Industry professionals came and gave back to students at Journalism Forum at Bucks County Community College.
Jarrett Renshaw and Tommy Rowan visited with BCCC journalism majors on Monday to answer questions about the ever-changing journalism industry and the difficulty of not only getting into the industry but also then making a name for yourself within it.
Renshaw is an award-winning writer for Reuters who covers energy but has a long history of investigative journalism, who graduated from Temple University School of Journalism. Rowan is a Philly writer who contributes to almost every major Philadelphia news source and is best known for his pieces called “Crooks” which looks back into some of the worst murders in history, who also went graduated from Temple Journalism but spent two years here at BCCC.
Both came to share their industry experience with people egger to learn whatever they could before themselves attempting to break into the tough industry.
Rowan was able to relate to everyone in the classroom by saying “When I got out of high school I had no idea what I wanted to do” but went on to say “it’s a great time to get into journalism.”
When asked about recommendations you would give to students looking to get into the journalism field Renshaw said, “aggressively make contacts and get any types of clips to show people.” Rowan added, “Find someone you respect in the industry and just email them and make a connection.”
When asked about Trump and if it was hard to be a reporter in a time where the president is attacking the free and independent press Rowan said, “I think it is kind of great, sometimes you got to be the bad guy”
“Our editors have reveled guidelines for us to follow and our approach is to just kind of ignore it” Renshaw said, adding, “As journalists we like to call BS, but he has kind of upended that.” Tommy jumped in and said “It is kind of fun too, if you’re threating the government right as a reporter they will never like you that’s just standard.”
Another big topic during this forum was the current switch from paper to digital over the past few years and how they were handling it respectively. “Stories that do well online are more personal,” Rowan said. Renshaw added, “pressure to be first is a huge thing now, being second is useless. Also headlines are hugely important now. We must navigate having a great headline and avoid just being click bait.”
This forum closed with a big round of applause from the group of students and an overall want of more information. It is clear journalism is far from dead and the apparent “Trump Bump” is well and alive in the journalism industry as subscriptions are on the rise and stories are getting more interactions then ever before.