Okay, here’s my advice to you (and young journalists in general):
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.
2.) When interviewing for a job, tell the editor how you love to report. How your passion is gathering information. Do not mention how you want to be a writer, use the word “prose,” or that deep down you have a sinking suspicion you are the next Norman Mailer.
3.) Be prepared to do a lot of things for free. This sucks, and it’s unfair, and it gives rich kids an edge. But it’s also the reality.
4.) When writing for a mass audience, put a fact in every sentence.
5.)Also, keep the stories simple and to the point, at least at first.
6.) You should have a blog and be following journalists you like on Twitter.
7.) If there’s a publication you want to work for or write for, cold call the editors and/or email them. This can work.
8) By the second sentence of a pitch, the entirety of the story should be explained. (In other words, if you can’t come up with a rough headline for your story idea, it’s going to be a challenge to get it published.)
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.
10) Learn to embrace rejection as part of the gig. Keep writing/pitching/reading.
FOIA Machine. Stand by.
In the ongoing conversation about how we can make an impact with our work at the Center for Investigative Reporting, our engagement team has developed a motto of sorts: If we want to facilitate true change, our stories should make more than a splash – we need to create a tidal wave.
What happens to migrants after they are deported from the United States?
Our reporter G.W. Schulz traveled to Nogales, Mexico to find out.
Franklin Alexander Ordonez Ordonez (left) is from the capital city of Honduras, considered one of the most violent places on earth. Speaking from a graveyard in Nogales where he sought a shady reprieve close to the Arizona border, Ordonez said he was on his way north and would be trying for a fourth time to enter the country in search of work. He said no number of Border Patrol arrests would be enough to discourage him. “I’ll try until I make it,” Ordonez said in Spanish. “It doesn’t matter how many times it takes.” He does not have family in the United States. Three brothers and sisters are back home in Honduras.
More on the revolving door at the border in our new investigation.
Credit: Will Seberger/For the Center for Investigative Reporting
Use our data, share your story: CIR launches VA backlog API
Attention data-nerds (and everyone, really): we recently released a widget that tracks the progress of backlog claims at each regional VA office. The dashboard is powered by our API — which is free for your taking!
If you’re a journalist or developer, we’d love to see you localize this story your area. If you’re a veteran with experience applying for disability benefits, we want to hear your insights. Our goal is to feature at least one veteran’s story for each of the 58 regional offices in our map of the backlog nationwide.
All the details —> here.
Imagine you’re a pot reporter. Pot as in weed, marijuana, bud. What could possibly go wrong when you cover a drug that is legally contentious but widely tolerated? Center for Investigative Reporting reporter Michael Montgomery finds out the hard way. Watch our new animated video to find out more …
Who owns the fish in the sea?
Any commercial fisherman used to be able to fish in U.S. oceans. Not anymore.
Today, the right to fish belongs to a number of private individuals who have traded, bought and sold these rights in unregulated markets. This system, called “catch shares,” favors large fishing fleets and has cut out thousands of smaller-scale fishermen. How did this happen?
Watch our animated short to find out!
Get recognized. Get funded. Here’s a roundup of current opportunities for journalists, including a number of great fellowships and the $20,000 AP-Google Journalism and Technology Scholarship.
Looking for tips to make your application stand out? ONA’s Irving Washington, Jeanne Brooks,…
With news of the assassination of the second female minister in Afghanistan this week, we look at the oppression and intimidation of Afghan women and the implications for their security as the U.S. withdraws its troops.
We went inside women’s prisons in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif to provide a rare glimpse of a shocking aspect of Afghan society little known to the outside world. The majority of Afghan women in prison have committed no other crime than being in love with the wrong man — or running away from abusive husbands who were selected by their fathers.
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