“I’m going into public relations. I don’t need to learn how to do this.”
This opinion was voiced by a PR student about writing newspaper articles in my Intro to Media Writing class. I’ve heard similar complaints from other classmates too, and it’s usually from students who could definitely use the extra writing experience.
I joined The Slate my first semester at Shippensburg, and it’s been one of the best decisions of my life, both professionally and personally. Joining a newspaper can help you as well, and I hope these reasons will prove how valuable your college newspaper can be to your future career.
Ok, joining your college paper won’t look like this. The newsroom will at least be in color.
- You Learn To Meet Deadlines
Deadlines are everywhere. You have them for classes, bills and even expiration dates on food. Every job will require you to complete projects in a time frame, but there’s no surprise that the deadlines for public relations professionals are small and strict. Press releases are written on the spot, and newsletters aren’t written over months. Writing for your newspaper will train you to quickly transform hard facts into a story and get you used to writing under a little pressure.
- You Write Often
Nobody starts out being a good writer. I cringe while reading the first article I wrote for The Slate, and I still find things I wish I’d written differently in recent ones. You need time to practice writing skills, especially writing skills used for public relations. Try branching away from opinion and fiction pieces and see what news stories attract you. You don’t want to be practicing your writing skills at your first job. According to this blog, you’ll want to have mastered them: http://blog.journalistics.com/2013/skills-entry-level-pr-hires-should-have/
- You Learn How To Work As A Team (A Writing Team, That Is!)
In public relations, writing isn’t always on your own terms. It’s on the terms of your audience, stakeholders and bosses. A manager may ask you to extend or shorten a story, and you have to work within guidelines of editors and your own organization. A college newspaper provides the perfect environment to practice working with peers to create the best written piece possible.
- You Learn How To Be Flexible
I know this girl whose A&E Editor thought she was writing a song review for that week’s issue of The Slate, but in reality, she told him it was for the issue AFTER that week’s. She had to listen to the song, evaluate it and write a 1200-word article on it in four hours. Now, she could have told the editor it was his fault for forgetting which issue the review was for and refuse to write it, but she decided to write it anyway.
Yes, the girl was me. This stuff just happens sometimes. Learning flexibility is a good thing.
I can never listen to Adele’s, “Hello” without feeling anxious now…
- You Learn How Newspapers Run
Editors are busy, busy people. Stories fall through, articles may be written poorly, and after every other speed bump, they still have to create newspaper pages from it all. There’s no secret that there is tension between PR specialists and journalists, but joining a college newspaper will show you how editors work and what they need for your press release to be considered.
Joining a newspaper will give you the best real-world communications experience for writing, deadlines, organization and teamwork before you graduate. Join the staff, write a few articles or even take some pictures just to get a look into PR’s close cousin, journalism. Who knows, you may just meet some great friends along the way.
Have you joined your newspaper? Comment and let us know! Or, better yet, share this post with your PR friends and see what they think!
Sources:
Blog published by Jeremy Porter at: http://blog.journalistics.com/2013/skills-entry-level-pr-hires-should-have/
All photos public domain, free for commercial use and require no attribution from Pixabay.com
microphone: https://pixabay.com/en/microphone-music-score-song-805256/
newsroom: https://pixabay.com/en/new-york-times-newspaper-press-room-1159719/
coffee and newspaper: https://pixabay.com/en/newspaper-news-media-print-media-1595773/
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