The Skills You Need for Digital Journalism and Storytelling 

By Ted Spiker, Chair of Journalism, University of Florida

These days, the media world often feels like a fitting room: Try this, try that, ooh that looks good, I hate the way this fits, can I see that in a different style? 

Our rapidly changing journalism, storytelling, and content creation environment includes different genres, platforms, lengths, and skill sets. As we develop specializations in certain subjects (sports, the environment, politics, etc.) or certain forms (audio, video, TikTok, writing, etc.), we must also be nimble enough to learn and deliver many kinds of digital journalism and storytelling. 

Depending on their career goals and stage, students looking to expand their skill sets will venture into a world where they will learn how to strategically and smartly report and tell stories that matter to their audiences and communities. 

As the future changes at Autobahn-like speeds, it’s difficult to know exactly what you will need five years from now (let alone five minutes from now). But when I talk to students about jobs in these fields, I tend to lump the necessary skill sets into two big buckets: 

Digital Journalism: Tangible Skills

Above all, we need journalism students to be able to report. You should be able to find information vital to your community using such methods as interviewing various sources and searching public records. 

What will separate your stories from others in a noisy, chaotic, infinite-information ecosystem? Original information. Related, we need people with creative skills in idea generation — ranging from sniffing out leads in accountability reporting to coming up with engaging listicles that direct traffic to a site. 

 A versatile journalist will certainly be able to write well (with style, clarity, and compelling language) and present stories in visual/video, audio, and social-media formats. 

More and more, data journalism and understanding analytics will become a required skill rather than a boutique one. Of course, within those big-themed skill sets, there are nuances and variations. Ideally, students develop deep skills in one or two areas but also have the versatility to perform many. 

Intangible Skills 

Yes, the X factor matters. What makes you stand out? What makes you thrive? What makes your work product strong enough to satisfy not only your team but also the communities you’re serving? In many ways, they’re similar to those necessary to perform well in many industries (we don’t love deadline-breakers and people who take 17 days to reply to an email). 

 But here are some of the ones that stand out: 

Attention to Detail: Accuracy and precision matter, and when we get facts wrong (no matter how minor), we lose the trust of our communities. 

Curiosity: We ask questions. We want to learn. And we want to bring the answers we find to a larger audience. 

 Adaptability: The point of knowing a lot of different storytelling methods isn’t necessarily to know the software, shortcuts, and keystrokes. It’s to embrace the notion that you are not a one-trick storyteller — that you can learn, pivot, experiment, and do the core work of journalism, no matter the format. 

And no matter if journalism looks very different tomorrow than it does today. 

Posted: December 4, 2024
Category: UF CJC Online Blog
Tagged as: content creation, digital journalism