The sheer diversity of job opportunities in journalism means that newcomers arrive in the industry through different routes. Some join the profession as school-leavers, others as graduates or mature students and still some switch from other careers.
Academic qualifications are not always of prime importance to an editor who is hiring new trainees, since the skills he or she is looking for in a reporter are practical rather than theoretical. Naturally a basic command in written and spoken language is very important, but other key personality skills may be important also. A trainee should be able to communicate with people fluently; they should be enthusiastic, committed and eager to learn. Also they should have the ability to use the computer and acquire a sound knowledge of the law. If necessary they should study shorthand.
A person applying for a journalistic job should be genuinely interested in it and should not see it as a means to an end, or a stepping stone for another career. Most editors prefer to go for candidates that will acquire all the skills on needed on the job because most of them are enthusiastic and have a strong commitment to develop faster than intellectual who will be looking for high salary and will not be as committed to develop his or her skills like the school leaver.
At present editors in the developed world are skeptical of the explosion in media studies courses in universities and colleges, many of which are more of theory and involve no practical hands on journalistic experience. In Sierra Leone, we do not have such problems as the Mass Communications department at Fourah Bay College has been the only recognized in the country, maybe there will be others but I don’t know, only for some students who are doing corresponding courses.
It is more preferably for editors to favor a graduate in a discipline not directly related to the industry – languages, economics, politics, etc – that has demonstrated ability and enthusiasm by editing a college newspaper or has already managed to submit articles to some papers.
Since the career opportunities in journalism are so diverse, it’s worth taking a look at all the different branches of the industry, even if you are unsure at this stage in the course which area is most interesting. The brad categories are: newspapers, magazines, radio, Television, online, press and public relations and marketing.
These categories can be broken down in a number of different ways, by frequency of publication or the audience they aimed at.
Newspapers in a broader perspective have national/regional, broadsheet/tabloid, weekly/daily, paid-for/free, morning/evening/Sunday. In Sierra Leone we only have daily and weekly, in fact the daily excludes weekend because the vendors dictate the production dates of newspapers.
In most developed countries, trainees will start their career on a regional paper before moving to the nationals as these regional papers have been the feed for the bigger papers. In Sierra Leone, because we do not have that set up, most of the trainees begin their career at the daily papers. The diversity of jobs available in the nationals gives trainees the advantage to learn faster.
In magazines too, the diversity is many like hobby, professions, trade, leisure, sport, company, TV, arts etc. Magazines deal with enormous range of general and specialist interest subjects, and may be published weekly, fortnightly or monthly. They are more expensive than the newspaper, because they are printed in higher quality paper and generally contain full-color photographs, artwork and advertisements, and that is why they are often referred to as glossies.
Magazine production in Sierra Leone is almost non-existent because we have no regular magazine coming out. A magazine will be produced this month and will never be produced again or at most will be coming out erratically. But in Britain alone, about 100 magazines with a circulation of between 100,000 to one million dealing with subjects with different diversity come out regularly.
Despite the success, magazine market is risky as new editions are launched often. Some of these magazines are produced by a handful of staff just like our mushroom papers, and if one title is unsuccessful, employees may be redeployed on a new title in the event of closure. The magazine publishers have a wide ranging portfolio of titles catering for interests as diverse as lifestyles, sports, housing, fashion in the same building, but with different staffs.
Radio journalism has national, local, independent and community that journalists can start their training or after qualifying they can work. Most job opportunities for journalists exist with broadcasters specializing in speech-based radio like the SLBS and 98.1 in Sierra Leone, BBC in London etc. These radios produce a wide range of news, current affairs and magazine programmes on different frequency and channels and on local radio stations.
Radio is very popular with women journalists dominating all over the world, although most of them are now switching to TV because they want to be seen and heard.
TV in Sierra Leone is scarce for journalists as many journalists in the 21st century like working for TV. In the developed world there are many TV, plethora of cable and satellite channels in the regions as well as communities. This gives plenty of job opportunities to many even with independent production companies serving a wide array of outlets. The popularity of TV has over taken radio and newspapers as most journalists are hoping to work for a TV one day after gaining experience from radio and newspaper.
The online internet growth has spawned an explosion in online journalism opportunities, replacing all the sectors already served by conventional print media.
Many journalists find their communication skills highly prized in the world of public relations and marketing, where salaries are generally higher than in print journalism. Understanding what information journalists need and how they work is vital to those working in corporate communications and publicity.
Another career consideration is whether you are best suited to working as a staff writer or a freelance. It’s obviously easier for an experienced staff writer to go it alone because they have the necessary skills and contacts to make a success of freelancing. But if working part-time is a necessity because of your other commitments, it’s not impossible to start building up a freelance portfolio from scratch.
Other journalists have natural appetite for either news or feature writing, but rarely both, although many feature writers on newspapers will have trained as a reporter before joining the features team. Different writing styles are involved, and for those who really feel uncomfortable with the idea of newspaper reporting, numerous features writing opportunities exist in the profession of journalism.
By Austin Thomas