Viviane Stroede
Staff Writer
“I want to become a Journalist”, is probably what some of us thought when we started to do an English degree in college. You get to know the theory and at some point, you start writing your first stories. After a while, between all that the question arises: “What is going to happen when I leave the safe walls of my college?”
What will we do? Are we going to plan a career in sports, fashion, politics, or one of many other choices? Where will we start and how will we survive in this world of news? Over the past few years we have noticed the media going through a series of significant changes. The internet opened up as a new medium and brought along a lot of new possibilities, giving everyone a chance to get involved in sharing news.
Between all those moments of restless questions running through my head I had an epiphany- Nothing will help more than going out there and asking someone who knows what they are doing! So I went and talked to Mary Harte. She worked with the BBC for over 20 years as a journalist and broadcaster during the troubles in Northern Ireland. Since 2008 she is working as a freelancer.
I met her while she was in Dublin and got to ask her some questions about her routine and what it actually takes to be a GOOD journalist in her opinion. Obviously everyone has particular reasons that led them to choose this career, as every little thing can prompt you to become a journalist. Everyone needs to find out what way they decide to go, whether they are creative and good in writing features or prefer to write factual stories.
But “there is no point walking into a newsroom saying ‘I want to be a journalist’ because they will look at you and say ‘Well, so does half the world, so what can you bring me that half the world can’t?'”.
It is important to collect as many skills as possible to be able to stand out of the crowd.
“You got to have the skills, you got to have the interest and you got to have the proof that you can do it. Aspects of journalism like learning how to write a press release, interviewing people and writing articles are something that an aspiring journalist will learn over time. But it starts with a passion and if someone can show that, then that’s just the start of what it takes to become a journalist. ” According to Mary being a journalist is a job that you are constantly surrounded by, as you could be working any time of the day. “If you don’t like it you will not stick with it because journalism is a very difficult job, but it’s also a very rewarding and interesting one.”
Out of experience, Mary told me that it is very important for a journalist to watch and talk to people as “what a journalist does is painting a little picture of a story. The information has to be accurate, so therefore you really do have to be watching and listening”. You need to be able to judge yourself, decide what the most important parts of your story are, and then build your story around those aspects.
“A lot of that comes from experience. So you won’t walk in off the street and be a good journalist, you will be a good journalist because of experience because you’ve done it long enough.” These traits are applicable to all journalists, whether you decide to work as a freelance journalist or for a media company.
As Mary used to work in both areas she told me about her experiences. “When you work for an organization you are no longer your own person, you are the organization. The words that you are speaking are the words of the media organization. You could not say something that brings the media company into disrepute. ”
Though, in a way, the same applies to a freelancer. “Working as a freelance I have the freedom to say what I want,” however, you still need to consider for which newspaper you are writing the story and whom you are trying to sell it to. The style of writing you use for a broadsheet can be very different from writing for a tabloid newspaper.
Every journalist needs to build up their own ethics. It is your job to educate the public about current events; therefore a story should be balanced and accurate. With this in mind, Mary added that you are still “somewhat of an entertainer to a point because people are reading something in their spare time. You should not sensationalize it but the story should be interesting and enjoyable to read”.
So what are the necessary traits a journalist should have? According to Mary “what makes a good journalist is someone who is curious, who is good at keeping the images as well as the words that are being spoken, in their head”.
“Sometimes asking the very obvious question is what will get you the story. That is when you might get your big story.” So one of the most important things a good journalist should have is contacts. That is where your information comes from. “Start looking at stories that interest you, start writing them, go out and do them. Keep sending them in to people. Don’t get disillusioned because every reporter, every journalist has started somewhere and that means they’ve started at the bottom and they worked their way up. ”
“You will not get a job handed to you, you will have to work hard for it; you will have to be prepared to put in long hours, you will have to be prepared to be fed up ringing people and you will have to be prepared to have no money for quite a while but then it gets to the stage where you love your job and you think ‘Why is somebody paying me to do something that I really love?’.” Taking from what an experienced journalist said, it is not just about the skills, but also the passion required to work in the field of journalism.
