This module is really an overview of media writing. It will help you understand the professional landscape of becoming a writer in today’s media industry, which is always in flux. Be prepared to change, and be prepared to pivot. The following information will help you understand how to become a media writer in the Digital Era and beyond. In this first module, you’ll understand what it takes to become a professional writer in today’s digital, print, and broadcast industries. Journalism has history, and this module will introduce you to that history. You’ll learn about the landscape of media education and all the skills that it takes to become successful, especially in this Digital Era where everything is in flux as it has changed so much over time. Online media education offers you the ability to navigate this exciting and complex landscape as a dynamic career opportunity.

When it comes to entertainment stories, the people who really excel at media writing are people who become super fans and want to be in this business to take a peek behind the curtain and see how things operate, get a media education. When I was very young, I was obsessed with watching as many movies as I could and watching as much TV as I could. My mom picked up a letter from me when I was 5 years old, and it said “I just want to eat popcorn and watch movies all day for a living.” I got about as close to that as I could, having a real job.

People are putting their hearts and souls into these productions, and when a movie bombs opening weekend and everybody’s making fun of it on Twitter, years of people’s lives and their livelihoods have banked on the movie’s success. There are a lot of different parts of the making-a-movie stew that can screw up, and the movie goes from an Academy Award winner to total dust. There are so many parts that go into making a movie, and people work so hard to put their all into it. It’s such a tight rope of putting yourself out there. If you really are passionate about learning those stories from people, that makes a great entertainment writer, and that makes a great entertainment story.

Alongside that, you want to be able to pull yourself out and be professional enough to know that there is a business element about the media industry. Like at “Variety,” we’ve been known for more than 100 years as the business of entertainment. That’s our slogan because we want to break down the deals in the deal-making. It’s the intersection of loving art and then understanding the commerce behind it.

Entertainment and media journalists have a bit of a luxury. They tend to be a little bit more adventurous and curious than other journalists and other fields I’ve met with, wanting to understand what’s new. The music journalists at our publication, they’re all musicians in their spare time, and they’re not stuck in whatever decade they came of age listening to music. They’re wanting to hear what’s fresh, what’s new, and really act upon that. One of the things about my job that makes me the happiest is finding that small movie or that small record that you really think deserves a bigger platform and then telling people how great it is.

If you want to keep that content fresh, you’re gonna want to keep the site refreshed, updated, and current. You’re gonna want to be on all social media platforms and integrate yourself in a way that is natural while not trying too hard to fit in. We at “Variety” always know that we are a business publication. So when we go on Tik Tok, for example, we’re teaching people how to make it in the entertainment industry or how to be an entertainment journalist. It’s a type of online media education. We’re trying to comment on these platforms from our vantage of knowledgeability plus trying to remain current and keep ahead of things.

What makes news writing special is the opportunity to be the first one in the room with the thing that everybody wants to hear. It’s kind of like when you meet up with your friends and you have a story that you just can’t wait to tell them—that’s essentially the job of news writing. But, instead of just meeting up with your friends, you get to tell tens—or even hundreds of thousands—of people something that you believe they need to know.

The key to news judgment is finding something that people are interested in but also something that they’ll benefit from knowing. Something that will make them better citizens or more informed voters. Something that will help them know where they’ll want to travel or help them be more prepared for what’s coming next in the world. With media writing, it’s always about finding a balance between the things that will get clicks and bring people to your website and the things that will actually enrich them for having read them.

I once had a great editor who told me that you want to write stories that get read, but you need to write stories that are worth reading. I’ve tried to follow that advice. One thing that’s special about news media, is that you aren’t telling the reader what you think might be true, or what you’ve had a hunch about. Instead, you’re telling them what you know; what you’ve sussed out, nailed down, verified, confirmed, and what you can say with full confidence that you know to be true.

Personally, I think that’s where you build your reputation as a good news writer—when people come to you, hear what you say, and don’t feel the need to check three or four other sources. When they think “okay, this is a place I can come to for information that’s verified, and I can take it as a known fact”, that’s when you’re doing your job well.

Standard media education and online media education are excellent places to start on the path towards understanding the media industry, and what it takes to be a good news writer.