ONA13: three lessons learned for student journalists

By Arik Ligeti

Back in May, I was sitting in a Budapest hotel lobby at 3 a.m. with my laptop, trying to answer this question: If you ran into Google’s CEO, what would you ask? I was filling out an application to participate in the Online News Association’s Student Newsroom; I was thankful for the time difference.

By Arik Ligeti

Back in May, I was sitting in a Budapest hotel lobby at 3 a.m. with my laptop, trying to answer this question: If you ran into Google’s CEO, what would you ask? I was filling out an application to participate in the Online News Association’s Student Newsroom; I was thankful for the time difference.

ONA is a community of like-minded people interested in digital journalism. Every year, that community comes together for an annual conference, which wrapped up in Atlanta this past weekend. ONA selects 20 students to report on the conference. Google pays the way, covering flight, hotel and conference costs.

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With some combination of luck and experience, I was the only Canadian and one of two international students picked. And so I packed my suitcase, printed off business cards and made my way to Atlanta for four incredible days. Here are a few things I learned from the experience.

1. It’s going to be okay

This was probably my biggest takeaway from the conference. Being surrounded by a group of such passionate and forward-thinking students, professors and journalists  made me so happy. Somewhere between meeting Steve Buttry and singing karaoke with fellow journalists, it hit me: I had made the right career choice.

Journalism is at an exciting point. The opportunities for storytelling are endless given the growing capabilities of digital technologies. So, the next time someone tells you there are no jobs in journalism, tell them: you’re wrong. Today’s journalism job market is hungry for people with digital skills: can you use Excel? WordPress? Code? Are you active on social media? The more knowledge and skills you have, the better.

2. Newsroom experience is invaluable

Being in a room filled with 19 other ambitious, talented students made me want to push my limits and learn new skills. Besides live-tweeting, I filed four stories at the conference: an interactive timeline, an analysis of conference attendees and pieces about teaching code and data journalism in the developing world. I was busy all the time and didn’t see much of Atlanta (although we did tour CNN’s headquarters, which was pretty cool), but that didn’t matter. I was there to report.

Here are some cool things other students in the newsroom put together: an app to discover concerts in the city, an infographic analyzing Twitter data and comics of journalists attending the conference.

Perhaps most importantly, each of us was paired with a mentor for the duration of the conference. Mine was Emily Chow, a graphics editor at The Washington Post. Besides helping me refine story ideas, Chow inspired me to want to push my journalism further. Having a solid foundation in how to write a story or produce a video is fine, but in the online world, we have the ability to take those skills further. When working on an analysis of conference attendees, Chow introduced me to Open Refine. I immediately gawked at its ability to clean up messy data. And that was just the beginning of the new tools that are out there.

 

 

3. Network, network, network

Conferences are a great way to connect with other journalists. At ONA, there was an opening night reception at a local music venue. I went there with some student newsroom members, but I also wanted to meet working journalists. I spotted Nieman Journalism Lab writer Justin Ellis (a favourite site of mine), so I went and introduced myself. He happened to be standing next to a Canadian journalist, and the next thing I knew, I was being introduced to half a dozen Canadians from the Globe, CBC and the Toronto Star.

The next ONA might not be till next September, but there are other events you can take advantage of to network. NICAR has a conference in Baltimore, and the Canadian Association of Journalists is holding its annual shindig in Vancouver in May.

But there are other opportunities, too. Get in touch with the pros you look up to. You know, the ones you follow on Twitter. Follow and tweet at them. Or email them. Or (gasp!) call them. Join your local ONA, CAJ or Hacks/Hackers chapter. If none exists, start your own. Connect with like-minded journalism students.

Create a community if none exists. The journalists you want to connect with are likely the ones who are eager to share and teach and learn from each other. I know that I’ll have Chow, the other mentors and my fellow student reporters as resources and connections going forward.

Before I went to ONA, I was familiar with experiments in journalism, the importance of coding and making connections. But when you see the possibilities firsthand, and you talk to those people firsthand, there's no turning back. I'm already looking up hotels for NICAR in February.

Arik Ligeti is a fourth-year journalism student at Carleton University. He’s passionate about online journalism, open data and Bruce Springsteen. You can connect with him on Twitter @arikligeti.

 

 

 

Resources:

Student Newsroom

ONA13 Session Recaps

Gannett ONA Tumblr

Hack the Curriculum

Three Takeaways on Sensors at the ONA Conference

Digital insights from the ONA13 conference

Tutorials for journalists coding with javascript

Tools/Projects:

Overview

Tabula

For Journalism

Data Driven Journalism

Group photo courtesy of Leezel Tanglao.