How to become a general assignment reporter

Is becoming a general assignment reporter right for me?

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Overview
What do general assignment reporters do?

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How to become a General Assignment Reporter

Entering the world of journalism requires a combination of formal training and practical experience to build a strong foundation for storytelling.

  • Complete High School: Aspiring reporters should focus on classes like English, history, and government to develop strong writing and critical thinking skills. This academic background provides the necessary knowledge to understand complex community issues and write about them clearly.
  • Earn a College Degree: Most news organizations require a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism, Broadcast Journalism, Mass Communication and Media Studies, English or a related discipline to ensure applicants understand media ethics and professional writing standards. These programs teach the technical side of the job, such as how to conduct research and use the Associated Press style for news articles.
  • Join Student Media: Working for a high school or college newspaper, radio station, or television studio allows for immediate practice in a real news environment. This experience is important because it helps build a portfolio of published work that shows abilities to future employers.
  • Develop Technical Skills: Learning how to use digital cameras, video editing software, and social media platforms is essential in the multi-platform news world. These skills are important because modern reporters often have to film and post their own stories to different websites or apps.
  • Secure an Internship: Spending a summer or semester working at a local news outlet provides a look at how professional journalists handle daily deadlines and breaking news. This practical step is important for making professional contacts and gaining a competitive edge when applying for a first job.
  • Obtain Professional Certifications: Many reporters choose to earn certifications in specialized areas like investigative reporting or digital media to show they have mastered specific industry standards. These credentials demonstrate a commitment to lifelong learning and help a reporter stand out in the job market.
  • Apply for Entry-Level Roles: New graduates often start their careers as news assistants or junior reporters at smaller community newspapers or local stations. Starting in these roles leads to the confidence and experience needed to eventually move to larger news markets and more senior positions.

Certifications
Earning specialized certifications allows reporters to master new technologies and prove their commitment to high professional standards. These credentials help journalists keep their skills fresh as the media industry evolves and grows.

  • Poynter Institute Certificates in Journalism: The Poynter Institute has long been recognized as the gold standard for professional development of journalists. It offers training and certification in Broadcast & Visual Journalism, Business & Work, Ethics, Fact-Checking & Media Literacy, Leadership, Reporting & Editing, and Writing.
  • Poynter ACES Certificates in Editing: These certificates are awarded through a partnership between the Poynter Institute and American Copy Editors Society (ACES). Communicators at any stage of their professional development can benefit from one or all of three of the editing certificate programs: Introductory, Intermediate, and Advanced. There are no prerequisites for any of the certificates; learners can choose any or all of the learning paths to level up their editing skills. Each certificate level is made up of a series of six to seven courses and a final assessment.
  • Google News Initiative Training Certificate: The Google News Initiative provides digital tools and resources that can help journalists find, verify, and tell engaging stories; experiment with new ways to visualize stories using new content formats, data, and more; and explore digital tools that help verify the authenticity and accuracy of online images, videos, and reports.
  • Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE): The IRE provides training, resources, and a community of support to investigative journalists; promotes high professional standards; and protects the rights of investigative journalists. It offers events, fellowships, scholarships, conferences, bootcamps; and workshops covering investigative reporting basics, such as interview strategies, public records navigation and database and document analysis.
  • National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR): This is a collaboration between IRE and the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism. For more than 30 years, NICAR has made valuable government datasets available to journalists, done custom analysis work for newsrooms large and small, held annual conferences that helped create and continue to support the active NICAR community, trained journalists around the country and overseas in the art of acquiring, cleaning, and analyzing data, provided resources for using data effectively and responsibly, and trained Missouri journalism students to handle data and do analysis.