WHEN you think of a journalist, you might picture hordes of people clustered around a disgraced public figure, thrusting a microphone in their face demanding a quote, while paparazzi cameras flash in their face. Journalists haven’t exactly got the best reputation at the moment, but that’s only a small percentage of us, and that’s absolutely not what I do on a daily basis. Just because you might have chosen to study journalism or media at university doesn’t mean you have to become a hard-nosed investigative journalist. So, I’m here to tell you what other routes journalism can take you down.
Copywriting
If you’ve even considered a career in journalism then it’s fair to assume that you can write, and write fairly well. In which case, you can probably master any job on the market. But if you want to focus solely on the writing, becoming a copywriter is a decent way to go. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, it’s basically creating content either online or in print, often for advertising. It might be content to persuade or to raise awareness of a product or brand. Many copywriters work freelance too so there’s more flexibility with the job. We all look at television adverts or fliers and leaflets and think we could do it better, so why not do it? You’ll get to write all day every day, but without the stigma attached to those pesky journalists.
Social media
If you’re a dab hand at Facebook, you’re always twittering away and you love sprucing up your LinkedIn page, then you could always make it your career. Sounds fun, hey? Social media is a key part of journalism. What’s the point in writing an incredible article if nobody reads it? You need to promote it and get it out there, so if you become a social media manager, you’ve got a pretty important job. With the rapid growth of social media along with our obsession with it, the number of jobs available has increased drastically. Twitter alone employs over 4,000 people around the world - now that’s a lot of jobs up for grabs.
PR (Public Relations)
PR is the new HR (kind of), everyone wants to work in it and who can blame them, it’s a great career choice, especially if you’ve got some journo experience. It’s all about generating publicity, building up relationships with the media, writing and putting together press releases and overseeing content creation whether it’s adverts, videos or online PR stunts. Essentially you’re trying to working with the press and journalists, not against them. So many companies outsource their PR to external companies who know what they’re doing and can take some of the workload off their hands. In my experience, PRs make a journalist's job a lot easier and I’d be lost without them (so come on, help me out).
Proofreading
It doesn’t sound like the most exciting job in the world, but it’s a crucial job and many people find it therapeutic and rewarding. No newspaper, magazine or online content gets published without being checked countless times first (or at least it should be). Nobody wants their work to be printed with a simple spelling mistake or an incorrect fact but it can be so easy to miss something so small. Proofreaders and editors are the lifesavers of the journalism world. They save us from making fools of ourselves and they make our writing better, so it’s definitely a worthy job. If you’re into your grammar and fact-checking and have a keen eye for detail, this could be the one for you. Having studied journalism will only enhance your writing ability and knowledge of how to improve someone else’s work.
Radio and television
If you have studied journalism then you’ve probably dabbled in some broadcast work, maybe filmed some news stories, recorded for the radio or made a showreel of all your best work. But instead of performing or writing for the camera, why not get technical and get behind it instead. You might find that you’d rather do the cutting, editing and mixing, or even script writing. Whichever career you choose, every company needs you to be able to write, research or produce something whether that’s coming up with a new TV documentary or writing the narration to go over it.
And finally… Politics
It’s not the most obvious choice but many politicians share a lot of the same qualities with journalists - thick-skinned, persuasive, good communication skills. You could head down the route of speech writing, campaign directing, or become an information officer. Even former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg started his career as a journalist. Of course, he’s still making the headlines but in a slightly different way…
The point is, with good writing skills and experience in media, journalism, websites, newspapers, magazines, research or whatever you know, you’re be suitable for endless amounts of jobs. Don’t think your experience or degree in journalism is a one-way track to a life of recording and reporting. It’s actually just a great all-round degree to have and, to end with a classic cliché: the possibilities are endless.
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