Members from the Fire and Rescue NSW Station, local Police Force Will, Marnie, Brett and Matt were in attendance at the Careers Expo.
The Times Discusses Journalism at the Yass High School’s Career Expo
The Yass Valley Times was excited to attend Yass High School’s School and Career Expo as a career vendor to discuss the exciting opportunities that come with being a journalist on August 6.
Primary school students from the surrounding region, including Murrumbateman, Gunning, Wee Jasper and Dalton, first entered the pavilion from 11.00am, hands clutching cleverly crafted bingo sheets.
The sheets, designed to encourage conversation between the vendors and students to inspire them to think about future career choices, required a signature from the vendor once they’d found the appropriate worker.
We enjoyed discussing how thoroughly “cool it was” to “write stories everyday”, and signed off as a workplace that “creates”, a workplace that “uses computers”, a workplace that “works outside”, a workplace that “travels for work”, a workplace that can sometimes “wake up at 7.00am” for a story, a workplace that might “require another language”, a workplace that “entertains”, and a workplace that “needs a university degree”.
The sheets allowed us to discuss the broad lengths journalism can take you – and no, it isn’t “just an old person’s job”!
Each student came with challenging questions that varied from “what is that?” (a newspaper!) to “what is your favourite story that you’ve ever written?” (a follow-up story on local superstar Sam Longmore after she completed her Big Wheel challenge).
High school students from Yass High School soon filtered in from 1.00pm and the pavilion was opened up to the public from 3.30pm.
Interest ranged from photography students who were considering broadening their range of creativity by exploring photojournalism to creative writing students who are just on the cusp of find their voice in writing by exploring different mediums.
Events such as this are an excellent opportunity for us to not only advertise journalism as a worthy career for keen writers, but to continue establishing ourselves as a voice for the Yass Valley region.
As a journalist, it has always been important that writers understand that this craft isn’t dead, dying or outdated as (along with every other media outlet in the world) we will continue to evolve as the craft explores different mediums.
Our stories are just as important, and we will continue to report on what makes the Yass Valley so special.
As a journalist with a double degree in both Journalism and Creative Writing, I was able to discuss the journey into journalism as a profession, and was able to point students into the right direction for anyone wishing to follow in the same footsteps.
As such, here is a summary list of questions/answers that were given:
• I want to write creatively, but I’m unsure if I want to write so seriously, can journalism give me that platform? Absolutely, every journalist takes a different approach to their stories. At its core, journalism and creative writing sit on the same foundational stones of ‘showing, not telling’.
Stories don’t have to cover serious topics in politics, health, disease or war, sometimes the best stories that make it to the front of the paper are about small achievements such as a dog’s award-winning herding skill or the best new ice-cream flavour. Stick to your guns and explore what you’re interested in, your readers will know when you’re passionate about it!
• What makes it news? We all take interest in something unique, if you find yourself going home to tell people about it, we like to consider it news!
• I want to work in a newspaper, but I don’t know how many people I’ll reach. Aren’t they going out of fashion? Newspapers are some of the best ways to start a journalism career because it’s a physical representation of publishing your own work – and seeing your name in print! We print once a week and our physical deadline is a great way to learn discipline and time management. As for an audience, we’ve got a large readership across seven mastheads!
• I remember [newspapers], is journalism still going to exist in five years when I
graduate with a degree? Absolutely. Think about how you consume your news (keeping in mind that ‘news’ can be considered as anything you find new or interesting about the world around you). The world will always need a reliable source of information for whatever you find newsworthy. Journalism may continue to evolve, and we can’t guarantee that we’ll always be available in print news, we will always be your trusted voice for the Yass Valley.
• How are you able to write so many stories a week? Stories vary in length and after a while, you find they will begin to write themselves. If you’re passionate about something, you are often able to talk about it for ages. The same goes for writing!
I don’t want to work behind a desk all the time, will I have to do that? Not at all! Journalism can take you just about anywhere, which means you sometimes have to be ready to craft a story on the fly. Our readership covers an area the size of Fiji which means lots of travel for those interesting stories.
• I’ve heard that journalism is a hard industry to get into. How could I work for you? Unfortunately, it’s true, journalism isn’t the easiest industry to crack, but once you’re in, you’re in! At The South West Slopes Times, we are committed to giving young journalist’s their best chance to get into the industry, and we are looking to offering work experience opportunities for anyone keen to put their hat in and write for us. This can be put on your resume down the line. If you’d be interested in this, please send us an email at editor@southwestslopestimes.com.au.
We were also able to talk about our recent job opening for a Permanent Part-Time Sports
Journalist. Although we saw several keen sports-writer enthusiasts, we do require someone who has a full drivers license and a car that can take them around to different games across the
region.
For creative writers, we were able to promote our Creative Writing Competition and
encourage writers from across the region to give it their best shot!
Applications close on August 31 and can be emailed to editor@southwestslopestimes.com.au with their name, age, year and school.
Positioned next to members from the Fire and Rescue NSW Station, local Police Force and other
emergency response teams, as well as universities, pharmacists and other exciting pathways, students were given a huge range of opportunities to explore.
Our thanks go to the Yass High School for their hard work in putting this event together.
Elizabeth Kovacs
The South West Slopes Times covers an area approximately the size of Fiji in country NSW. We look after a population of more than 50,000 people with our staff servicing 7 major towns and dozens of villages with our story telling footprint.
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We are one of the last truly local independent family run newspaper businesses in the state.
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