Monday, March 31, 2008

Rule Number 3: Don't Be Stupid!

A YOUNG, RECENT college grad/ former journalist posted a guide to succeeding in journalism on the Innovation in College Media website. It is full of great advice.

This is my favorite:

With Google and Wikipedia you no longer have any excuse to be stupid. Ever. Have a question or curious about something? Type it into Google.

Don’t know HTML, how to install blogging software or shoot and edit video? Too bad, you’re out of excuses because you have the Internet. Take the initiative to learn these yourself. Add value to your skillset and make yourself more marketable to an employer.

Your college education isn’t the reason why you don’t know new media — you are. Saying, “I’m really bad with computers” won’t make people pity you and hand you a job. In a competitive job market, there are no more free rides.

No one’s saying you have to be the expert, but ignorance isn’t tolerable. Spend your free time online learning something new and stop wasting time with Scrabulous on Facebook The-New-Faces-at-Facebook ! And once you learn these new things, take it a step further and think, “How can I use this to be a better journalist and tell better stories for the consumer?”


The photo above comes from the Aperture Photo Agency, a product of Temple University photojournalism students.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with that so much. The internet is a gateway to the world. You can learn almost anything online nowadays. But yet so many kids just don't take the time to do it because they're too lazy. They've been spoiled by their parents and teachers to the point that they don't even think of going online and learning something. Let alone opening a book.

Anonymous said...

I agree with that -- to an exent. Only use that information on google and wikipedia if they are cited on other places.

There is this little thing called making stuff up so I can post whatever I want whenever I want about anything I want on the internet and someone may think its true.

Unknown said...

I actually hang around www.wikihow.com alot. Ive been reading some pretty interesting random articles. Its not that bad reasoning.