Where to find advice on work experience in journalism

I had a quick roam round the web looking for some tips and thoughts on getting work experience - and making the most of it - for some journalism students I've been working with.       
    There's a note of caution on spending too long working for free, written by a press gazette intern. But short periods of unpaid work experience is still invaluable for newcomers and is a great way of getting that first break.

    Here's some of the most useful-looking links I've found. They're not brand new, but the advice is still helpful and relevant:

• The Wannabehacks site is always a useful place to start. It has list of top placements from 2011. 

• Bauer Media has a site dedicated to work experience and internships on its brands

• There's some interesting advice on Using twitter to get work experience from The Guardian

• Tips and tricks on how to impress on your work experience placemen

• This journalism.co.uk forum on work experience and opportunities for new journalists has some recent comments and other entries.

• Rhian Jones offers a blaggers’guide to getting journalism work experience.

• Plus there's a few tips from Alison Gow, from a couple of years ago that still look relevant.

My own tips are:

Clarify what titles mean by work experience.

Some titles have you just doing admin; some give you more meaty stuff to do.

Try the less well-known titles too. 

Try the big name newspapers, magazines and websites by all means, but they can be over-subscribed. Some of the smaller set-ups, including trade magazines and websites, can sometimes find you a space - and can often give you a great chance to get a byline.

Volunteer and be willing to help. 

It might sound obvious but always offer to help out and ask "is there anything else you'd like me to do?" rather than just twiddling your thumbs.

Media Law videos on UK courts - useful for journalism students

The news that Supreme Court Judgements are now available on youtube led me to revisit the video of the UK's first ever televised sentencing.  

But it also had me thinking about some of the videos around the web that might be of use to journalism students who want to understand the basics about how the court system works. So here are a few quick links:

Criminal courts:

• 4min video on who’s who in magistrates’ court  from the University of Derby
• Ministry of justice video aimed at new jurors, but has good basic info about how courts work at 4mins.15 and from 7mins.45 to 11mins.45
• What types of sentence can offenders get? Video lasts 1.38. By The Sentencing Council.
• The You be the judge site has a reasonable explanation of a criminal case at crown court in case on burglary. But there are others to choose from.
• What the CPS does and what happens in court  Viewers might want to watch a short clip  from the middle of this video.

Civil cases:

• A 2.5 minute Minustry of Justice video on what happens when a county court hearing takes place in court… 
• …and one on hearings in chambers

Plus some nice old BBC newsreel-type footage on the famous Liberace libel case

A few online resources for journalism students

Interesting to see the US-based Online Education Database has compiled its list of the 40 best blogs for journalism students, which included Online Journalism Blog and a host of others, all of which are well worth a look.

In addition to these sources, for anyone starting out or trying to break in to journalism, I also recommend:

• Adam Westbrook's blog on online video and entrepreneurial journalism
• Write, edit blog, which accompanies Andy Bull's online course and book on multimedia journalism
• Dave Higgerson on journalism, social media and Freedom of Information
• A look at current stories and journalism issues on Jon Slattery's blog
• Tips and info for newcomers from Wannabehacks
• Martin Stabe's UK-centric look at online journalism
• Plus some useful analysis and aggregated news from The Media Briefing

Take a look - and why not suggest some others to add?

Courts and councils: please make it easier to get information

I've been putting together some sessions on news reporting and the role of PR people and press offices for journalism students I've been working with. This has included going to watch and report on Southampton City Council meetings and the students have also taken part in a mock press conference with Council press officers.

My visit to the council came not long after attending the Justice Wide Open media law event at City University and it struck me that some of the same information issues raised at the law event could also apply to councils.

How easy is to get court information?
Speakers at Justice Wide Open, including information campaigner Heather Brooke and press association legal correspondent Mike Dodd, criticised the difficulties journalists and members of the public face when trying to find out about and attend court cases. Lists of cases are not always available and some courts appear to revel in the mystique and idiosyncracies of our legal system. Two proposals stood out:

Citizen journalists - or just people?

I must admit I've never been that happy with the term 'citizen journalist', so I was interested to read what Steve Yelvington had to say on the topic:

What many meant when they said or heard "citizen journalism" was a lay practice resembling professional journalism ... where "citizens" "covered" "news."

But what I meant when I said "people's journalism" is not that at all. I meant something more organic, more natural, more spontaneous, more personal, less organized, less structured, less "newsworthy" and less ... well, less reliable.

I prefer Yelvington's thought that inevitably 'people's journalism', as he calls it, is more 'natural'. People talk about, write about, report on, and produce other types of content on, topics they find interesting. Journalists might define some of it as 'news' but some if will be just 'interesting stuff', but still important.

Students at Solent will soon be debating what 'citizen journalists' do that helps, improves on, or is better than, the work of professional journalists.

Their start point is a series of links, new and old, plus a couple of books- all listed below. Feel free to contribute to the debate.

How “citizen journalism” aided two major Guardian scoops, Online Journalism Blog                     

2011: The year of citizen journalism, Blotrr.com

Citizen journalism and investigative reporting, Online Journalism Blog

Citizen journalism and the 2009 Mumbai terrorist attacks - Video

Richard Sambrook on four types of citizen journalism - Video

Books

Online Journalism: principles & practices of news for the web 2^nd edition, James C Foust.  Pages 180-185.

Online news: journalism and the internet, Stuart Allen.  Introduction and Ch 4, 5, 8.

Participatory Journalism: guarding open gates at online newspapers, Jane B Singer. Ch 5.

Discussing the future of print media

I'll be discussing the future of print media soon with some first year journalism students at Solent University. I came across these videos from US editors/publishers, which are worth a look if you haven't seen them before.

The Future of Magazines

The Future of Print Media

Lessons for publishers from the Kodak story

It's easy to draw some analogies for publishers from Kodak's recent story.

Days before the company filed for bankruptcy protection, the Economist did a great job of analysing why while Kodak is at deaths door, Fujifilm is thriving. Here's how they differ:

Both firms saw their traditional business rendered obsolete. But whereas Kodak has so far failed to adapt adequately, Fujifilm has transformed itself into a solidly profitable business, with a market capitalisation, even after a rough year, of some $12.6 billion to Kodak’s $220m. 

Here's a few of the points the Economist highlights:

• Kodak had become 'a complacent monopolist'
• It was slow to diversify, Fujifilm wasn't
• Its culture was one of perfectionism instead of 'make it, launch it, fix it'
• There were management and leadership failings 

Taking up a similar theme, Kim Gittleson's BBC article asks Can a company live forever?. It says that over the last century the average lifespan for a leading US company listed on the Standard & Poor 500 index has decreased by more than 50 years:

It's fallen from 67 years in the 1920s to just 15 years today, according to Professor Richard Foster from Yale University.

Today's rate of change "is at a faster pace than ever", he says. Professor Foster estimates that by 2020, more than three-quarters of the S&P 500 will be companies that we have not heard of yet.

No company is entitled to a market just because it's been around for a long time.  It has to innovate, find new markets, change its culture and re-invent itself.  For publishers who haven't already learnt this lesson it may be too late.

The Power of Citizen Journalism

I was trawling around scoop.it and I've just stumbled across this BBC documentary from 2010. It focuses on how aspects of citizen journalism - video in particular - are affecting the ability of those in power to control their messages. It also looks its impact on the media.

If, like me, you missed it at the time it's a useful bit of background for anyone taking look at the impact of what's been dubbed citizen journalism.

On a day when my son is looking at video clips as part of his exam revision, it's also a powerful reminder of the role Youtube plays in education, information and entertainment.

Link round-up: The Leveson Inquiry - and a little bit of privacy

I'm trying to keep my eye on the Leveson Inquiry, so it seems appropriate to pull together a few links on the subject:

• Not surprisingly, the BBC's coverage is comprehensive. There's a handy summary of week one, plus some early sign's of Leveson's thinking neatly summarised by political correspondent Ross Hawkins.
• They also offer a Leveson Inquiry Q&A.
• The most recent episode of journalism.co.uk's excellent jpod series looks at press self-regulation following discussions at the Society of Editors conference. The podcast includes interviews with Independent editor Chris Blackhurst and Martin Moore from the Media Standards Trust.
• Inforrm blog has made a clever move by bringing meejalaw's Judith Townend on board to pull together some good Twitter streams to follow. Judith also curated a Coveritlive version of day one as well as a storify of the first day's Tweets. Inforrm doesn't appear to have followed up during the week. Let's hope there's more coverage still to come on the blog.
• Free Speech Blog is publishing summaries and updates too, along with the latest list of  week two core participants who are due to be heard.
• The Guardian has a useful landing page featuring all things Leveson, including this video of Editor Alan Rusbridger's Orwell Lecture.which takes phonehacking as its starting point.

• Real gluttons for punishment can watch the Leveson Inquiry events live on BBC Democracy Live while snippets can also be viewed on the telegraphtv youtube channel or the Telegraph's live update page.

In other news bloggers including Guido Fawkes and David Allen Green of Jack of Kent and New Statesman fame appeared before the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions. Here's Green's post about it.

With the Culture, Media and Sport Committee also doing its stuff too over the past few months, you could be forgiven for thinking that all parliamentary committee business is currently taken up with media-related issues.

What you need to know about journalism work experience

Photo: Bisgovuk

Work experience is in the minds of some of the journalism students I've been working with so here's a quick look at some of the info and advice I found after a bit of web trawling.

The journalism.co.uk tip of the day section is an obvious first stop. It's a fantastic resource for all manner of info, including Catherine May's account of finding work experience via Twitter

There's also a guest post by journalism.co.uk's John Thompson on Sun trainee journalist Andy Hall's blog offers some work experience tips from the employer's point of view.

Andy also lists eight tips to make the most of work experience based on what he found out on his own placements.

Over at Fleet Street Blues the advice includes be prepared by reading the site/magazine/paper and be aware of what it covers and who reads it. Other tips include 'don't be shy' and, importantly, 'make the tea'.

There's also more general advice and tips on internships and getting into journalism in the Guardian careers section from Wannabehacks' Alice Vincent. And on the Wannabe blog itself you'll find some handy insights from journalists and journalism students.

A colleague I used to work with always recommends buying the first round down the pub too. That's because the student or wannabe journalist who can do the job and who also fits in well is the one who might get the call if a permanent job comes up.

Any other advice you want to offer here for new journalists is warmly welcomed.

NCTJ holds seminar on the need to 'teach journalists to Tweet'

There's an interesting story on Hold the Front Page about teaching journalists to Tweet.

The importance of teaching social media skills was discussed at the National Council for the Training of Journalists' digital training seminar, says HTFP.

I wasn't at the seminar and I'm sure plenty of useful points were made. But I have to say I'm surprised this subject even needs to be discussed. I think journalism qualification courses should already have it as a central component of their programmes.

There's no doubt that new journalists need to use and understand social media and the chances are a few of the newcomers could teach some of us a thing or two.

But what about those already in journalism who haven't yet taken the plunge? I'm sure we all still encounter working journalists who are resistant to using Twitter and other tools, just as Steve Buttry has. I've also met the real cynics who still think social media is just a bunch of self-important people telling no-one in particular about what they had for lunch.

Journalists need:
a) to be encouraged and given the space to try things out - and sometimes get it wrong
b) an understanding of how social media tools can help them with their job
c) to appreciate the fact that it's not about 'telling' or 'broadcasting' - it's about connecting them with their communities.

Oh, and they also need IT departments that don't frown at the idea of downloading social media clients such as Tweetdeck.

So, teaching journalists to use social media effectively is important. I'm assuming newcomers - such as those on  NCTJ pre-entry courses and journalism degrees - will find it easier to adopt the tools because they're already using some. They're also lucky enough not to be burdened by the mental baggage of the 'traditional' way of doing things.

But I think it's some of the old guard, the ones who won't be actively seeking out tips on Mashable, who probably need the most help - and the most convincing.

Where to find info on journalism ethics

It's appropriate that in the week the PCC gets a new chairman, I get asked to run some sessions on 'The Ethical Journalist' for journalism students.

There've been plenty of recent examples of journalists not applying ethical - or even legal - practices recently.

But I want to have a look at the broader picture too, so I thought it was worth having a quick trawl round to see what other resources I could find. As expected the BBC's College of Journalism's Ethics & Values pages are a good starting point. They look to be choc full of info and handy resources. Thanks, BBC. 

No doubt I will be also using Judith Townend's excellent Meeja law blog as a resource and I'll be reading Andy Dickinson's recent lecture on the subject.

I'm also a fan of PCC Watch, which bills itself as press complaints: the unofficial site and should be a useful companion to the PCC's own site for finding out about recent rulings.  In addition I stumbled across Stinky Journalism, a US site that also covers cases in the UK and other English-speaking countries.

There are plenty of other US sites looking at the subject too. Online Journalism Review offers this handy summary of ethical practices for relative newcomers.

And I'm also likely to be hitting the books. Journalism Ethics and Regulation still looks to be one of the main UK texts. I took a look at author Chris Frost's blog on the subject too, but he doesn't seem to be updating it as regularly as he once was.

Before I go too far with my prep I should probably also take a look at Mediashift's 5 principles for teaching journalism in the digital age. Thanks to journalism.co.uk's tip of the day section for the link.

Let me know if there's any resources to recommend.

Tips on using social media for journalists: a brief round-up

While I've been getting to grips with the the new-look Delicious I noticed I've saved a few recent links on using social media for journalists - mostly sourced from links posted on Twitter or from my Google Reader.

So here they are:

• Mandy Jenkin's slideshare guide to verrifying sources in social media

• Sharon Green on five ways Twitter made her a better journalist

• BBC producer Stuart Hughes on How BBC journalists are using social media

• Mashable's overview and infographic of How people use social media in emergencies

And, once you've digested that round-up and if you're interested in other areas of online journalism, why not take a look at Adam Westbrook's collection of his own posts on online video and entrepreneurial journalism.