Social media: a useful tool for anyone who wants to be a journalist

These days anyone can be a journalist. And although this can be a terrible disappointment for some, it could be a huge opportunity for others.

Let’s look beyond the fact that you need a thorough study of journalism, that you must know the ethics of journalism, the editorial system etc. I’m not a journalist, nor am I familiar with the system and I don’t have any studies the field but from how I ‘ve seen things evolving in online, particularly in social media, I want to encourage those who want to pursue journalism to stop clinging to the idea that – “I should work for an editorial in order to be a journalist.”

Tools for anyone who wants to be a journalist

Today we have the opportunity to use tools that other journalists did not even dreamed of in 2005.

Think of it this way: You’ve graduated from journalism and you’d like to get an editorial job at a local news publication but you’re too young and your brief experience will not cut it.

What can you do in this case? Well it’s easy – you start a blog and start putting into practice everything you’ve learned and everything you know about journalism. You study the competition you have on the market and you adopt Seth Godin’s “Purple Cow” theory.

Do you want to do even more than that?

You start to communicate in real time the events happening in your city to the community that you’re slowly building.

How? Well it’s simple – there is Instagram (for those who aren’t that good with short texts but can do wonders with visual), there is Twitter (for those who aren’t that good with visual) or there is Meerkat or Periscope (for those who want to share live directly from the site of the event).

Then there are the communities on Facebook and Youtube. Moreover, you can share audio news through podcasts by using only a microphone and an iTunes account. Ohh … and I almost forgot about the selfie stick.

Of course, I am aware that perhaps things are not quite as simple and easy as I presented them above. The point is that I want to show you how many opportunities and tools you’re presented with today to do what you love (whether you want to be a journalist, a designer, a marketer, an advertiser, a PR man or a social media manager)

[Tweet “Social media has changed, is changing and will continue to change the rules of the game.”]

If 7 or 8 years ago you had to work for an editorial in order to be a journalist, today you can have your own editorial. You have the possibility to start something with less than 100$ or perhaps even for free (if you’re satisfied with being hosted on platforms like WordPress, Medium, Linkedin, Blogger etc). You just need to know a little about technology (and I don’t even mean coding or programming), a little marketing and a little social media. But besides all this you must be open to new things and you must want to do this for real.

I cannot promise you beautiful sunny days nor 100,000 daily unique visitors but I can promise you the full satisfaction of doing what you really like on your own. And who knows, maybe one day you will be discovered and they will hire you or maybe you will make so much money that you’ll have your own editorial office, with employees and everything.

I don’t think we can honestly say that we live in a limited world. It’s up to us to determine how much we want something.

Social media can be a double-edged sword – you can either use it to achieve your dreams or it can use you to satisfy its investors. It’s your choice!

The above theory does not apply just to journalists, it applies to anyone who really wants to do something.

P.S. Keep in mind though that journalism is a vocation.

Photo | Shutterstock