An explosion in communication technologies and the contraction of traditional newsroom staffs are prompting dramatic changes in the journalism world. It is also making it more competitive than ever to land a full-time job.
It takes talent, hard work and a bit of luck to land on your feet in the rough-and-tumble world of news, and the advice doled out in the A Career in Journalism app (free) is too dry and too dated to be of much use.
The app is organized in 10 chapters, including Rules of Journalism, What Is Style and What to Expect on Your First Job. Along with the dull design of the app is plenty of lackluster advice.
Editors are looking for people with degrees, the app states. And while an undergraduate degree is no doubt a valuable tool for any professional, there are plenty of ambitious self-starters who make a career in journalism without a degree. In fact, great clips and an intense interest in a specific subject area are much more valuable than a degree.
And the app makes scant references to the ever-expanding new media sphere. Many young journalists (and laid-off journalists) are bypassing traditional media altogether by launching blogs, twitter feeds and podcasts.
The journalism field is in the midst of a revolution, and the old standards have been washed away. The Career in Journalism app might have been useful a decade ago, but serves little purpose in the current environment.
