So you're an excellent writer…
You live
and breathe to write. You got A+s on your book reports in grade
school. Your teachers loved your essays in high school. Your
writing is superb and it's only natural that you do it for a
living.
Taking a university or college program in journalism is an
excellent way to get you trained for a life of writing. You'll be
able to impact the way people read the news, watch television, make
decisions and think about different ideas and opinions.
What are some
journalism jobs in writing?
Writing
articles for publications
You can write articles for newspapers, magazines, newsletters,
book, academic journals or even Internet news sites. The two main
types of articles are news articles, which record
current events, and feature articles, which intend
to inform, teach or amuse readers.
There is a
lot more to writing articles than simply writing down "what
happened". It's a culmination of eyewitness accounts, photographs,
interviews, polls, debates, statistics, graphs and references. It
needs to be informative and yet still capture the attention of the
reader.
You know you're a good writer when you're concise, objective and
compelling. Types of feature articles you can write can include
essays, columns, how-tos, human interest stories, interviews,
editorials, and much more.
You can write on a variety of different topics, depending
on what you are passionate about: sports, fashion, gourmet
food, travel, arts and culture, rock music, psychology,
engineering, science, politics, medicine or business.
Challenges in
your field
It's important to realize there's a lot of information being thrown
in people's faces everyday - it's up to you to make your story the
one readers pay attention to. You have to be able to adapt to the
ever-changing culture and technology, be able to meet strict
deadlines, and be subject to public scrutiny and
criticism. You must also consider the legal/ethical
boundaries and responsibilities you have towards the
public and towards the people, places and organizations you're
writing about. You also have to present both views and remain
objective, as well as be able to filter out unreliable sources and
find the truth of every matter.
Writing for
television and visual media
Television is really popular - you know that. People go home and
watch their tellies every night after a long day's work. What you
might not realize is that there are teams of writers who create
scripts to entertain you. If you're got what it takes to create a
mood, atmosphere and provide entertainment to an audience
through the right words, you should consider
writing for television.
Consider the career of a scriptwriter, or
screenwriter. He or she writes scripts for a living -
whether it be a movie, a play, a television show, a comedy show, or
a political speech. You can write for mediums such as television
and radio. These types of programmes can range from comedy to drama
to documentary. You'll need an excellent command of English as well
as an exceptional amount of general knowledge to draw from.
Knowing
another language can greatly increase your job
opportunities
With the increasing globalization occurring today, many
publications need to have their works translated into other
languages. If you are a master of more than language, you're
definitely at a great advantage.
It doesn't matter what language you may speak - there will always
be a need for more information to be translated, in order to share
it with various cultures and audiences. Journalism is a great way
to put your language skills to good use. Think about the numbers of
articles floating around which businesses, scientists and other
people need to know about - medicine, economics, politics, and much
more.
References/Images
Hbuzacott
Ed
Yourdon
Careers-Scotland
Ibuffet
Ashengrove
