How to be a Young Reporter: Top Tips – Cat Patterson, St George’s College

Don’t get overwhelmed!

Although it may seem like an obvious target, trying to really enjoy and make the most out of the scheme is the best way to complete it. Sometimes it may be overwhelming, sometimes you may leave articles until the last couple days, and sometimes you may have a lot of schoolwork to balance on the side, but in those instances try and think of a topic that you find interesting that will be an easy and passionate topic for you to discuss/ research. This will make it all the more rewarding, and less stressful to complete.

Pick topics of interest that you’re passionate about.

Linking on from the previous tip is another ‘obvious’ one; pick to write about subjects that you’ll enjoy! When I felt like I’d run out of ideas to do with my local community I reverted to thinking about what topics I’d find interesting. You are more likely to write a better article if it’s on something you enjoy, and others are also then more likely to find it interesting. One of my favourite articles to write and research was about buying clothes second-hand and the company Depop – this was because I chose a topic that I genuinely believed was both relevant and intriguing. 

Go into your local community!

As a local journalism scheme, Young Reporters is really about discovering and reporting events occurring around you. It’s really a great opportunity to go out and speak to people in your town, like small business owners. You can find out more about current events in your local area, as well as use your position as a junior journalist to promote new local businesses. It’s great to put yourself out there and try to interview people and I found it helped me to develop both my confidence and my professional skills. 

Good time management – Plan Ahead!

If you really want to make the most of the scheme, it’s a great opportunity to go interview people in your local area, though this requires some planning and time management. Scheduling, planning questions for, and actually performing an interview can take weeks at times. Therefore, to do this one has to start early and schedule an interview with plenty of time before the next article deadline. I’d recommend a timeline along the lines of spending the first week of the month thinking about different article ideas, and reaching out to people to interview if you settle on an article in which that’s suitable, spend the second week compiling ideas for the article and/or conducting a scheduled interview and then spend the last couple weeks of the month writing and posting your article, without leaving it to the last minute!

Don’t miss deadlines.

To enter the competition at the end of your 8 articles, it’s critical you meet all of the deadlines. This won’t be easy if you leave planning, writing, and posting your article until the last days of the month. Especially If there’s an issue when you try uploading your article, its best this issue occurs with a week before deadline-day to resolve it, rather than with two hours. 

Ultimately, with the Young Reporters programme you truly do have free reign to make it what you want. As a ‘junior journalist’, you dictate how much you get out of it and to what calibre you write to, though it’s definitely worthwhile to put the time and effort into your articles. You can learn a lot about current topics, events in your community and what it takes to be a journalist, but you can also better your skills in interviewing and speaking with strangers, managing your time, and informative writing – it’s a remarkable programme to take part in and hopefully make the most out of.