From the article "RIP Michael Hastings. Here's His Advice to Young Journalists," as it appeared in MotherJones.com.
Monday, July 1, 2013
Advice to Young Journalists
Journalist Michael Hastings, 33, died unexpectedly a few weeks ago. A hard-hitting investigative reporter, he wrote for Rolling Stone, BuzzFeed, and Newsweek, among others. Read his advice to young journalists, and in a post due by Wednesday morning, comment here on at least one of the points he makes.
From the article "RIP Michael Hastings. Here's His Advice to Young Journalists," as it appeared in MotherJones.com.
From the article "RIP Michael Hastings. Here's His Advice to Young Journalists," as it appeared in MotherJones.com.
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I feel like the main tip he proposed was to give a fact in every sentence if your are writing to a big audience. I feel that is very important because you do not want to bore your audience by just reading out your story with no facts behind it. Keeping the audience interested will take you a long way in reporting, so this tip to me was very helpful.
ReplyDeleteJanelle Santarpio
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article RIP Michael Hastings "Here’s His Advice to Young Journalists" I learned a great deal of tips to becoming a more confident writer. Michael suggests that you should always have the main point of the story within the beginning of your writing. He also expresses that you’re going to have to take risk in order to gain more knowledge and strive towards your goals. I think Michael had many great points in this article you never want to write something so simple that you lose your audience at the beginning of the story and that you never will expand your connections if you don’t take risk.
9.) Mainly you really have to love writing and reporting. Like it's more important to you than anything else in your life--family, friends, social life, whatever.
ReplyDeleteTo become a success journalist, according to Michael Hastings, you need to be dedicated to your work. Journalism is a time consuming job involving intense gathering of facts to ensure your article's validity. In the mass media world, journalists have to love writing and reporting because they will need to invest time in the profession as they would with other important aspects of life. In other words, journalists have to put their jobs as priority to be a legitment source.
After reading this article, I am saddened by the unexpected death of someone so young and talented. He appears to have been very successful during his short career in the journalism world but he obviously has made an impact in the media and had learned a lot during his time. His advice is great and can go along with any field you want to go into. I personally don't want to be a journalism but his advice about loving what you do is true in any field you decide to go into. However, if i was going to be a journalism, I would definitely follow his advice when it comes to interviews and following other journalists online. And he also really understands how hard you have to work to become good at whatever you want to be in life, but I'm not sure I'm willing to give up family and friendships for a job.
ReplyDeleteNo question about it, Michael Hastings was successful. My favorite point he made when giving his advice is number seven, "If there's a publication you want to work for or write for, cold call the editors and/or email them. This can work." I feel like if you are dedicated enough to contact the editors and let them know you want to 'gather information' for no body else, but them, they will want to hire you or at least remember you.
ReplyDeleteIn Michael Hastings advice to young journalist, Hasting gives some really good advice. The points that stood out to me where the last two. Hasting says that you have to love writing and reporting, I think this advice is applicable to not only aspiring journalists but to everyone. No matter what someone is pursuing they must have a drive and a passion for that. Without that desire and love of what you are doing there is not point in doing it.
ReplyDeleteThe second point he makes is learning to embrace rejection. Once again I feel this is true for everyone. Rejection is a part of life, but you should not give up on what you love just because someone else does not like it. Rejection should just be more motivation to keep pursuing your dreams, in this case writing and reporting.
1.) You basically have to be willing to devote your life to journalism if you want to break in. Treat it like it's medical school or law school.
ReplyDeleteI believe the first quote is the most valuable to an aspiring journalist because you will have to have the devotion to your profession. You will need this devotion to survive rejection, work for free, and to convince someone that you deserve to write for their organization. Hastings seemed to be successful during his short career and I believe it is do to his devotion. Aspiring journalist will have many hard breaks before they have a good one, but I think that their devotion to their profession will carry them through to a successful career.
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ReplyDeleteIn the advice Michael Hastings gives to young journalists he makes some very interesting points. The ones that really caught my eye were the first one and the third one. In the first one he states that as young journalists we have to be willing and realize that it's time to take journalism serious, especially to pursue it as a career. His third point mentioned to always be prepared to do things for free. The first thing that popped in my mind was internships. Most internships do not pay you, but look like a million bucks on your resume. All of his points were very notable, but those two really grabbed my attention.
ReplyDeleteIn Michael Hastings list of advice he makes several valid points. However, the one that I saw most helpful is the one about providing facts within every sentence when talking to a mass audience. I find this statement to be very true. When news seekers find out new information they want to be able to have reliable facts to support them. If the journalist is able to do this then he/she will be able to start a prosperous career. The audience will be feel as if this journalist is someone who they can trust and get reliable resources from. Gaining trust from the audience is a great way to for a journalist to branch out in their career.
ReplyDeleteIt's extremely saddening for someone as talented and passionate about what he does to leave this world at such a young age. This is why I personally would try my hardest to follow all of his points. Although they are all good things to note, the one that struck a cord with me was concerning the love for your job. No, journalism is not my chosen field, but this tip applies to every field. If you really love what you do and have that true gut wrenching, heart fluttering passion for it your work will show it. All other things will fall in line. It's true when they say you're not working when you love what you do.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Hasting's advice to young journalists, a couple things stuck out to me. One, Treat your studies like you are in med or law school. That kinda hit me hard because there is a reason why I don't wanna be a Doctor or a Lawyer. Way to much commitment. Also, when he said, Don't give up you're gonna get denied. That is a huge aspect of writing that I believe every journalist has to understand in order to be successful.
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