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Occupation Description of Journalists
Journalism is a career where professionals are tasked with the responsibilities of gathering, analyzing, and later on interpreting information gathered on a given subject. Depending on one’s area of specialization, one can be tasked with the responsibilities of investigating and reporting on all types of news for all available types of media platforms (Borden & Tew, 2007). To do this, one must be effective and adequately skilled in conducting their own research and investigation and also be good in conducting interviews with different respondents.
Requirements and Education
In order for one to become a journalist than it is a person gets a formal education up to a minimum of the bachelors’ level. While the minimum educational qualification is a degree competition for jobs and professional requirements have led to a need to for lawyers to further their education even to greater extents. One can choose to major in journalism or communications depending on what pleases them the most. Competitive journalists always go a step further and choose to specialize in a single subject such as politics or even international relationships. Journalists are also required in many times to have a good liberal arts background, such public affair participation among many others (Borden & Tew, 2007).
Also, while trying to be a journalist in order to get a job one needs to have some experience of some kind. Most employers today want result and that cannot just be seen on your resume. Journalists are also known to possess different skills such high communication skills and to be a good orator (Borden & Tew, 2007). At the same time, a modern day journalist must possess excellent computer skills and ability to use the internet and online technologies to gather information and research facts (Steensen, 2009). Good written communication skills are also a must for one to be a successful journalist. Today, we are also living in a global market, and one must possess high technology skills to conduct research and also help them in their day-to-day activities.
Finally, journalist occupation requires that one possess a good ability to think quickly and cope up with emerging issues that were not anticipated. One must also be able to be sociable and be comfortable around different people at the field most of them time entails interaction with different people (Harcup, 2002). One must also be patient while conducting their research as not all people will give you what you want in the way that you wish them to. Good critical thinking skills are also a must have the ability that will always help a journalist in deciding false information from factual information (Borden & Tew, 2007).
Journalist occupation: Duties & Responsibilities
Journalists are required to educate the public on what events are transpiring and how those events are going to affect their daily lives. They spend almost all of their times looking for information. This information is found by searching publicly available documents, interviewing individuals and also visiting crime scenes or where interesting events are taking place. After finding the required information they then proceed to analyze and later on present it to the public through the various media channel platforms (Conboy, 2013). Many people around the globe are of the opinion that the main responsibility of any journalist is to pass across information and news in the most truthful and unbiased manner. This should be the binding responsibility of any journalist or anyone aspiring to be a journalist.
While passing across information, it is the duty of the journalist to take into consideration the target audience, their own personal interested as well as the manner of passing across the given information. There are some ethical regulations that govern the conduct of journalist and thus it is the duty of any journalist to stick and abide by them.
In many cases, there are a few common types of news and stories that a journalist would really be interested in but of all of them, a journalist is always typically interested in breaking news. This type of a situation requires a journalist to report the happening of the event as the event is in progress (Conboy, 2013). It has the resultant ability to attract many audiences, giving sanctification to the particular journalist. A journalist should also be careful with breaking news as often times are dangerous. A good example is when a journalist is reporting a bombing scene when a blast occurs again as he or she is reporting.
Another responsibility of a journalist is to uncover details of an event that no one had an idea of. These are called investigative stories and entails uncovering some shocking stories such as teacher raping students in schools. Another type of news and stories that are expected to be handled by a journalist is feature stories (Conboy, 2013). This type of stories requires a lot of summing up and summarization. The journalist is tasked with the responsibility of finding all there is about the situation and combining all useful information into one coherent short description.
Journalists across all the different departments are expected to perform the following duties and responsibilities:
- Interviewing people whenever called upon with the purpose of deriving useful information from them.
- They are expected to be coming with different news almost on a daily basis and such; it is the duties to create contacts who will then maintain the flow of news and stories (Ferguson, Patten & Wilson, 2005).
- They are to attend press conference whenever called upon, ask questions and come up with a summary of the press conference meetings.
- It is also within their mandate to attend different events that they think could lead to some kind of story or news.
- They are also required to be investigative in nature and investigate all resources that can amount to some form of leading stories (Harcup, 2002).
- They are also expected to read news bulletin and should always carry this duty diligently.
- They are at all-time also required to ensure that the news they want to present is thorough research and prove to be factual so as not to ruin their employer’s names (Conboy, 2013).
- It also falls within their duties to write news story and submit a copy of the same in a timely manner and the right way.
- They are to be familiar with contempt and defamation law and ensure they are up to date with any changes in the same.
Regardless of any journalist duties, journalists are at all-time are expected to adhere to the laid down ethical standards and set deadlines. The Importance of accuracy and timeliness can never be compromised under any circumstance (Harcup, 2002).
Expected pay and benefits of being a journalist
Journalist career is such a well paid off career with the average yearly wages of journalist estimated to be around $ 50,000 with the starting salary ranging from $35,000 – $40000 (Deuze, 2005). This was an estimated figure of ten years ago, today the amount has risen and an average journalist can up to $100,000. Remember that as one increases, ranks, then his or her salary also increases subsequently.
Benefits
Being a journalist comes with many advantages and benefits. It allows individuals to move into a place they might have never imagined they would ever be. It also gives journalist the first access to inside information. With a press pass, journalists are easily granted access to almost any event that they seek to cover or tell a story about (Deuze, 2005). This allows the journalist to meet a wide variety of public figures and celebrities, something they would never have dome where they not be journalists.
Another notable benefit of being a journalist is that all your traveling expenses is covered for by your employers (Seib, 2002). One needs to be where the news is happening and as such all your traveling needs and expenses are paid in advance to ensure that you are there at the right time. Your meals and dining expenses are also catered for.
Journalism is a career where people who enjoy it are paid to do what you like doing. Being a journalist also allows you to follow or write a story you are really passionate about. You can even be given some time in televisions or newspapers just dedicated to your work. One also becomes a free agent where you job tasks change every day depending on the events that are occurring on different days. Each and every day you meet new challenges that require using all the knowledge and skills that you have learned for years to help you solve the situation at hand.
References
Borden, S., &Tew, C. (2007). The Role of Journalist and the Performance of Journalism: Ethical Lessons From “Fake” News (Seriously). Journal Of Mass Media Ethics, 22(4), 300-314.
Conboy, M. (2013). Journalism Studies, New York. Routledge.
Deuze, M. (2005). What is journalism?: Professional identity and ideology of journalists reconsidered. Journalism, 6(4), 442-464
Ferguson, D., Patten, J., & Wilson, B. (2005). Journalism today. New York, N.Y.: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.
Harcup, T. (2002). Journalists and Ethics: the quest for a collective voice. Journalism Studies, 3(1), 101-114.
Lawless, D. (1988). On course for being a medical journalist. BMJ, 297(6664), 1695-1697. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.297.6664.1695
Seib, P. (2002). The global journalist. Lanham, Md.: Rowman& Littlefield.
Steensen, S. (2009). The shaping of an online feature journalist. Journalism, 10(5), 702-718.