How to Become a Journalist - Career Path and Job Description

Get Matched With Journalism Programs

What is a Journalist?

A journalist is someone who writes about the news, whether it’s good or bad. While “If it bleeds, it leads” is still true, sometimes your beat may require you to report on city council, school board, or county commission meetings.

Your professors and eventual editors will expect you to maintain an impartial view of the stories you are covering. If your beat is crime and courts, you’ll be exposed to hearings, trials, verdicts, and sentences. If you are assigned to the city council or school board beat, your reporting will cover votes on new schools or new gross receipts taxes to be imposed.

Compare Popular Online Journalism Programs

Search Programs

Steps to Becoming a Journalist

Once you know you want to become a journalist in any specialization, you have a few steps to complete. First request admission to universities with journalism programs. Before you are fully admitted into a school’s journalism program, you may have to take a skill test in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. This exam gives the Journalism department an idea of your writing ability.

Once you have been admitted, you need to complete general education, core courses and any specialization (news print, broadcast, or internet) that interests you. An internship will also be required, so choose a placement that will help you meet your goals.

Step 1: Earn a Degree
Step 2: Gain Writing Experience
Step 3: Develop a Portfolio
Step 4: Complete an Internship

Step 1: Prepare for Your Major

The first step to becoming a journalist is earning a degree. While some may enter the field through non-traditional paths, most pursue a bachelor’s degree in journalism or a related field. Journalism programs teach essential skills like writing, reporting, media ethics, and law, as well as digital journalism. Although a degree in journalism is ideal, related fields such as English, political science, or communications can also provide strong writing and research skills.

Many programs offer specializations in areas like broadcast, sports, or investigative journalism, helping students focus on their interests. Accreditation by recognized bodies ensures quality education, and practical experience through campus media or internships is crucial for building a portfolio. Online and part-time journalism degrees are also available for those balancing other commitments.

Step 2: Gain Writing Experience

To become a successful journalist, gaining writing experience is essential. Start by writing for your school newspaper, blog, or other media outlets to build a portfolio. Participating in internships or freelance opportunities allows you to gain real-world experience while refining your writing skills. Focus on writing clearly and concisely while learning to adapt your style to different platforms, such as print, online, and social media. As you gain experience, try to cover a variety of topics to diversify your work and demonstrate versatility. Building a solid writing portfolio is key to attracting potential employers or freelance clients.

Step 3: Develop a Portfolio

Creating a strong portfolio is crucial for showcasing your writing skills and attracting potential employers. Include your best work, such as articles, blog posts, or reports, to demonstrate your versatility and expertise in different topics. Make sure your portfolio reflects the range of writing styles you’ve mastered, from news reporting to feature stories. If you’ve completed internships or freelance work, include those pieces to show your real-world experience. A well-organized online portfolio or personal website allows potential employers to easily access and review your work. Keep it updated with your latest projects to highlight your growth and continued involvement in journalism.

Step 4: Complete an Internship

Given the importance of news and good news gathering and reporting, it’s no surprise that you need to complete an internship. Begin looking for the internship you want before the semester in which you will take it. Ask your professors for internship ideas—local newspaper publishers, a nearby television station, a public relations firm, or even your university’s communications office.

Show up for work at your internship for every day you are scheduled. You are receiving class credit, so you need to get as much value as you can from your experience.

Find Your Online Journalism Program

What Does a Journalist Do?

In broadcast media, you'll cover news events like accidents, rallies, or school lockdowns, interviewing those involved. Afterward, you'll return to the station to edit the footage and record your interview.

In news writing, you'll interview people or businesses and write quickly due to tight deadlines. You'll need to keep article length in mind, as editors allocate specific space per article or cut from the bottom. The inverted pyramid structure helps, with the most important information at the top.

In public relations, your writing focus changes. Here, your goal is to write positive stories about the agency or company for which you work. You will write positive stories about your employer, then send them to your contacts at television stations and newspapers.

Skills to Acquire

Journalism is becoming a harder and harder field in which to work or even feel safe. It takes dedicated journalists who aren’t afraid of angering the subject of a news report to get the answers that readers are looking for. Following are several skills you should have, no matter what journalism specialty you choose:

Persistence—keep asking for the interview
Dedication—do the scout work
Desire—want to make a difference
Creativity—make your reports stand out
News consumption—keep reading news and writing
Master of grammar, spelling, and punctuation—so your work is respected
Research—details are often buried
Mastery of new news tools—software and graphics bring news home to people
Remember the story—evoke a response
Strong reporting and writing skills—avoid irritated callers because of errors
Time management—you will not have much time per story
Work well with people—your job puts you in front of people
Multitask—it’s common to have five things to do NOW
Know the issues you write about
Develop sources you can return to
News sense—what makes a story?
Deadline-oriented
Be comfortable with technology
Editing—write, rewrite, and correct errors
Toughen yourself to attacks—they are becoming common
Avoid plagiarism

Find Online Journalism Schools

Journalist Careers and Salary

Where Might You Work?

After graduation, you'll likely start in newspaper publishing, taking assignments with little control over them, working long hours, weekends, and facing constant deadlines. As a broadcast journalist, you’ll typically begin at a small affiliate station or with cable outlets like CNN, Fox, or MSNBC, where entry-level journalists are often hired.

You may also start your journalism career with a consumer, professional, or trade magazine, where deadlines are less frequent and the work aligns more with your interests. Multimedia journalism includes positions across broadcast, print, or online platforms, such as bloggers, copy editors, political analysts, social media specialists, news anchors, and public relations specialists.

If your journalism classes were focused on photojournalism, you may be able to capture a photo that says everything. Wire services include the Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI). Here you will write articles that are sent out to subscribers.

Potential Career Paths

Before you graduate, you’ll need to choose a career path. A journalism degree allows you to choose from a wide range of careers and jobs, such as writer, announcer, public relations manager, reporter, broadcast news analyst, editor, or journalist.

You may decide that public relations is more your speed. Here, you can work as an event planner, publicist, advertising sales agent, writer, author, public relations and fundraising manager, market research analyst, or publicist. You may work in magazine publishing, newspaper publishing, television, or radio broadcasting.

Possible employers include healthcare and social assistance, professional scientific and technical services, state/local government, or magazine publishers.

Associate Editor:
You will pitch ideas, work with the photo and art teams to develop eye-catching layouts. You will also assign, write, and edit stories for the magazine. You’ll often be expected to be a self-starter with a good work ethic.

Page Designer:
Employers need creative and motivated page designers who will be able to lend a new depth to local newspapers and magazines. They often prefer someone with experience in creating imaginative newspaper design, proofing, and editing skills.

Designers are more than just “visual” professionals. As such, you will also edit content as well as design newspaper pages. You should be familiar with a fast-paced newsroom environment, be an experienced newspaper designer, and have the ability to juggle several tasks at the same time. Knowledge of InDesign and Photoshop will make you stand out. Expect to work night and weekend hours on a schedule that changes often.

Multimedia Journalist:
You will be responsible for gathering information on events making today’s news. Then you will write, produce, and present fair, balanced and accurate news and feature stories. You’ll keep your finger on the pulse of local and national news, dig into information as you determine truth and facts, deliver copy that is ready to be put onto a Teleprompter or straight on the news desk, be ready to provide on-air news reports in the field and in the studio; and create, report, and produce, with assistance, news specials and packages (will be based on breaking news or pre-planned stories).

Communications Associate:
This can be a full-time on-site or remote position within a Communications team. Your role is to work with the team, promoting content and marketing projects. You will also be responsible for customer analytics, email, and social media marketing. The Communication Associate also works with the editorial news team and you should be available to travel at least twice a year for team meetings.

You will work with Editorial, creating engaging email marketing, then track the success of the email marketing products, using the open and click-through rates, as well as the number of subscribers.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Journalism:
You will be responsible for teaching two or more courses annually, in addition to putting on journalism seminars in nearby areas. You may mentor students who are specializing in Digital Journalism and work to promote Journalism as a viable career.

At this level, you’ll be expected to have a record of high-level, national and international, sustained and published journalism, as well as acclaimed work in journalism or outstanding awards.

Multimedia Editor, II:
You will be required to have a bachelor’s degree in Communication, English, Journalism, or another related field. You must also be experienced in MS Office.

You should have two years of editing and writing experience and experience producing multimedia (video and photo) content in either a university, non-profit public affairs office, corporate office, or with a newspaper or magazine.

Search Programs Offering Journalism Majors

Career Outlook

Journalism (correspondents, broadcast news analysts, and reporters) is expected to dip about 3% from 2023 and 2033. These types of roles have been dropping for over a decade. The decline in advertising revenue in television, radio, and newspapers has had an ongoing negative effect on the employment rate for each of these occupations.

Readership of newspapers has been on the decline for at least two decades and this is expected to continue. Also contributing to the decline of journalism jobs in radio and television broadcasting is the increasing trend of publishing news online for consumption with tablets, phones, and computers. This makes it harder for news organizations to sell traditional advertising, which is usually their main revenue source. While they have the option of creating paywalls to view content, this may not help them to replace revenue from print ads that they have now lost.

Consolidations (mergers) of news organizations may help to stem the loss of jobs. But this means that journalism positions are not going to be as plentiful. Still, this may allow media outlets to keep their staffs.

Advancing From Here

After you have worked in journalism for several years, you may be close to, or at the top of your profession. Where do you go from here?

You might consider returning to school to earn your MA in journalism. You will be able to choose an area of specialization that, once you graduate, can be a new professional focus. You could become a journalism professor, where you would be teaching what you know to new classes of students who want to become journalists. After writing news articles for so many years, you can change your focus and become a copy editor, brand specialist, business developer, technical writer, or author.

Find Journalist Jobs Near You

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some common careers in this field?

Some common journalism careers with a journalism degree include:

Content marketer
Copywriter
Corporate communications specialist
Editor
Grant writer
Public relations specialist
Reporter
Social media specialist

What is a corporate communications specialist?

A corporate communications specialist is responsible for marketing, public relations, advertising, and communicating between employees and managers. A corporate communications specialist might spend their day writing speeches and press releases, booking events, and providing information to the media.

What is the job outlook?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, journalist jobs will increase by 6% by 2030.

What kind of education do you need?

Journalism majors will want to earn a bachelor's degree or higher.

How much do these workers make?

You can make around $50,000 per year with a degree in journalism.

sources:

Browse All Careers

Humanities & Art Career Paths

Search All Programs

Becoming a Journalist Careers & Salary Outlook