21st Century Journalism Student Journalists - 1562 Words

To succeed in 21st Century Journalism student journalists will need to have a thorough understanding of the potential contribution journalism has to their audience. Journalists should have accredited qualifications and skills such as NCTJ shorthand and law; to report stories accurately and ethically according to the values of a democratic society. As well as being self-motivated with a good reputation; gaining work experience and blogging regularly. In the past, the publication of diverse facts and stories was helpful to develop the idea of a democratic society in news culture. However, last century’s end editors defined the news within a business context, in order to maintain or increase their profits (Nuttal et al, 2011, p15). Jay†¦show more content†¦The first piece of print Journalism in the United Kingdom was called ‘coranto’, which started in 1620 and was published in Amsterdam. After that point several other newspapers were developed such as The Times (1785), Observer (1791), Sunday Times (1822) and the News of the World (1843) (Holmes et al, 2013, p3). In the late 20th century, publications would take on trainees every year on top of the staff they had. Whereas, in the 21st century most companies will only recruit where there are vacancies (Holmes et al, 2013, p285). This is because now employers expect student journalists to have real world work experience. And so, contacts are considerably valuable to get into the industry as it allows the student to have previous experience on a more casual basis, but will look impressive to future employers. Therefore, those without experience are less likely to get a job as others will be favoured. For example, todays newspaper editors were in newsrooms doing journalism, rather than studying it as a degree (Synge, 2010, p17). Previously job apprenticeships were common, but now there is a trend towards formal pre-entry qualifications and post graduate programmes such as the NCTJ (Holmes et al, 2013, p280). And so, having a degree does not guarantee a lasting successful journalism career (Synge, 2010, p17). Additionally, the essential qualities a journalist should have are curiosity, self-motivation,