The skills you need to be a journalist today

Scouring the articles, literature and blog posts that have been written about the skills journalists need today as well as talking to reporters and editors in the industry shows people going into the field of journalism are expected to be multi-skilled as a matter of “professional survival” and able to exercise their skills across platforms.

Here is a list of the skills journalists need to get a job today in the order of the frequency they were mentioned by professors and professionals:

• Ability to “think online” – the ability to adapt and learn as technology changes
• Storytelling across mediums
• Writing across platforms, including Web writing
• Copy editing
• Researching and guiding
• Curiosity and healthy skepticism
• Strong technical skills
• Understanding of the changing media landscape and media consumption -}Ability to manage, moderate and participate in interactivity
• Data management including interactive graphics, databases and mashups
• Enterprise
• Energy and passion

Though editors, professors and fellow journalists seem to say that adaptability is the key, a laundry list of specific technical skills are named frequently when discussing what skills journalists should have. These technical skills include (in order of the frequency they are mentioned):

• Creating multimedia
• Video and video editing
• Audio
• Photography and photo editing
• HTML
• Use of content management systems
• Photoshop
• Blogs
• Social networking
• Social booking and media sharing
• Soundslides
• RSS
• Podcasting
• Flash
• Twitter
• Remote transmission

 The image of today’s journalist that emerges from this survey of what professors and professionals are saying suggests that a reporter should be a “jack of all trades” – well-versed in many aspects of journalism and technology. Some suggest that journalists may not to be programmers, but they should have more than one skill or specialty and should definitely have more than print skills.

If you are interested in checking out what some of these professors and professionals are saying for yourself, I have compiled a list of blog posts and articles addressing this issue in a previous post. I have updated the post with some additional sources as well.

This list is part of a paper I recently completed for my independent study on the Web and today’s journalist as a culmination of the work I’ve done on this blog thus far.  Look for the full paper to be posted soon.