hey...i'm a 4th year English major at a university in Canada and i was wondering what the best way to get into sports journalism would be. Should i go for my Masters of Journalism or just try on working on connections instead? start submitting work to different places? or don't worry about it until i get my masters? any help would be appreciated...Kelly Dwyer?
Your best bet is to hang out at a bus stop and wait for the offer. Most sports journalists say this is how they got their break. Oh, and be sure and carry a sign stating why you are there.
As a journalist you must follow the rules of the Clutch BBS. In order for your article to have merit, you must take lots of pictures of what you are writing about.
Respond to an ad in the Greensheet that says "Entry Level Sports Marketing, No Experience Required!!!!" Those ads are always on the up-and-up.
my brother and jerome solomon who now writes for the boston globe were have been knowing each other since jr. high. they went to ut together as freshman and both started as engineering majors. both left ut, jerome came home worked a few jobs, started writing for the houston chronicle covering high school sports in north houston. he worked his way up to being the chronicle's big XII chief writer. and now he works for arguably the top sports page in the nation. I don't know what the moral of that is, but that's one sports writer's story.
Read Lewis Grizzard's "If I Ever Get back to Georgia, I'm Gonna Nail My Feet to the Ground". All you need to know is in there.
The moral is, of course, if you drop out of school, you are guaranteed to succeed. If Bill Gates' story wasn't convincing enough, this one seals it...
but do you make important and possibly necessary connections in Grad School? or just as well off making them by other means?
I think you'd be better off going and working in the industry rather than going for the graduate degree. It's usually a bit easier to get in on a small paper (preferably a daily) and then once you've got a couple of years of experience and clips, you can make a run on moving up to a larger paper. I know a friend of mine started out as a sports reporter at the McKinney Courier-Gazette went to Corpus Christi and then to the Star-Telegram in Fort Worth over the course of about five years. My cousin isn't a sports guy, but he started at the Log Cabin Democrat in Arkansas, moved to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, then to the Charlotte Observer and on to the New York Times. Took him a little longer than five years, but less than ten over all. Of course, I also have friends who never make it above the small paper. A friend of mine started out in Pampa, moved to Clovis (New Mexico) and then to Wise County and then to McKinney only to find himself falling back down the ladder - to Farmersville, Quitman, Hereford and now Snyder out in West Texas. Of course, he doesn't even have a bachelors degree. The other two I've mentioned have a bachelors only. Oh, and, if you haven't already, the best place to really start is your college newspaper. Get some clips there, so you'll have something to show potential employers once you get the degree. (You can also try to get some freelance work while in college at a smaller paper. I know where I live, they use a lot of freelancers to cover the high school sports). Obviously, I don't know what the situation is like up in Canada, but I assume it wouldn't be much different (more hockey, I'm sure).
Agreed. I can give you the email address of the Houston Chronicles sports editor, but you being in Canada, I don’t know how much that would help you. You never know though.
i'd really be willing to work anywhere over the next two years (my girlfriend is going to college in nebraska) after graduation this year. i have wrote a lot for my school newspaper, however it is a small private school. i guess i might try and start submitting some freelance work to the Red Deer area newspapers. might help out a bit. thanks for the advice. also...anybody have any experience dealing with www.workinsports.com??? seems to have a lot of connections there. i know i'll probably have to start with an internship if i want to go big - but it would still help a lot with networking and getting a foot in the door.
3814: In an ideal world, you can both collect clips working at a paper and get the Master's degree. I strongly suggest going that route... journalism is filled with writers from small town papers without graduate degrees, as well as writers with graduate degrees but without a lot of experience. The key is to get both. I would really recommend graduate school, though... if you get into one of the better ones, the connections you make with professors give you all sorts of opportunities. If you're interested, these are the most recent rankings done on journalism graduate programs in the U.S. (from U.S. News and World Report). 1. University of Missouri, Columbia 2. Columbia University 3. Northwestern University, Medil 4. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 5. University of Indiana, Bloomington 6. University of Florida 7. Ohio University, Scripps 7. University of Wisconsin, Madison 9. University of California, Berkley 9. University of Kansas, White 11. University of Maryland, College Park 11. University of Texas, Austin 13. Syracuse University, Newhouse 14. Arizona State University, Cronkite 15. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities I recommend Missouri highly... not just because they're ranked at the top or because I go there, but they emphasize a concept called "learning by doing." In addition to getting your degree, your classes essentially force you to write for the city paper so you get a handful of clips for your portfolio as well. I'm sure Missouri isn't the only school that does this, so look around. But I do think a graduate degree has a lot of value if you can combine it with a J-school that networks and allows you to work for a city paper at the same time. A graduate degree from one of the top schools along with some good clips can potentially save you five or so years of working sports sections at small-town America.
thanks for the advice. i will plan to apply for Mizzou among a few other universities (Columbia, UNC, University of British Columbia, U of Nebraska-Lincoln) as well as check out possible jobs. However, Missouri offers an interesting double Masters of Journalism/Law that looks quite intriguing (since i have been long debating which i want to be in more, though i am definately leaning towards journalism).
Are you doing this just to get laid by the Power Dancers, sports teams' cheerleaders, et. al. ? By all means, sir, go ahead. I wish you the best of luck. Please begin in your writing career in UTAH. Dude... F*CK. WTF does electricity have to do with this? C'mon...
The only drawback to the joint journalism/law program is that it lasts four years instead of two, but if you end up with both degrees it's certainly worth it. Mizzou really offers you a lot of variety with your graduate journalism degrees... they also have an online Master's program for journalism which a former teacher of mine just completed... he said it was excellent. If you end up getting into Missouri next year and decide you're going to come, definitely shoot me an email... there may be a few things I can help you out with regarding both the school as well as moving to Columbia. It's also not all that far from Lincoln (roughly four-and-a-half hours) so if your girlfriend is there it might be a better fit for you than some of the East Coast schools.
