I Am Journalist, Hear Me Roar

Despite studying journalism at Lincoln Uni I haven’t much felt like a journalist until fairly recently. I started a blog months ago which has recieved quite a few hits, view it here: http://itsonthemind.wordpress.com/. This is my blog based around music and includes views, news and reviews etc. I never thought much of it until a month or two ago when I was contacted by music website Thrash Hits to write some album reviews.

Thrash Hits recieved 80,000 views last month so hopefully my work was read by quite a lot of people. Gaining exposure is the main thing ‘starter’ journalists can do I have been told, so far so good I think.

Obviously I have a Twitter account, it seems most people do nowadays. Since people like Stephen Fry, Philip Schofield and Jonathan Ross have popularised Twitter is has become full of people with nothing interesting to say but constantly harassing others. Retweeting (as it’s known) is becoming ridiculous, the most boring things said by anyone are just being spread around Twitter.

Luckily there is a block function so certain users can’t hurl tweet after tweet at you about nothing, so you can focus on what journalists have to say. There are so many journos on Twitter it’s unreal, I’m constantly finding more and more who I feel I should be following. More often than not I find out more news through Twitter than through watching the TV. Similarly my blog has recieved a lot of hits from posting my links on Twitter, it seems people do have an interest in what I have to say. Which is a definite plus for a journalist.

Today though I have felt like a true journo, to an extent. So far I have checked my e-mails (numerous times), reviewed an album for Thrash Hits, tweeted quite a lot, checked BBC news, organised an interview with a band via their record label and now I’m writing a blog. Since I’m only in my first year of journalism I feel I have so far accomplished a lot and feel like an actual journalist, let’s just hope it lasts.