Self-Aggrandizing Advice to Young Journalists

Felix Salmon‘s advice for young journalists has some merits and one overwhelming fault: It has given journalists a chance to talk about themselves, incessantly, for nearly a whole day. Ezra Klein replied with a more positive take on the field, and Mathew Ingram collected some tweets. Take some advice from an older journalist, though: You can always collect more tweets and look like you’ve been working. As long as you categorize those tweets:

SINCERE (PROBABLY) AND THUS EXCRUCIATING ADVICE

My advice to young journalists: Pay attention. Be curious. And when in doubt, just like, dance around. pic.twitter.com/xGUzZgfYxi

— jennifer bendery (@jbendery) February 9, 2015

Tweet to young journos: Dive into interesting topic others aren’t exploring in depth. Immerse yourself. Regale us when you come up for air.

— Kashmir Hill (@kashhill) February 10, 2015

This @felixsalmon piece is a litmus test: If it scares you off from being a journalist, you weren’t meant to be one. http://t.co/xe18EaQiEL

— Harry McCracken (@harrymccracken) February 10, 2015

My advice to young journalists: It’s really fun. You just get to write about stuff all day. Give it a whirl!

— Joseph Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) February 9, 2015

#AdviceForYoungJournalists Don’t be a dick. Stay humble. Most importantly, ignore any advice from older journalists.

— Merlin Alderslade (@Merl_Hammer) February 10, 2015

DISCOURAGING ADVICE FROM A GUY WITH A COMPLETELY AWESOME JOB

Journalism: dumb career move. I agree with @felixsalmon http://t.co/1NYrp26LzB pic.twitter.com/Js6A8RsSvO

— Farhad Manjoo (@fmanjoo) February 10, 2015

ADVICE THAT TAKES THIS OPPORTUNITY TO SNIPE AT DIGITAL JOURNALISTS

The Ezra Klein ‘advice to young journalists’ column had 2 misspellings and the tweet to promote it had a grammatical error and an extra word

— Will Green (@wfcgreen) February 10, 2015

he’s right about one thing: bloggers are ‘disposable.’ so, don’t be disposable. be a goddamned writer not a blogger. http://t.co/P8sGr2OWMk

— Natasha Young (@natashay0ung) February 10, 2015

ADVICE: DO WHAT I DID

Go to a small/metro paper (they still exist). Cover courts and town gov’ts. Be indispensable. DC and NY can wait. #adviceforyoungjournalists

— Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) February 10, 2015

ADVICE: BELIEVE WHAT I BELIEVE

.@felixsalmon isn’t writing about the death of journalism. He’s writing about the death of labor. http://t.co/R5eIA7Dwej

— Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) February 9, 2015

Advice to young journalists: form a union in your newsroom #solidarity

— Mike Elk (@MikeElk) February 9, 2015

DO WHAT THOU WILT SHALL BE THE WHOLE OF THE ADVICE

My advice for young journalists is to pet every single dog u see. Every single one.

— ellen drake tannam (@incogellen) February 9, 2015

Advice to young journalists: ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ↬ᔥ

— Dieter Bohn (@backlon) February 10, 2015

Advice to young journalists. pic.twitter.com/sxGWiOl0Ql

— Moltz (@Moltz) February 10, 2015

ALSO, IS ANYONE STILL WORKING?

There’s tremendous opportunity for some reporter to break big news right now, while all of D.C. media argues about journalism on twitter.

— Byron Tau (@ByronTau) February 10, 2015

My advice for journalists: get back to work.

— Shani ◉. Hilton (@shani_o) February 9, 2015

Andrew Beaujon

Senior editor

Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. His book A Bigger Field Awaits Us: The Scottish Soccer Team That Fought the Great War was published in 2018. He lives in Del Ray.