Writer & Business Reporter
Thoughts on writing and journalism.
How do you measure who is and who isn’t a journalist?
What about someone like me? Do I get the right to call myself a journalist?
Sure, I went to journalism school. I did three internships.Co-founded a new press club in Toronto. Live-blogged a few journalism conferences this year and have a decent Rolodex of friends in the industry. Even listed on a bunch of ‘journalist’ lists on Twitter.
But then I got a communications job.
For as long as I have been reading news on the internet, I have been reading nytimes.com. Since my family didn’t subscribe to the dead tree version, this allowed me to read huge portions of one of the best newspapers in the world.
So yesterday it was a bit of a surprise when I woke up to this one line email on Facebook.
“Did I just see you on a New York Times iPad video?”
And just like that, I was part of my favourite newspaper.
Going to an industry conference can be overwhelming. There’s hundreds if not thousands of people congregated in a small amount of space for a short period of time, all trying to learn and grow in their fields.
Traveling to one can be expensive to do, especially if you a new or young professional. But the investment can pay off tremendously in ways not possible through regular networking in your local area.
It’s pretty much the end of Day 3 here at the Canadian University Press’ National Conference in Edmonton, Alberta and right now I feel like my heart’s about to explode out of my chest.
A few days ago, I had completely bought into the idea a career in journalism was pretty hopeless.
[But] being here in Edmonton has changed everything.
I read recently there is such thing as ‘doing too many internships’. Corinna vanGerwen writes in Masthead Online: “You can do as many as three, but more than that and potential job employers may ask why you haven’t found a job yet.”
I personally think this is the year to break that rule.
Personally, I haven’t signed up for just two or three internships. I plan on doing at least five.
Promoting your blog via twitter doesn’t have to sound self-centered, as long as you advocate its reader value more than its connection to the author. Here’s some examples of the difference I’ve noticed from my own experience.
I didn’t realize it until just now that I hadn’t updated my blog in over a month. Initially I started this to showcase my work somewhere online – a backup I could call upon when I met people or went to conferences and was asked to give examples of my work without having to pull out my hard-copy portfolio.
But now that I’ve updated with the shorter entry on Wayson Choy, there are a couple things I’ve learned that I think are worth repeating.
At a time when journalism jobs are plummeting and unemployment rates continue to rise (on what seems like a daily basis), Sometimes it’s hard to figure out if this is a better or worse time to be looking for an internship.
Karen K. Ho 