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 the news editor and lead media reporter for the Poynter Institute, arts editor for the now completely vanished TBD.com, and managing editor of Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.