Journalism - Sheffield or Cardiff?

I'm not sure if I've posted this in the right forum - I have a feeling that it might get more replies in the Media section, but oh well.

Do you want to be a journalist?

None of my friends who are now journalists at big publications, e.g. the Guardian, did a journalism masters. Just did lots of freelance. 1 of them did a masters with a really specific regional focus.

Don't mean to put a downer on things just thought I would mention it to you. A masters is a big investment and if it is not really going to make you more employable than free lance writing it might be a waste of money.

A journalism Masters or PGDip is pretty much the only way to get training in ethics/media law/shorthand etc etc that you need to be accepted onto the vast majority of newspapers nowadays. Freelance writing is next to worthless unless you have enough contacts in the right places to get a stable income out of it, and I don't have those contacts. Most of the Guardian staff trained at City Uni in London and I can't afford to go there so I was wondering if Cardiff or Sheffield were decent alternatives. Regionals like the Yorkshire Post and the Manchester Evening News won't even accept work experience placements unless you've got done the NCTJ exams. A training MA is expensive but it's a passport into the industry.

My friends who were / are freelancers (some are now employed by the guardian etc.) relocated to countries where there is a need and somethng interesting to write about. E.g. Yemen, Egypt, Syria...

None of them had contacts before but they sent interesting stories to great publications and got many of them published. Because it was interesting and not many people were writing about the subject.

A girl I met in Cairo had a story published in the guardian about what is happening here just by emailing it in. No previous contacts!

Good luck whatever you decide to do!

A journalism Masters or PGDip is pretty much the only way to get training in ethics/media law/shorthand etc etc that you need to be accepted onto the vast majority of newspapers nowadays. Freelance writing is next to worthless unless you have enough contacts in the right places to get a stable income out of it, and I don't have those contacts. Most of the Guardian staff trained at City Uni in London and I can't afford to go there so I was wondering if Cardiff or Sheffield were decent alternatives. Regionals like the Yorkshire Post and the Manchester Evening News won't even accept work experience placements unless you've got done the NCTJ exams. A training MA is expensive but it's a passport into the industry.

You are missing beefmaster's point. It is all well and good having a journalism qualification, but if you do not specialise in a particular area then you are unlikely to get a break anyway.

I thought his point that was the MA was essentially a waste of money compared to freelance, which is why I countered. Most new starters don't get to walk into a job writing about their specialism straight away, you have to take the work that is there and persevere.

That might have been the implication, and in an obvious sense he is right (you do not spend any money freelancing, for example), but he was suggesting going where the work is rather than spending money on a qualification that gives you no guarantees; that is, moving abroad and writing about things which will be in the news for a while.

Your comment about specialism does not really make much sense. Some sections of journalism are harder to get into than others, but it is not as if you are going to get there faster if you work in a different area. You are more likely to get published in your specialist area to be honest. If you live in Egypt, spoke Arabic and had a good understanding of the countries history then you are more likely to get published submitting a story about their recent events than someone living in Britain writing an article about the same thing. The age of that sort of journalism is ending I can assure you. 'Local specialist' journalism is making a return, and sometimes the journalists seek you out.

I was published in Times Higher Education because I use their website a lot and make comments all the time. They came to me. Likewise, I was published in The Guardian after being short listed for award. There are opportunities; you just need to find a niche and take your chances. Of course, you are unlikely to be scooped out of the Guardian's comment pages, but look at the paper and what it offers a weekly and monthly basis. Find out as much about the people who lead those sections and try to get their personal contact details. Submitting something speculatively could mean waiting weeks for someone to respond (with a rejection).

Clearly you are interested in print journalism, but what area? Some areas and jobs are easier to get into than others.

Who has the money to just move abroad and hope stories present themselves? .

Work hard in a **** job for a while. Then save money up. It so happens at the moment that most of where the news is happens to be in countries where it is very cheap to live. So saving for a few months in any job you can get then moving is no longer that hard.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do. You seem to be missing the points myself and evantej are making. But if you are determined to try to go into Journalism in through a masters then by all means...good luck!

Print journalism is a dying field unfortunately and the number of people doing MA journalism and the number is jobs is vastly different. Without a specific regional focus to make you stand out you won't get a look in.

With respect, I think the points you an evantej are making are a bit... 'pie in the sky' in the sense that you have a very speculative view on the industry and don't take into account that I'd need stable money to live and pay a mortgage etc, I'd need an employer not just a place to send the odd article. I have done a lot of work experience and spoken to a lot of journos, and so far I haven't had anyone advise me against doing a Masters. Print is a definitely a dying field - hence the increased emphasis on digital and multimedia platforms - but while it remains then training is vital. 'Regional focus' doesn't really come into it. If you've got the necessary shorthand etc and are lucky enough to get on the trainee schemes offered by the Guardian Media Group/News of the World/Trinity Mirror etc in London, then you have a every opportunity from there to specialise and work abroad. That route seems like much more of a guarantee to me than just winging it halfway across the world and hoping for the best.