10 media career lessons from #mediacareerclinic (1)

Journalists for Christ, a faith based media organization on August 15, held a media career development clinic in Lagos. The programme was attended by media professionals, student journalists along with participants online.

Here are five of the ten career lessons from discussion at the clinic.

1. Company policies can be waived for your sake if you are exceptionally good

A Lagos newspaper recently wanted to recruit an online reporter who must have a second class upper degree along with requisite work experience.

It didn’t succeed in finding a suitable candidate with the required academic qualification but got one that fitted the job description.

The available candidate that was hired based on his new media experience track record had a Higher National Diploma (HND).

Be very good on your job, employers will find it difficult to resist you even if you don’t meet some of their requirements.

2. Admit what you don’t know

When asked to contribute to discussion at the programme, an experienced journalist with a national newspaper owned up to not knowing how to blog, use twitter and some other new media tools.

“I want to know how to use these new tools to extend the reach of my reports,” she said.

A student journalist vast in the use of new media was assigned to work with her in the next one month to teach her all she needs to know to become a new media compliant.

In the present new media world journalism is being practiced, what you don’t know can harm your career growth.

3. Break the technological barrier

Information Technology (IT) staff of media houses have a way of mystifying their work. They make it look as if website operation is a big deal and sometimes hold ‘technically’ unlearned journalists to ransom on getting their stories online.

What a former staff of a newspaper staff did to break the technological barrier was to sit down with the IT staff and watch them at work. He asked as many questions as possible and learnt how to upload stories and other website operations.

Today he runs his own website and doesn’t have to rely on any IT staff for basic and even some advance website operation.

In addition to knowing how to write a story, being tech savvy is a plus for media career development.

4. You don’t have to be another Linda Ikeji or general interest blogger.

Instead of imitating some established bloggers or website publishers, new comers into the blogosphere should carve a niche for themselves.

Instead of general interest publishing which requires a lot of efforts, niche blogging and reporting have a lot of potentials. You can focus on an area of coverage like Business, Sports, Entertainment, and Education and become the go-to blog or website for news and views on your area of focus by both readers and advertisers.

“Where are the fashion, politics, sports, business bloggers in Nigeria like we know in some advanced nations,” a participant at the clinic asked.

Hyper local reporting can also draw attention to publications whether in print or online. No national publication can write well about your local community.

5. Write about what, where you are or what you know

-A youth corps member serving in Ise Ekiti wanted to know how to become a print media professional.

Though he is a graduate of Communication and Language Art, he has not written any published work in print and has not been writing on his blog since March, this year.

The advice he got was “start writing about Ise Ekiti where you are on national service.”

“Write about the people, places and events in the town and become an authority on Ise Ekiti. Use the reports to perfect your writing until you complete your service.

“If you can’t write as regularly as you should, make it a duty to write at least once a week.

“It is better to write based on places and issues you have comparative advantage.”  

The five other career lessons will be published in the next edition. Let me know what you think of the ideas above and share yours with me