8 Must-Have Traits of Tomorrow's Journalist. As the news industry looks to reconstruct its suffering business model, the journalists of today must reconstruct their skill sets for the growing world of online media.
Because of cutbacks at many news organizations, the jobs available are highly competitive. News companies are seeking journalists who are jacks of all trades, yet still masters of one (or more). 2010 will likely be a time of transition as today's journalists catch up to learn the multimedia, programming, social media, and business skills they'll need to tell their stories online. These new skills are especially relevant to startups that are looking to hire multi-skilled and social media-savvy journalists.
Below we've gathered some skills that are quickly becoming basic requirements for the journalist of tomorrow. 1. As the foundation of the longstanding business model crumbles, both new and experienced journalists are becoming entrepreneurial and starting their own publications. 5 Essential Tools for the Mobile Journalist. The multi-function playground that is the smartphone has shrunk the capabilities of a van-sized 1970’s news team into the pocket of a single reporter.
Today, front-page news can stream from any individual with a cell phone camera and a Twitter account, as it did during Iran’s election protests last summer. Today, major news outlets, such as CNN, have crowdsourced parts of their newsroom to locally-savvy citizen journalists, often armed with little more than a camcorder. In addition to the standard smartphone equipment, such as a camera and social networking applications, we've compiled a list of five additional tools that can help a single journalist rival a fully-functional news team. With these tools, a mobile journalist can record data, edit clips, and broadcast polished stories as events unfold. 1. A smartphone microphone doubles as a remarkably good interviewing device. 2. In December, Apple approved its first live-streaming iPhone application, Ustream Broadcaster. 3. 4.
How Social Media is Radically Changing the Newsroom. Leah Betancourt is the digital community manager at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, Minn.
She is @l3ahb3tan on Twitter. Did Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey or even Mark Zuckerberg ever portend that their means of connecting among social circles would be the news du jour in many newsrooms across the country? Social networking sites are some of the newest tools for reporters to use in news gathering, networking and promoting their work. But many newsrooms are fuzzy on the usage. "It’s very much the issue of the day. “You don’t want to be on either end,” says McBride.
In January, McBride worked with the Roanoke Times to help it hammer out newsroom guidelines for using social media tools. “It’s important for the entire newsroom to write that guidance down,” McBride says. Journalists always represent their news organizations Journalists should keep in mind that they are representing their news organization when they use social networking tools — even if it’s their personal account.