I have been home from university approaching two weeks now, although I do not graduate until the 12th of July. I picked up a 2:1, which when I look at what else I had on my plate in 3rd year is something I am very proud of, but now I have nothing.
Now that is not strictly true, a couple of weeks work experience here and an interview or two there (fingers crossed) but nothing concrete or confirmed. A large part of that is I am not quite sure what I want to do. I know my passion lies in journalism – my undying love for Redbrick and the experiences I had with the paper have taught me that. Yet I am not sure where within journalism, especially in this world of uncertainty within the media industry.
However, I see the intense fluctuations within journalism and the problems born of a collapsing business model coupled with a recession as opportunity. Humans are never more resourceful and inventive than when the chips are down. Creating something clever, special and truly entrepreneurial requires inventiveness – driven by lack of resources and an industry full of naysayers. I want to be a part of this new journalism. We pushed the boundaries of student journalism, community building and engagement and student access to information at Redbrick in this last year, inspired by people like Nick Booth and organisations as varied as Help Me Investigate through to the Guardian.
These ideals and ideas can only be grown and expanded upon.
I have friends taking post grads in journalism, but this is not a path that has attracted me. I think that if I had the money for a postgrad I would look to train myself in the skills I think I need; I have always loved photography – I would take a course to improve my final product. I would learn CSS3 and buy the equipment I need to produce rich and varied multimedia content. I want to be a complete story-teller and each time I want to tell a story in a way it has never been told before and indeed, in a way that I never have told a story before.
Yet the project I want to do most in the world is ambiguous and undefined. I have walked away from Redbrick with friends for life, but even more than that, people I trust to work with. I trust their work ethic, their inventiveness and their intuition. The time is ripe for something new and I am aware of some great projects both in the States and here in the UK, but I still think there is plenty of space for new ideas. We just don’t have one yet.
This doesn’t bother me though, ideas will come and many will fail, but I am confident that what has been christened #projectlondon for lack of a better name has ‘legs’, it just needs a body and some brains. In the meantime I will keep looking to expand on my experience within the industry and engage in the conversations that are taking place.
Good stuff, Nick! I am in much the same boat myself, finding that despite my hard work and experience gained, the free market is tougher than I expected, and I am not sure where to turn. But we'll all find our feet one way or another. A postgraduate course in journalism is certainly tempting, but at €8500, it might well be better value to move to London and work for free! Like you, I am spending my time between paying jobs on improving my skills. I've knocked CSS off the list (I recently redesigned davemolloy.net from scratch, my first project of that kind) and am looking to move on to re-learning my forgotten shorthand, followed by audio and video skills.
Best of luck with your own attempts, and make sure to keep us updated.
Dave, very impressed with your new site, it is a great bit of work. I am taking the internship approach at the moment – although I have lost count of the organisations I have applied to now (all within a short space of time). I have my first interview tomorrow, so fingers crossed. I don't have shorthand yet, but I have been looking at teaching myself, yet at times I have convinced myself it is a skill of 'old' journalism (not that it isn't eternally useful) but I have wondered about how best to utilise my time (with regards to what I am learning). Then there is getting the full portfolio online, developing project london etc..
Please keep me up to date with what you are up to.
Yes Project London. This is rousing to say the least. I've had a few thoughts, conceptual more than content based, but we need a meet up to brainstorm. Expect a text.
Text being awaited with bated breath..