Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
This book does not contain everything one needs to know to be a journalist. No book could do that. It would have to contain everything there is to know about everything, and that is a tall order. But it is the kind of book I wish had been around when I was starting out. Back then there was precious little training. You sank or you swam. You found out what to do by listening and watching and reading what others did. Your eyes and ears told you what was good and what was bad. Sometimes you would be given some advice, but not much explanation.
In a way that kind of experience was, indeed, a good teacher. It made you think about what you were doing, about what was good and what was no good and why. It made you think about what made sense and what didn't, what was logical and what wasn't, what worked and what flopped. And in the end, it seems, I swam.
Then came another most useful experience. I started teaching what I had been doing for 20 years to those who were just starting out. The classroom was not a newsroom. The classroom was a university, so it was no good saying: Do it this way because I am the boss and if you don't do it this way you can find another job. Students wanted to know, quite correctly, why?
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- So You Want To Be A Journalist? , pp. 1 - 4Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007