David Carr: You have to make stuff.

You have to make stuff. The tools of journalism are in your hands and no one is going to give a damn about what is on your resume, they want to see what you have made with your own little fingies. Can you use Final Cut Pro? Have you created an Instagram that is about something besides a picture of your cat every time she rolls over? Is HTML 5 a foreign language to you? Is your social media presence dominated by a picture of your beer bong, or is it an RSS of interesting stuff that you add insight to? People who are doing hires will have great visibility into what you can actually do, what you care about and how you can express on any number of platforms.”

Today, David Carr, the New York Times Reporter, was on Reddit’s IAMA.  I’m a big fan from reading his work and seeing him in “Page One.” He offers great advice

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to students and to people in the journalism field who wonder about their futures. You have to make stuff.  Your future and my future will be about what he says: what you can do, what you care about and how you can express it. It’s work. It’s learning new stuff all the time. It’s exhausting. But it can be exhilarating. You can talk to people, tell stories and listen to what people think about those stories. You can tell stories in new ways. But you have to make stuff.

The timing of Carr’s comments is terrific for me. I’m starting a new semester, feeling a bit overwhelmed and exhausted already from the new stuff I’m trying to learn and then teach and coach my students through. But this is it. And it is exhilarating.

 

 

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