Towards Freelance Journalism

  • Introduction

    In the first module, the author discusses the speech perception: what is a journalistic story? What is the difference between the topic and the story? How and where can we find ideas? How to choose the audience and the media for your stories. Author: Didem Tali, independent journalist. She published in the New York Times, National Geographic, The Guardian, BBC, CNN, MPR NEWS, Financial Times, The Economist and many more. Currently, she is Contently editor, engages in multimedia freelance journalism, shoots documentaries.

  • How to pitch your story

    In the previous module, students learned about a good journalistic story and who can publish such a story. The next step is to learn how to pitch the idea and make sure the world reads it. How do you convince an editor to choose your idea sent via email? How do you make the editor pay attention to your pitch even with the morning coffee or while looking through other emails? Author: Didem Tali, independent journalist. She published in the New York Times, National Geographic, The Guardian, BBC, CNN, MPR NEWS, Financial Times, The Economist and many more. Currently, she is Contently editor, engages in multimedia freelance journalism, shoots documentaries.

  • Journalistic opportunities, business and finance

    The students already know the basics of storytelling from previous modules. Supposedly, they already have a few ideas, created the contact list of editors, know how to compose a pitch, and maybe even published several stories. The next question that the author discusses in this module is how to take the journalistic career to the next level? One way to get started is to apply for an international grant. Didem Tali shares platforms where you can find journalistic opportunities like this, as well as recommends on how to prepare the grant application and reveals what attracts the grant commission’s attention. In the second part of the module, the author speaks about the journalistic business and financial security. Journalism is a small business where you are both an accountant and a manager. The financial reserves will allow you to discover new horizons, improve your skills and make you an even more interesting and demanded journalist. Author: Didem Tali, independent journalist. She published in the New York Times, National Geographic, The Guardian, BBC, CNN, MPR NEWS, Financial Times, The Economist and many more. Currently, she is Contently editor, engages in multimedia freelance journalism, shoots documentaries.

  • Interview

    The interview is one of the most important aspects of the journalistic story. This will be discussed in this module. How do you find people for interviews who will add value to the story and how do you address them correctly? The author also emphasizes two types of interviews: the expert interviews and hero interviews. What is the difference between the two? What methods of interviewing exist? How do you find people for the interview on sensitive topics? How can mutual acquaintances, Facebook groups or NGOs help with this? In addition, Didem Tali talks about the importance of asking the right questions, about the “snowball” method, and about ethics of the interview. Author: Didem Tali, independent journalist. She published in the New York Times, National Geographic, The Guardian, BBC, CNN, MPR NEWS, Financial Times, The Economist and many more. Currently, she is Contently editor, engages in multimedia freelance journalism, shoots documentaries.

  • Conclusion

    How to structure the story? How to create an important interview? How do you conduct qualitative research? How to use all the information that is available to you? In this module, the author discusses ways to make stories interesting and engaging, even if it is a news story or a story about business, economy or technology that often do not interest most people. What are the ways to achieve this? In Didem Tali’s opinion, the story should attract people, their emotions and add value, regardless of the topic. This process is quite complex, but there are still general rules that will help to optimize the process. The first lecture of this module explains more about these rules. In conclusion, Didem Tali talks about the inevitable difficulties on the way to independent journalism, and how this path changed her mindset. The author claims that despite the career challenges, it is important always to remember that what you are doing today is an investment in yourself, which will return later. Author: Didem Tali, independent journalist. She published in the New York Times, National Geographic, The Guardian, BBC, CNN, MPR NEWS, Financial Times, The Economist and many more. Currently, she is Contently editor, engages in multimedia freelance journalism, shoots documentaries.

This content is protected, please login and enroll course to view this content!

Leave a Reply