, junior journalists are usually asked to do some admin stuff, send out newsletters, do some archiving, that kind of thing.

After about six months, they'll start attending events on behalf of the publication, conducting interviews for longer Q & A pieces, and writing bigger news stories. After about a year, they're expected to go out and find their own stories, rather than have them sent to them when a press release comes in and so on.

If there's anything else you'd like me to tell you about, feel free to ask.

edit: oh, one more thing. You don't necessarily need to do journalism at university to land as a journalist. I didn't - my undergrad degree is in creative writing, my postgrad is in marketing.

If you do want to do a journalist degree at university, the one at Macquarie University in Sydney produces good journalists that are in demand in the industry. Sydney Uni, UTS and UNSW also have good reputations. Do not touch University of Western Sydney, Australian Catholic University, University of Wollongong, Notre Dame University or any others. The four I mentioned are the ones you want.

I may be a bit biased, and yes, I am assigned stories all the time that are, to be honest, lame, but to be honest, all the field work in journalism I've done has been by far the most rewarding set of endeavors of my life. Finding facts, getting great quotations by asking great questions, uncovering bits of interesting information... it's the closest you can get to detective work without a law degree. It's like a real life adventure game with puzzle elements. It's grown man fun.

How long have you been a journalist/ what kind of publication?

(it's a thrill because media organisations come with solid legal teams, and they will always back a journalist, so you're not likely to lose)

That's unfortunately not true everywhere. I have a journalist friend who wrote for a website that reviewed musical instruments and equipment, and he said that his bosses wouldn't allow him to honestly speak to one company's products' flaws because they would sue them, and that particular company had an amazing legal team. Just wanted to throw my two cents in.

Well, any industry has good quality jobs, and bad jobs. Working for a bad publication isn't a good idea

What I love about it is that you get to see many different kinds of interesting people you would never have met and get behind doors that would otherwise have remained closed. Finding a job in it can be challenging, but it is a very interesting thing to do. It's kind of a "must be your thing" job, but if it is, it's great. I'm studying it right now. Starting my second year next week and so far it has been great.

Unlike some other careers there are LOADS of jobs out there to be had in Journalism the problem is that there is a LOT of other journalists out there competing for the same jobs etc.

Ohh thank you all for your responses everyone.

@Waltz I went to the UTS Open Day yesterday and the Journalism talk really made me interested in it. I was looking at either CSU or UTS.

UTS is a safe bet. We had one guy go though to work at Fairfax from doing a course there. I haven't met anyone in journalism who has done CSU.

@Waltz: Only a couple years, and only local newspaper work, but it's something I've quickly grown to love. Which is surprising as I never thought of it as a career choice. I've always loved to write, but wanted since I was a kid to do more work in the creative side of the art. I've found myself to be infinitely better at the journalistic sort of writing, but that aside, I've also found I have much more fun with it. So I have no objections, and very much look forward to seeing where it may take me.

Great to see examples of people finding passion in their career.