Why would a professional journalist want to create an online resume site or web presence?
It
makes sense for all professionals, including journalists to have an online
presence in the age of the Internet. Virginia Commonwealth University has a
guide for journalists about creating a digital portfolio for journalists. An
online presence allows prospective employers a place where they can:
- View your collected works in one place.
- The overall website shows them that you are able to put together an effective communications package.
- It also shows them that you can produce news content for multiple platforms.
What kinds of tools would you use to build your site?
There
is a plethora of tools available for building a website. About.com has an
article how to promote yourself as a journalist online. They do advise that as
a professional, you should invest a little bit of money in registering your own
domain name. Some of the tools that they talk about include:
What considerations do you have to keep in mind regarding branding and consistency? How does
this help a reader or potential employer find you?
By
having a presence on the Internet and in social media that is consistent and
strongly portrays your brand as a journalist, you make it easier for
prospective employers to find you. Using the same information about yourself on
multiple websites and social media outlets allows the search engines to return
more results concerning you and your work. Without this search engine
optimization, SEO, you are dispersing your online presence under multiple
search terms that people might not know. If you go by Susan, use it consistently
and don’t call yourself Suzi when you’re feeling informal.
What types of files will you collect to present and link to (be thinking what
types of digital formats)?
You
should be including examples of your work including articles, pod casts and
videos that you have produced. File formats can be recognized by their file extensions,
.xyz. Most web browsers can handle multiple file formats, but it is best to
stick to the most commonly used ones. These include .docx, .mp3, .mpg, .jpg,
.gif, .tif, .au, and .pdf.
The
PDF, Adobe’s Portable Document Format, is particularly useful for archiving
documents. This is a reliable and nearly universal format.
How will you organize your site? Explain and provide one link from a search of
professional journalists' websites as an example.
There
are certainly many ways to set up a website for your digital portfolio. After
looking at the sites of a few professional journalists, I really liked the look
and simplicity of the website of John Tedesco, a reporter for the San Antonio Express-News. It had a
home page with links for just four additional pages: about, blog, clips and
contact. This covered all of the pertinent information without overwhelming. http://www.johntedesco.net/
This was contrasted by the website of Timothy Harper, a freelance
writer and journalist, which has a menu of twenty different pages and many
clickable links within the text of each page. http://www.nvo.com/timharper/door/
Finally, how can creating a web presence help you work or represent yourself
better as a professional?
I think maintaining a web
presence allows potential employers and readers to see that your writing is
consistent and that you have the ability to produce content in multiple formats
for multiple platforms. Showing consistency is central to being seen as a
professional and to building your reputation as a journalist.
Sources:
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