What Physical and Personal Characteristics Are Necessary for Success in Journalism?
One must have good health to stand the hardships of long and irregular hours of work, under bad conditions, often long distances from the office and in all kinds of weather. There are also certain personal qualifications that one must have to succeed in the field of journalism. Chief among these personal qualifications is the ability to adapt one’s self to many different subjects and feel at home in each.
Unlike writers in other fields, the reporter is a writer of matter which lives today and is dead tomorrow. He is not so much in need, therefore, of the artistic quality in his writings as he is in need of the ability to pass quickly from subject to subject writing briefly but to the point on each.
Another thing one must have for success in journalism is what may be termed “the news instinct”; this is the ability to recognize news in any form, even in the most commonplace events, and to write these commonplace things up in such a way as to interest the reader. This ability is not found in the person who does not observe carefully.
A clear, easy style full of dash is necessary for the reporter. This style can usually be gained with a little practice by the man or woman with a sense for news. The reporter’s main aim is to catch the public eye, after that he needs most to produce copy at great speed, remembering all the while that his work is not likely to be read more than once.
Other qualifications a reporter should have are intelligence, and an understanding of people. He must have tact, and be a “good mixer,” capable of easily gaining the confidence of people in order to draw them out in his search for news.