Personal journalism degree

I'm a fan of the Personal MBA reading list. The author suggests skipping the tuition and lectures of business school and creating your own degree by simply reading the texts. He suggests 99 books, and the subjects range on everything from management, corporate finance and sales to value-creation, negotiation and personal growth. It's a great list, and a lot of popular rot is not on the list -- only truly valuable and helpful titles. Granted, I am still more impressed by a person who has an MBA than someone who might say, "I've read every book on the Personal MBA booklist," but it tells me that the person is serious about improving and increasing his or her value.

So drawing inspiration from the Personal MBA and responding to demand, I here offer my own Personal Journalism Degree booklist. Again, I would still be more impressed by someone who has a degree (full-disclosure/bias alert: I have one) because of the way you grow by creating content and being edited by professors, especially the papers you have to write and defend at the graduate level. Still, this list offers a great understanding of subjects you would encounter in school, and by reading these and Matt Brown's story in my June 15 posting on his rise in the industry, you're likely good to go. And you can get all this knowledge mostly by using your free library card. A few titles may require you to buy a used copy online.

This list is in development and will expand over the coming weeks and months, and it could even have a few titles later shaved off. The Personal MBA updates its list each year and maintains no more or less than 99 books. Not yet sure how big this list will grow or if a cap will be set. Let me know of any suggestions you might have.

The Bible

The Associated Press Stylebook

Writing/Reporting

An introduction to News Reporting by Jan Yopp and Beth Haller
or
Elements of News Writing, 3rd edition by James W. Kershner

The Journalist's Craft: a guide to writing better news stories by Jackson and Sweeney
The Investigative Reporter's Handbook by Brant Houston
Online Journalism by James C. Foust

Passion for the craft

On Writing Well by William K. Zinsser
The Book of Writing by Paula LaRocque
Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

Details

The Concise Guide to Copy Editing by Paul LaRocque

Questions

The Craft of Interviewing by John Brady

Broadcast 

Broadcast News Handbook, 4th edition by Tuggle, Carr and Huffman
We Interrupt This Newscast by Rosenstiel

Understanding government

Field Guide to Covering Local News by Fred Bayles
Parliament of Whores by P. J. O'Rourke

Boundaries

The Law of Journalism and Mass Communication by Trager, Russoman and Ross
or
Mass Media Law by Don Pember and Clay Calbert

Don't be a hack

Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity by John Stossel
Breaking the News by James Fallows
Left Turn by Tim Groseclose
The Halo Effect by Phil Rosenzweig

The other side

Making the News (revised & updated) by Jason Salzman
Keeping Cool on the Hot Seat, 5th edition (2011) by Judy Hoffman
The Practice of Public Relations, 11th edition by Fraser P Seitel

Origins

American Media History by Anthony Fellow

Theory

A First Look at Communication Theory, eighth revised edition by Em Griffin

Intercultural communication

Intercultural Communication in Contexts, 6th edition by Judith Martin & Thomas Nakayama
Dave Barry Does Japan by Dave Barry

Photography

Photojournalism, sixth edition: The Professionals' Approach by Kenneth Kobre

Charts

The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics by Dona M. Wong

Management

Media Management in the Age of Giants, second edition by Dennis F. Herrick

Documentary to watch

Page One: Inside the New York Times


Books for fun and inspiration

The Good Times by Russell Baker
Newspaper Man by Warren Phillips
All The President's Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward

Movies for fun and inspiration

Spotlight
The Paper
Absence of Malice
All the President's Men
The Year of Living Dangerously
The Quiet American
Broadcast News

Final reminder

This is the last 'real' posting on journalism tips for beginning religion journalists, and it's my top tip on this blog.  This plea addresses an uninformed method of reporting. Not to criticize anyone -- I used to do it, too, before someone set me on a better path.

Remember to focus on the top results of a meeting -- what administrators will do, what their goals are, what challenges they will address, what was voted, etc.  Don't just lead with headline, "[type of people] meet/gather for meeting" and show a group photo.

That's the tip.  You may even wish to re-read the previous paragraph.  For more on this subject, please see my August 30 and March 7 postings.

Measure yourself against the industry standard of excellence

An unfortunate occurrence I see too often in some non-profit organizations are people working in the Public Relations department who wouldn’t be able to get their equivalent job outside of their present organization.  They just don’t have the skills or experience to make it in the real world of the news media or corporate PR.

Make sure you don’t fall into the trap of only comparing yourself to others within your same organization.  Measure yourself against the industry standard of excellence. 

Two organizations have good annual conventions that are worth attending—the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).  PRSA even has an Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) that is worth attaining.

Become valuable as a professional to any organization, not just the one you presently work for.  Doing so will make you even more valuable in your present position, help you become a sought-after industry expert and teacher, and offer you more career options…should you wish.

Go back to the beginning halfway through the feature

I was disappointed to see a religious magazine a few months ago publish a poorly written feature. Once I slogged through the story I could tell the writer had stumbled on something special, but it was written so poorly that I doubt many readers made it to the end.

The main problem is that it was written chronologically. It started with the main character’s childhood, and only at the end does the reader discover the great outcome.

A feature doesn’t necessarily need to follow the traditional inverted pyramid style of writing, but it does need to early on reveal some of what’s to come.

Do this by writing most of the story up front and then, halfway through, going back to the beginning of the person’s life or the trend.

A great way to see this is in The Wall Street Journal’s Weekend Interview stories. These are longer features based on an interview with a prominent figure. Read several of them. Nearly all of them go back to the person’s origins halfway through the interview – sometimes one-third or two-thirds the way through. This is very similar to an obit formula. Sometimes the Weekend Interview features go back to where the person was born, while other times the writer only goes back to when they started becoming successful.

The Washington Post Magazine had a great feature on broadcasters for the Washington Nationals baseball team. Sure enough, about one-third of the way through, the reporter went back to a broadcaster’s humble beginnings as a kid and how he got involved in the business. Then, near the end of the story – probably about two-thirds of the way through the entire piece – the writer went all the way back to the start of baseball broadcast history. Later, the reporter told the exciting part – the broadcaster's colorful rise through minor-league broadcasting.

This is similar to the classic Reader’s Digest formula of short tales. A family doesn’t start by sitting at home and then the house catches fire and they all escape safely. Nor do they start with the family having gotten out of the house safe and then reminiscing about how they did it. The formula usually started with the house on fire...then the writer goes back to the beginning, and later the narrative ends the with the family's successful escape.

This is also well articulated in the excellent book “Pitch Anything” by Oren Klaff. The formula goes like this: 1. Put man in jungle 2. Have beasts attack him 3. He gets out of jungle safely. But as Klaff notes, keep the reader in a bit of suspense by keeping the man on the edge of the jungle for a while.

Now you can re-read good feature stories and watch for some of these patterns. You can learn to use similar foreshadowing and pacing.

Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not advocating formula writing. But there is a case to be made for formula structure. That case is seen in the numerous patterns routinely found throughout journalism. This blog wouldn’t exist without them.

Hopefully that religious magazine — which reviews a particular religious denomination — will see the need for writers who know these methods of better keeping the attention of readers. Doing so would not only make their own publication better, it would also honor the people they write about.

The difference between a rookie and a veteran

Q: What’s the difference between a veteran reporter and a rookie?

A: The veteran is used to being edited.

Now and then I hear complaints from rookies about how an editor changed their story or that their original version was nearly unrecognizable when it was published.

My advice: Instead of complaining, make yourself better so you don’t have to be edited.

I remember the first time I got published in the college newspaper.  A very reasonable editor changed a few things in my story and I got upset.  I had no reason to do so.

Later, as a veteran, I appreciated my editor making changes to my submissions. When I first covered city council for a newspaper, I would literally look over her shoulder as she edited my story, hearing her say things such as, “I’m just going to punch up this lead, check this out,” or “I’m gonna switch the order of these two ideas, watch.”

As the weeks and months went by she edited my stuff less and less.

I once heard Ken Wells, former Page One editor of The Wall Street Journal, say in a speech that everyone needs an editor.  He's absolutely right.

If you find that your stuff is getting edited heavily, instead of blaming the editor, work hard to make yourself better.  Find an editor who will work with you to improve.  Earlier exercises on this blog will also teach you how to improve.