Breaking into Virtual Journalism

I am one of those people who actually began typing up stories on a typewriter. By college I was using the first computers to write stories. But we still used wax, rollers and X-acto knives to put it all together for the press. Since then I've been on a whirlwind journey that has led me on a technological adventure from newspapers, to television and eventually to public radio. As soon as I learned one program, along came another one to master. 

Today, I'm about ready to launch from graduate school into an industry that is in the middle of the biggest transformation since the invention of the printing press. So how do I break into this virtual newsroom? And what will my career look like once I get there? That's what I hope to explore in my blog.

When I came to the Annenberg School of Journalism I hoped for a job at NPR and I aspired to eventually become a foreign correspondent. Public radio seemed to offer the one solid business model amidst a crumbling industry. But then the recession hit. And over the holidays NPR announced major layoffs. They cut 85 jobs. When you consider that NPR only employed just over 850 people that number hurts. My dream of getting a 'real' job in public radio died.

However, the changes in journalism may offer new opportunities for freelancers and entrepreneurs. But can I really make a living? My problem seems further compounded by the area in which I'd like to work, foreign reporting. As the news industry has conglomerated, they've whittled their foreign bureaus down to nothing, relying on parachute journalists to get in and get out with the story. That has resulted in lots of bad journalism and in a skewed view of the broader world for the American public. But just this month Globalpost appeared. There is hope!

As I enter my final semester at Annenberg, I am starting to think differently about what my career will actually look like. It seems likely that instead of landing my dream job, I will be creating it, or at least cobbling it together. I am not sure what my new career will look like, but I know it is somewhere out here in the virtual world. A place where I hope I will have more power to tell the important stories and to bring them to a wider audience. And hopefully I'll be able to make the rent as well.