Entrepreneurial Journalism

A summary of the article "Entrepreneurial Journalism: The Life of the Freelance" by Mary Evans

Entrepreneurial Journalism Summary

It is made up of freelance journalists. A freelancer is someone who is self-employed and hired to work for different companies on particular assignments.

Every freelancer faces challenges that can be summarized to:

• ·        Finding work
• ·        Income
• ·        The future for freelancers

There were different perspectives from freelancers on the field

Adrian MacLeod, a media consultant, was negative on how he saw freelancers in general. He sees that freelancers don’t get paid enough for the work that they do, and that finding work is hard to begin with.

Fleetstreetfox, a freelancer for 20 years and a blogger, thinks that the industry has not changed at all. The only difference is that now there are more people in the field.

Sally Brockway, also a successful freelancer, thinks that the field was a lot better in the past. Her main issue was the money. She says that today she would be happy to get paid half of what she used to. Sally also does not recommend freelancing as a career,

Ian Abbott, an editor, says that the use of freelancers over time has decreased.

Currently, publications are choosing younger freelancers over the people that are experienced and working. This is because the newer journalists are willing to be paid less. Another reason is that the publications can train the new journalists to work the way that they want them to work.

It is advised that future freelancers need to create something different by getting stories that nobody else will get. It is also important to form a strong network, because knowing people is what helps freelancers get employed and advance in the field.

As times are changing, freelancers should stay up to date. New media should be embraced and used as a tool. Twitter, for example, is great for personal branding and networking. Freelancers should follow and interact with people. Their posts should be something worth sharing.

CHALLENGING QUESTIONS:

·      “I was a writer for 40 years. Now I’m a content provider. And content is free” (P J O’Rourke, 2012). What are the differences between a “writer” and a “content provider” and how do they affect modern freelancing.

I think a “writer” is somebody that writes basically anything in general, and therefore anybody can write and publish his or her work online. So this here is one of the reasons why people nowadays are wondering why they are supposed to pay people who just write basically and post online.

A “content provider” is somebody that provides people with content for them to make use of it. We can freely access and gain information through social media, anyone’s personal blogs or any other free publications that offers gaining information and we do not have to pay for any of it. To journalists, "content" is reading material or information of value to their target market. To us, the best content comes from writers.

·      Should freelancing be better regulated to prevent undercutting? Or is it every freelance for themselves?

A freelancer’s lifestyle does not allow many people the freedom to reach for better regulating. If any freelancer asks or argues about his or her payment they might as well just not get the job, because there are many other people who wouldn’t mind working in this career as long as they will be gaining any kind of money.

I think the regulations need to be changed for the people who work a lot and get way less than what they really deserve.

·      “Video killed the radio star” (The Buggles). Has digital journalism killed traditional print media freelancing?

Well I think that digital journalism overall is taking over print media somehow and there has been a huge decline that print media has been facing nowadays. Print media will only live with the generation that grew up using print media. In the generation we are living in now it seems that digital media will take over.

·      In new age of “citizen journalism” when anyone on the street can publish fact or opinion, what role is there for the freelance journalist?

The Freelancers are responsible for handling their own business finances. They also have their own PR team. The journalists take all the posts of people as free content and they are the ones that can reach out to people for more information. They have a kind off something we can call power in writing something.

Print writing vs. Online writing

Print writing and online writing are done in two completely different ways. Even though they are both done for the same purpose – to send information to the reader, they are done differently.

The writing styles of both print and online writing are not the same. Print writing focuses on a storytelling style. When reading print writing there is a narrative approach. It doesn’t mater what the issue is, print writing will write it in a long descriptive way.

Online writing focuses on a more brief way of writing. It is directly to the point, without any extra unnecessary information.

The paragraph lengths are also different between the two types of writing. Print writing uses long paragraphs. This is good for their long descriptive approach towards writing.

When reading online writing, the paragraphs are short. The paragraphs do not have to follow the rules of being three sentences long.

There are no links used in print writing. Links are generally used as a form of reference. Online writers will use links when if want to send the readers to other sites for more content, or to anything related.

Print writing attracts a different kind of reader. It attracts a reader that is likely to read thoroughly. The reader will read every word, and they will process all pieces of information presented to them through print writing.

Online readers are more likely going to scan the content. They might skip a few words here and there, or full paragraphs, and only read the parts that stand out to them or seem to be more important than the rest.

When it comes to the writing tone, print writing takes a more formal tone. They will write in a way that is more official and proper. You could even say that it detaches any type of personality from the writing itself.

On the other hand, online writing uses a more informal writing tone. The sentence structure is not as proper as print writing, and the general flow is more laid back. Often times you could even catch the personality of the writer behind the writing.

When print writing, the words used are informative. This often leads to technical jargon – words that are not easily understood by the public. The reason for this could be for it’s more informative approach.

Online writing does not use technical jargon; it is simple. The words are easily understood by the readers and don’t need any extra effort to be processed.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is making use of your tags or labels to the best of your ability. This is in no way used through print writing.

Online writing makes use of SEO by using appropriate tags in the posts. By using the tags or labels they are able to expand the different ways that people can be linked back to their articles. For example, if I were to use the tag “dog” for a post about dogs, anyone who searches for the word “dog” may come across my article in the results.

With the differences aside there are certain characteristics that make online writing really stand out from print writing.

When writing online, it is best to use “killer headlines” to attract readers to want to open the articles. For scanners especially, writers should utilize not only the headlines, but also the bullet points and bold words.

Pictures and videos would also be a great addition to online writing. They can be used as content breaks in articles and also an extra source of information for the readers who enjoy the topic more than others.

Online writing also has something that print writing does not – audience engagement. Because of the different social media platforms and online sources, it is possible for the audience to be engaged in all articles. They can be involved in a conversation by commenting on certain articles. By doing so they can engage the writer or other readers through comments and eventually expand on the topic in general or certain points. The audience also is engaged by sharing the post on their own personal social media accounts. This is a form of distribution.

Print media does not have any of these audience engagement factors.

Online stories also make it easer for the writers to maintain an up to date archive list. The archives can also be publicly shared in an organized manner. This includes links to previous stories. The links could also be from different websites or publications on the Internet.

When it comes to print writing, there is no easy way to access archives. The archives are mainly hard copy and found in a warehouse somewhere, often in the form of a think stack of books. The only reason it would be online is if someone took the time to digitalize all of the print content.

These are the main differences between print writing and online writing.