If you’re an aspiring young (or not) journalist and you don’t have the good sense to pay attention to what Rob Curley says, I sort of feel sorry for you. That’s the truth, harsh as it may seem. Whenever guys like Curley or Holovaty or anyone else speaks up who has taken online journalism and developed it an extra step to create something new or different or compelling — whether it’s a way to better tell a story or a way to better build a community — I tune right in, ears on strong.
So listen up:
Curley writes to Innovation in College Media’s Bryan Murley in “What sort of things should an aspiring journalist be thinking about?”:
“And my biggest advice would be to have at least one portfolio piece that shows you understand the importance of the things I’ve listed above. If you want to impress an editor who is hiring, show him/her that you aren’t just willing to do these sorts of things, but that you can’t wait to do these sorts of things. All things being equal, who do you think gets the job: the person who hands over a bunch of photocopied newspaper clips, or someone who also sends a link to a well-done multimedia project?”
Hey Spartan Daily kids (and all J-School students everywhere). Those of you just writing stories for the print edition, not participating in the blogs, not asking your faculty advisers when they’re going to get you one of those great audio recorders, not asking where you can borrow a video camera from, not asking the online editor to show you how the content management system works… WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
Good luck at the internship with the weekly paper, but seriously, if you want more than that out of a journalism career, it’s time to either start learning on your own, or asking for more from your school.
If you ask them to teach you more, maybe they’ll get the idea that they should be teaching you more.
Ryan Sholin 
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8 responses to “More advice from Rob Curley”
Dangit, Curley beat me to posting his response. Oh, well. Good words anyway.
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Here’s my post about Curley’s response.
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[…] Work « More advice from Rob Curley […]
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I agree with you completely, but implementation is the hardest part of it all right now when most of the teachers are still teaching that New Media isn’t as important as the old paradigm. It’s like trying to get blind men to appreciate the lighting on a Caravaggio, and worse for students unaware of tech – like trying to talk on the phone in a hurricane. NOT HAPPENING.
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[…] I was alerted to the discussion by Ryan Sholin who is working on a thesis at San Jose State University about the adoption of weblogs at US newspapers. He wrote in his Invisible Inking blog: Hey Spartan Daily kids (and all J-School students everywhere). Those of you just writing stories for the print edition, not participating in the blogs, not asking your faculty advisers when they’re going to get you one of those great audio recorders, not asking where you can borrow a video camera from, not asking the online editor to show you how the content management system works… WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? […]
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[…] BTW, Ryan Sholin has some additional thoughts. His perspective should be equally worthwhile for aspiring journalists, as he’s just recently gotten a job in the market. Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]
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[…] There’s lots of interesting discussion going on about the state of journalism education, much of it crossing the Atlantic. Read these posts from Andy Dickinson, Martin Stabe, Kevin Anderson, and Andrew Grant-Adamson in the UK, practioners and academics all. Then read this from Dave Lee, a student in the UK. In the U.S., of course, there’s Mindy McAdams’ post from last week that started this ball rolling. Then there’s Bob Stepno. And don’t miss Ryan Sholin’s young gun words of wisdom. Or Matt Waite. Or Danny Sanchez. I’d like to see some thoughts from U.S. journalism students who write blogs. I know they’re out there. Link in, folks. This is your future we’re talking about here. Lots to read there. Lots to think about. But the very fact that there are so many people talking about these issues and sharing ideas with each other increases the possibility that we’ll all benefit. It’s that “wisdom of crowds” thing again. This whole conversation illustrates something Howard Owens mentioned in his interview with me. There’s a social nature to the World Wide Web that you have to be a part of to understand. And journalists need to increase their understanding. Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]
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[…] Spartan Daily Blogs I just today discovered the Spartan Daily Blog page after reading this post from Invisible Inkling. It’s the type of page that I would normally see a company like Microsoft use to allow its employees to blog in one central place. Compare MSDN Blogs to Spartan Daily Blogs and you’ll see what I’m talking about. […]
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