What Makes An Exceptional Journalist?

As many of you who are reading this will probably already know, Journalism is a cut-throat business with no guarantees. There's no time to be lacking with your work, and creating top quality content is consistently vital to be considered one of the best in your industry - so what makes an exceptional journalist?

It makes little different who you work for, and even if you work freelance. You HAVE to be ready to broaden your mind amongst all walks of life. Open your perceptions to new ways of improving your work, and never rest on your laurels. There are thousands of journalists all over the world - millions if you count the citizens who find news stories for themselves. If you want to be just one of many, then just follow what you see as the basic quota for achieving a career in journalism. If you want to be exceptional - be prepared to walk grounds other's aren't prepared to. Be vivacious in your dealings with the work you do, and don't take no for an answer. Create a polarising personality in the industry and build your empire by working the way you want to. No visionary ever created their intimidating legacy by following the rules of others. They made their own.

Follow more obscure news stations where stories may have broke before the more mainstream ones and use these to your advantage. Finding a hot story can be paramount to the career of a journalist, and if you find one of the hottest scoops of the year, you're way on your way to solidifying yourself amongst the giants. Learn all different areas of journalism if you can, so this again will give you advantages over specialised journalists. How will people be able to compete with you if you're talented not only at broadcast and multimedia journalism, but also photojournalism and radio journalism, then just consider how that could help you grow in the industry - with enough clout behind your qualifications, you could even start your own company.

Journalism is an ever growing industry which will no doubt continue to evolve as technology does also. It's up to you to spot the trends - and to make yourself formidable in the journalism industry.