You might not know it from the 90-degree weather, but fall is approaching, and that means it’s time to go back to school. On Monday evening, Emily Bell, a professor at the Columbia School of Journalism and director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, asked her Twitter followers for their best advice for new student journalists.
If you had 200 new journalism students from across the globe sitting in front of you…what would you tell them? (Keep it clean….)
— emily bell (@emilybell) August 18, 2015
Bell is preparing a lecture on the changes in the journalism industry for the Columbia School of Journalism class of 2016, and many of the best responses to her tweet focused on that theme.
From Drake Martinet, VP of product at Vice Media:
@WithDrake ….and NEVER say to an editor ' I emailed them but they haven't got back to me'….
— emily bell (@emilybell) August 18, 2015
From Andrea L. Guzman, who studies and writes about AI:
@emilybell Tell them that their greatest competition now is not human, it is AI.
— Andrea L. Guzman (@TeachGuz) August 18, 2015
From Roy Greenslade, journalism professor and Guardian writer:
@emilybell behind every tweet is a story; behind every facebook posting is a story; behind every story is a story; stories are our trade
— Roy Greenslade (@GreensladeR) August 18, 2015
From Suzanne Moore, Guardian columnist::
@emilybell no headphones in public. Listen to the sounds of the city and the chatter of people who surround you.
— suzanne moore (@suzanne_moore) August 18, 2015
From Jack Rosenberry, journalism professor:
@emilybell You can't cover/produce news effectively unless you consume it voraciously. My US students have a hard time with that.
— Jack Rosenberry (@JackRosenberry) August 18, 2015
From Amir Mizroch, Wall Street Journal tech editor:
@emilybell don't do data journalism or market reports. Algorithms can do those. Go find humans and tell their stories
— Amir Mizroch (@Amirmizroch) August 18, 2015
From Kat Brown, Telegraph journalist:
@emilybell Find out about self-employment and tax returns which are arguably as important as how to write/lay out/shout at a CMS.
— Kat Brown (@katbrown82) August 18, 2015
From Rahul Chopra, Storyful CEO:
@emilybell learn about the business side. Days of saying I'm just here to write or i don't pay attention to the numbers are gone
— rahul chopra (@r2000c) August 18, 2015
From Natalia Ciolko, Texas Tribune sales operations manager:
@emilybell don't be afraid of joining the business side! Keeping the lights on for good journalism is actually a really fun job.
— Natalia Ciolko (@NataliaCiolko) August 18, 2015
And from Matthew Hutching, a current journalism student:
@mdh__ I think the opposite will happen…click bait can be automatically manufactured. Reporting is a differentiator
— emily bell (@emilybell) August 18, 2015
