Ten years into the advent of the modern Internet, people seeking a career as a journalist still tend to seek a career with a newspaper, a magazine or periodical, a TV station, or even with a radio station. But when we look at local newspapers being auctioned off left and right or look at their major counterparts losing stock-share price; when the network television stations cannot hire enough anchors and the cable TV stations have barely enough able actors and writers it is clearly time to start reevaluating your future if you want to be a serious journalist.
And on the other hand, Internet news and commentary operations are expanding, and their editors are hiring. Online advertising revenues are booming. And, even more exciting to many, online journalism has not sunk into the dead-hand, preconceived-notion reporting of its print counterparts.
What’s more, as a counterpart trade that has become victimized and succumbed to being held hostage by blind tradition and iron-fisted practice standards, Web journalists are able to engage in a devil-may-care spirit that belies and contrasts with their print and broadcast counterparts. Mavericks are still permitted, if you write online. So-called deviants are still permitted, if you write online. A bottom-up spirit is still permitted, if you write online.
People who want serious careers in journalism nowadays can get their credentials for entering the professional world by entering through the door of citizen journalism. There are numerous Web sites out there now, hungry for journalists to write for them, whether these journalists are professionals with college or university degrees, or just seriously talented citizens who have a knack for fact-gathering and writing.
Web journalism is being driven by the engines of citizen journalism these days. Online journalism jobs are being offered to some people who may not have the official education or the mastery of the code language of formal journalism, yet who do have a passion for communication in photography and the written word, the intelligence, and the native talent to learn by example and to want to tell the truth.
While traditional journalists usually need to have a college degree, those who aspire to Web journalism jobs or online journalism jobs do not necessarily need to have that formal degree. They can get hired on their experience and their proven talent. So, the question must be asked: how do such people prove their talent and get hired for Web journalism jobs or create web journalism jobs out of their own initiatives?
Blogging is a now an amazing way for citizen journalists to get taken more seriously and to get hired into more tradition-based Web journalism or online journalism jobs. With a blog, you can practice and display your writing skills while commentating on the news and current events of the day. You can also show your ability to put a particular spin on an issue or topic, enabling you to get hired as a writer with an established news outlet or related type of business.
You should be able to show an ability to gather facts and organize them into a cohesive whole and a full story that interests people and captures their attention long enough to read through your work. If you get a good number of comments on your blog and start getting a good, consistent number of hits, you are be building up a strong portfolio online, even though you are probably just having fun. With a blog, you can tell the truth, use strong language, and follow your own writing format; so you can show your independent spirit of thought and story telling.
Many journalists have problems with things like blogging, writing for citizen journalism Web sites, or maintaining their own Web sites and podcasts because they are concerned that it falls too easily in with those who fail to take writing seriously or just do not know what they are doing. But the whole point of Web journalism as a profession is that the walls between citizen and professional journalist are dissolving.
Web journalists can show their abilities off without needing to wait for official approval. They are able to use the fantastic power of the Internet to gain experience and credentials that they never would have been able to get before without having to work for low wages for local papers or radio stations.
The Web journalist or citizen journalist can make money while seeking journalism jobs through monetizing their blogs with Google AdWords or by collecting royalties through citizen journalist Web sites like Associated Content or Digital Journal, which can pay decent enough royalties. But by taking these jobs seriously, they can get themselves noticed by bigger media companies.
Online journalism jobs average about $60,000 a year in compensation. Therefore, journalism jobs can provide good compensation and a high degree of personal satisfaction.
