I am a sophomore at Penn State — Beaver. I am majoring in journalism and need some help deciding what to do with my major. I’ve been reading a lot about what kinds of jobs are available for journalism majors and I am a little confused.
I write for my college newspaper and have been taking a lot of writing classes to help me prepare for a career. The only problem is I’m not sure what direction I want to go in. It seems to me that a lot of writing jobs are connected with being a reporter. Now, I’m not the reporting type. … That’s why I want to stick with writing. What kinds of jobs are available to me as a writer? I’ve always been told that I was a very good and creative writer, but I don’t know where to go from there.
As I said before, I’m not the one who wants to be out there in the action. Rather, I want to be behind the scenes writing the stories based on the information that is presented to me. Is there any position like that in a newspaper or magazine?
I guess my main question is: Can an individual become a writer without also becoming a reporter? I’ll be the first to admit that I am definitely more of an introvert than an extrovert. I see the reporters on TV and hear about them in the news and know that being one just isn’t for me. But that still doesn’t take away from the fact that I love to write and am very good at it. Please e-mail me back with any feedback or suggestions. It would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Marissa
You ask a good question at the right time.
There are many kinds of writing, but journalism probably demands more than any other that you ask complete strangers direct questions.
You have two issues to consider. The first is whether the content of newspapers — news, that is — is something you are strongly interested in. If the content excites you and you find you’re always reading, listening and watching to know the latest scoop, you may be in the right industry, but the wrong job.
If you don’t care about news, look at writing jobs outside of journalism. The news industry is, after all, going through some wrenching changes, and competition is extreme. Think about areas such as technical writing, corporate communications, marketing, public service. Good writers can get jobs.
If, however, you love the news and being in the newsroom, consider what jobs there are. In some, a good writer can practice the craft without getting up in someone’s face or knocking on the door of a grieving parent.
The first place I would think about is the copy desk. Any good-sized newspaper has dozens of people working behind the scenes, polishing stories, writing headlines and generally upholding the quality of the writing. One place to start learning about that is through ACES, the American Copy Editors Society. As a student, you might also apply for a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund copy-editing internship. The training program that goes along with that is top-notch.
The other area you might look into at a newspaper is the online desk. As newspapers and other media work to get stories posted ever faster, the long-dead job of rewrite is coming back into style. As a rewrite, you would take news and information from various sources, most of them reporters in the field, and assemble it quickly to post on the Web.
Explore this, but be aware that the rapid evolution of tools may soon mean that reporters can file directly to the Web from any location. This would still leave editing jobs open. But the question there is whether those jobs would give you the chance to do enough actual writing.
The recruiter asks back: Newsrooms are populated with introverts, believe it or not. Don’t be shy, now. Help this person out. Where can introverts feel comfortable in a newsroom? How do they deal? Just click “Add Your Comments” below. They may help Marissa, or someone else.
Coming Friday: She has a chance to work in the same city as her boyfriend, but it is at a much smaller paper and would pit them against each other on the same beat.
