Journalism Tips When Covering a Multi-Day Event or Festival
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Hello hello, this is Jamie Barrientos. I'm an entertainment journalist freelancing with Sinclair Broadcast Group. I have worked with Iheart Media in the past and am continuously publishing articles on and various topics of entertainment including music, film, interactive, et cetera. Currently at south by Southwest providing coverage through the whole week and we'll be writing multiple stories. So if you like any tips or insights about journalism, writing and how to get coverage. Providing coverage and working well with different PR individuals, entities and organizations
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:41
But it's tough and I'm just excited to be here and perhaps you and I will have some in real life connection. So looking forward to that. Enjoy and keep us posted on what you're doing
But is there another way to get into journalism or is school kind of the only route to do that? Because I would really love to be assigned to journalists someday. So I guess I'm just wondering. Yeah. Like, should I commit to a master's program in journalism or if I already have a degree in science? Is there another outlet just wondering
Margaret Latenser
@Maggiel6 · 0:26
Hi, Jamie. I'm a journalism student at the moment at Kansas State University. And I I'm on the newspaper. I you know, I used to know and I'm just wondering other ways to get involved in the journalism world when you're are still in College. What's your advice on how to get yourself out there? And yeah, pretty much. I just want to know what steps I should be taking to line up a career when I graduate
Well, I think you kind of have your answer already. You're interested in writing coming a journalist. I think if you're not dead set on committed on getting a degree in a particular field in writing, I would suggest looking at publications in the industry, in the science industry, kind of subscribing to journals, reading how other journalists in the field approach their way of science writing, because there's science is such a vast field, lots of information. So I would say go read those
So definitely to enhance, you know, your career. And I say your motive to move in that direction. I would say start reaching out to your, you know, your local news stations, your local radio stations. I live in Austin, and before that I was in San Antonio. So we had had a lot of different entertainment outlets that were seeking external writers
Yeah, absolutely. I'll be here all week covering the festival. I'll be in and out. So just follow me on Twitter. You'll find me pretty easily. Just shoot me a DM and I'm sure we'll be able to coordinate a spot to meet up and just chat about the week. Looking forward to it
But when you're doing a big festival like this, the biggest key is when you're aligning your press contacts and your contacts for the media. You want to ensure that the commitments you make, you put them on your calendar. The commitments you're not able to make are tentative. You still want to put them on your calendar, but you want to tag them as a maybe or whatever. But for me, when I'm planning coverage for my festival, I like to go and plan ahead
Hey friends, just posted and got published in CBS Austin My Week in one recap. If you guys are interested in seeing the story and kind of how I lay out my stories and you know, really controlling the narrative of the flow is really important when you're writing your story because it helps form a really cohesive message. So yeah, first one out the door would really like for you guys to check it out and let me know what you think
Thank you so much for that advice. I'm definitely going to start subscriptions to science journals that I know I really like and try to work on emulating good things that I think make good science writing. That's a great idea, something I definitely didn't think of myself. So thank you so much for the input. I appreciate that. And I am definitely going to take your advice
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