One thing every journalism student should have is their own domain name. That’s according to Alfred Hermida, assistant professor at the Graduate School of Journalism, the University of British Columbia.
As a young journalist at university I can attest to and agree with what Adrian says. It is your presence online, your “digital calling card”, as he puts it.
My website allows me to showcase my work through the portfolio page and what subjects I’m interested in via my posts, tweets and favourite links on Delicious. Anyone reading this site will now I’m a bit of a football fanatic that loves to write about the beautiful game.
I can also contact fellow journalists and readers and strike up a dialogue with them. It’s definitely been a worthwhile investment of my time.
What initially put me off was my lack of coding knowledge, and I think that is the case with a number of my colleagues on my course. The first time we covered it in Convergent Journalism I did do a slight double-take I will readily admit.
Luckily for me, my friend Nick (who admits himself is a bit of a geek) knew plenty and spent a significant amount of time making this site what you see today and showing me the ropes.
Invest a bit of time learning some coding and it will pay off. I’d recommend having your own personal website to every journalism student.
