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Can Studying Journalism Help Travel Bloggers?

Can Studying Journalism Help Travel Bloggers?

I’ve been studying journalism for 3 months now but I’m starting to wonder if the course will ever help me to be a travel writer?

Journalism is a strange topic to study. It feels a bit like reading a text book to become a chef. Is it really something that can be taught in a classroom?

Journalism is something you learn by getting out there and doing it, learning from your mistakes and just giving it a go. It’s a bit like travelling in that sense; no matter how many tips, advice articles or travel guides you read, the best travel knowledge is the knowledge you pick up through travelling.

Times are tough and in a competitive industry like travel journalism, having a qualification behind you can’t hurt…but can it help?

The qualification is almost compulsory for anyone wanting to be a newspaper journalist reporting crimes and local events, but what about me? I want to be a travel writer and can studying journalism help me?

I’m only a couple of months into my course so I don’t know the answer yet but here’s how it’s helping me so far and there’s some skills that can I can transfer onto my blog.

Tight Writing

This is something that all writers and bloggers should work on. It’s basically the skill of getting as much information into as few words as possible. It teaches you not to waste a word and make every phrase work hard. This really applies to online journalism where readers want their information quickly and without a long, rambling speech.

Investigating

As a travel blogger, I never really feel the need to ‘investigate’. I write about the things around me that I enjoy but I rarely dig below the surface to see what else there is. Digging out the dirt is the sole purpose of most journalists and it’s something we’re encouraged to do. We’re told to chat to everyone we can, taught how to make them feel comfortable enough to give away that big secret and taught to look in every nook and cranny to find it.

I’ll no longer be satisfied with descriptive prose about ‘beautiful rolling mountains’, I’ll now be looking for something extra.

I don’t mean I want to catch people out and unveil their nasty truths; I’ll just be looking for something a little more interesting than the beautiful pictures and wax lyrical descriptions the guide books provide us with.

Some other things I’ve noted since doing my journalism course:

People take me more seriously

When I tell people I’m studying journalism they know I mean business. They know I want to write professionally and this ultimately leads to more opportunities and makes it easier to get started.

It’s all about who you know

This is a really depressing fact but it’s so true. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best writer in the world, if you don’t know anyone who can give you a little leg up then you’re going to be struggling on the bottom rung of the ladder for a long time. I’m not saying it will be impossible, it’ll just take a bit longer.

The people who are doing well on my course have got work experience placements at the top newspapers and magazines and networked, networked and networked some more. The same applies for travel blogging; since moving to London and socialising with other bloggers I’ve had more opportunities come my way and I’ve learnt so much about the industry.

The art of writing for online audiences is changing so quickly, is there really anything we can study in order to be better at it? Google offer SEO courses and I’m sure I’m not the only one with an email junk box full of ‘Increase your traffic with this simple trick…’

Is it time we got out of the classroom and into the real world and learnt from real life experiences? Possibly. But I’m hoping that a qualification will help push me up to the first rung of the ladder.

I’m also working as an editorial intern with Gap Daemon which is giving me more experience and skills in the industry. I’ll be talking more about what I’m actually doing later in the week. I also have a guest post from Will Peach from Gap Daemon about how other people in my situation can make the most out of travel internships.

 

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[…]   A short history of travel writing // by Nienke Krook http://www.thetraveltester.com/a-short-history-of-travel-writing/ Bloggers Vs Journalists: how we can learn from each other // by Monica Stotthttps://thetravelhack.com/blogging/bloggers-vs-journalists-how-we-can-learn-from-each-other/ Can Studying Journalism Help Travel Bloggers? // by Monica Stotthttps://thetravelhack.com/blogging/studying-journalism-travel-bloggers/ […]

Victoria Ellen Lee

Thursday 20th of June 2013

This is really interesting - I was lucky enough to land a journalism job straight out of university (my degree was in Politics) at a national paper. But after ten months I realised I needed to get the proper training if I was ever going to able to progress in my career. I was covering 'light' news, but without shorthand and media law, my editors wouldn't let loose on serious stories.

After lots of indecision, I finally decided to quit my job back in March to travel for the next year and try and expand my freelance portfolio as I go. I've got a place on Falmouth's international journalism post-grad course (starting september 2014) but I'm in two minds over whether I will take up the place.

On the one hand I feel like I DO need the hard skills taught on the course (media law - plus multimedia journalism skills in TV and radio) that would help me to work as a journalist abroad in the future.

On the other hand, the course cost a fortune and I'm just not sure the skills I gain justify spending that kind of money...

Victoria recently posted...Cheeky’s al fresco diner: The best food in Marrakech

TheTravelHack

Friday 21st of June 2013

Congrats on being accepted on the course Victoria. It looks like a great one to do and Falmouth is such a gorgeous place, I would love to have studied there. I think it depends what you want to do in the future. If you'd like to work in professional journalism then I would definitely say you should do it. It's so tough to find work in journalism so it will definitely help with job applications and give you some solid skills. At the time of writing this blog post I didn't realise just how much I learned from the course but now I can see I really got a lot out of it. I would say the main thing was learning to write quickly. We worked on was writing news stories in 20 minutes. It takes a lot of practice but I find now I can write stories, articles and blog posts so much faster. Shorthand and the law side of things is also really handy to have but so boring to learn. I was about half way through my course when I realised I would never work in print media and although the course was called 'multimedia journalism' it was really old-school and mainly focused on local print journalism. I would definitely say you should do it but make sure you're doing the right course for you. When I chose my course I just went for the 'best' but if I did it again I would do online or magazine journalism.

A new job, a new home and a new qualification | The Travel Hack

Friday 29th of June 2012

[...] I cannot wait to get the qualification under my belt and have some free time to travel. It wasn’t long after I started the course that I knew I would never work as a journo in the traditional sense so there were many, many times when I just wanted to quit (big thanks to the likes of Abi King, Sarah Lee and Dylan Lowe for listening to me moan and assuring me that I should stick with it). I may never need to know the in’s and out’s of the government but I have learnt some really useful skills from the course (you can read about them here in an old post Can studying journalism help travel bloggers?) [...]

A weekend in Bilbao | The Travel Hack

Monday 19th of December 2011

[...] is a tiny city in comparison, perfect for a weekend away. I work full time and study part time so although I like to see and do a lot on my weekends away, I also like to chill out and the size of [...]

Kirsten

Saturday 17th of December 2011

I feel you. I've been studying journalism for over a year now and it is pretty much doing it, learning from your mistakes and keep practicing. In the Netherlands (where I'm from) the only thing they tell you is to start working in the business as soon as possible. The best is to start when you're still in school, so you build up a network, and learn even quicker.

On the other hand if I didn't study journalism I would have never start blogging. They taught me to how to write for a special group and think about a real concept. But there are more than enough people who just start and find their way by trying a lot.

P.s. I filled in a wrong link in my last reply. Fail...