Kiyoshi Martinez enlightens journalism students
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Issue date: 9/24/08 Section: News
Notable blogger and founder of AngryJournalist.com Kiyoshi Martinez made his way to the Western Illinois University Union Theater Monday afternoon to lecture on the ins and outs of making it as a journalist after graduating college.
Martinez stressed the competitive nature in the field of journalism and outlined key tips and suggestions aimed at helping students stray away from becoming "Angry Journalists."
"The first thing I think a lot of people need to know is planning in terms of money; this isn't as much about your skill set as it is about your checkbook," Martinez said.
Martinez said he started his first job on a $30,000 salary, an amount that is not nearly as large as it sounds.
"It's tough to live on $30,000, and I really didn't have a lot of expenses," Martinez said. "You have to be realistic about what your expenses are. This is one of the things that I see all the time on AngryJournalist.com - people complaining about the salary.
"Think about why you're actually getting into journalism, and if you can actually get into journalism realistically," Martinez said. "It's not so much that you can just luck into a position anymore; you need to know that yes, this is possible, and that it works financially."
According to Martinez, students should also take initiative and begin to teach themselves skills they will not learn in a basic journalism curriculum, such as photography, HTML programming and audio/visual arts.
He added that a student's worth is always based on what they have done, not so much the degree they received.
Copy-editing, certain types of writing, design, photography and audio/visual arts are typically areas that students need work in when entering the work force, according to Martinez.
"At the end of your four years in college, you're probably not going to have the time to go back and start re-learning all these other things; you're probably not going to have a 40-hour work week where you can come home and have some free time," Martinez said. "You're probably going to be working a lot of hours and not have the time to focus on professional development."
He added that a student's own initiative is just as important as any item they read in a book, and that self-improvement is critical to one's success in journalism.
"Take a look at yourself and ask, 'what do I need to do to succeed injournalism, what am I good at, what am I bad at, and what do I not know how to do at all?' and start fixing those things," Martinez said. "Start thinking about areas you want to improve in your life and how you want to improve it."
Other skills students might not initially think about may be lucrative as well, such as business and the trends of economy.
"And you should really start learning about journalism as a business, not stuff that you're learning about in class right now so much," Martinez said. "You need to know about the industry as a money-making industry: what's driving it, what's hurting it, where is it going. Read all about this."
Martinez stressed the competitive nature in the field of journalism and outlined key tips and suggestions aimed at helping students stray away from becoming "Angry Journalists."
"The first thing I think a lot of people need to know is planning in terms of money; this isn't as much about your skill set as it is about your checkbook," Martinez said.
Martinez said he started his first job on a $30,000 salary, an amount that is not nearly as large as it sounds.
"It's tough to live on $30,000, and I really didn't have a lot of expenses," Martinez said. "You have to be realistic about what your expenses are. This is one of the things that I see all the time on AngryJournalist.com - people complaining about the salary.
"Think about why you're actually getting into journalism, and if you can actually get into journalism realistically," Martinez said. "It's not so much that you can just luck into a position anymore; you need to know that yes, this is possible, and that it works financially."
According to Martinez, students should also take initiative and begin to teach themselves skills they will not learn in a basic journalism curriculum, such as photography, HTML programming and audio/visual arts.
He added that a student's worth is always based on what they have done, not so much the degree they received.
Copy-editing, certain types of writing, design, photography and audio/visual arts are typically areas that students need work in when entering the work force, according to Martinez.
"At the end of your four years in college, you're probably not going to have the time to go back and start re-learning all these other things; you're probably not going to have a 40-hour work week where you can come home and have some free time," Martinez said. "You're probably going to be working a lot of hours and not have the time to focus on professional development."
He added that a student's own initiative is just as important as any item they read in a book, and that self-improvement is critical to one's success in journalism.
"Take a look at yourself and ask, 'what do I need to do to succeed injournalism, what am I good at, what am I bad at, and what do I not know how to do at all?' and start fixing those things," Martinez said. "Start thinking about areas you want to improve in your life and how you want to improve it."
Other skills students might not initially think about may be lucrative as well, such as business and the trends of economy.
"And you should really start learning about journalism as a business, not stuff that you're learning about in class right now so much," Martinez said. "You need to know about the industry as a money-making industry: what's driving it, what's hurting it, where is it going. Read all about this."
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