What Is A Digital Journalist And How Can You Become One?

It’s no longer enough to possess 100 words a minute in shorthand and know your way around the QWERTY keyboard. In today’s 24-hour media environment, journalists need to be able to operate across a range of digital platforms and be skilled in areas such as social media, mobile journalism and website analytics.

“It’s still important to be able to write a good sentence but, today, publications exist in a varied landscape,” says Dr James Morris, a journalism lecturer at City University of London, a leading provider of journalism courses in the UK. “You’ve got to be able to write words not just for print news and features but social media and, ideally, have video skills as well. The ability to be able to film good quality video is really important.”

He cites the example of a City student caught up in the passport fiasco in May 2024, when an IT glitch caused the widespread failure of e-gates at UK airports. “She was stranded at Stansted but was able to do some reports from her phone from the airport. She sent in footage and appeared on BBC News and other outlets.”

These were the scenes at Stansted Airport last night as passengers queued at passport control.

A “nationwide issue” which caused huge delays at e-gates has now been fixed.

Journalist @laura_howes_ was among those caught up in the disruption pic.twitter.com/SumdJN0etR

— ITV News Anglia (@itvanglia) May 8, 2024

Speaking at the time, the current MA TV student Laura Howes said: “At City, we have weekly ‘newsdays’ where we get to practise being ‘real’ reporters, including live reporting on location. This single-handedly gave me all the knowledge I needed to report the Stansted delays live to BBC News.

“Credit to my poor friend who I was travelling with, who let me get straight into the story as soon as we landed, and was rather interested in how this ‘news stuff’ works!”

What Does A Digital Journalist Do?

While some “traditional” journalists are still reluctant to embrace digital journalism and may fear it’s all about hits and numbers, this isn’t the case. Rather, it’s an essential part of storytelling for any journalist, says James, who has worked extensively as a technology journalist, including spending five years as editor of PC Pro magazine, and runs a successful commercial video and online digital content production company.

Similarly, he says data skills should go hand-in-hand with digital — and there’s no need to be a maths whizz. “The pandemic and cost of living crisis were both data-heavy stories even though there was obviously a strong human interest element to them. To report on them accurately, you needed a fundamental understanding of data along with traditional writing skills,” he explains.

Felicity Thistlethwaite, digital content editor at Stylist and a professional mentor at City agrees. Speaking in a previous Journo Resources interview, she says that data is a big part of her day-to-day. “I think what would surprise people is [the role is] a lot more analytical than you think – we’re making data-led decisions. That can be really tricky, especially when you’re playing with algorithms because they don’t play by the rules. There are no rules. And if there are any rules, they can change at the drop of a hat – and no one tells you.”

How To Get Into Digital Journalism

Whether you’re an experienced journalist or a new graduate, boosting your digital and data skillset can help you find more stories and tell them in more engaging ways. It’s an ethos that’s central to all of the journalism courses run by City, University of London, with opportunities to test your skills on real stories. As well as embedding digital skills in all of City’s MA journalism programmes most courses, including the Newspaper MA, Magazine MA, International Journalism MA, Global Financial Journalism MA, and Investigative MA offer the option of also taking a Data Journalism module.

Notable digital-savvy alumni of the department include Sophie Murray-Morris, product manager of newsletters at The Guardian, Ashley Kirk, visuals editor at The Guardian, and John Burn-Murdoch, columnist and chief data reporter for the Financial Times.

However, the team at City is keen to stress it’s not just about what you’re taught, but putting it into practice. Speaking in a previous interview with Journo Resources, MA Newspaper Journalism alumni Ian Johnston says: “The main thing is don’t be afraid of making mistakes.”

Now working for the Financial Times, he adds: “You’ll learn much more from sending that pitch that isn’t that great or trying something that doesn’t sound that exciting. There are so many ways to get into this job and it’s a really rewarding career to be in.”

So what do digital journalists actually do? They still “do” journalism and attend events to pick up on stories, says James, but they’ll be expressing it in multiple ways. For example, uploading video content to TikTok and Instagram, live posting on X (formerly Twitter), blogging, building a journalism “brand”, or looking at Google Analytics to gauge audience engagement.

“Twenty years ago we were expecting print to be dead by now but it still persists, even though its digital counterpart is now the bigger aspect,” says James. “Understanding that your stories are going to be primarily consumed by digital means is essential for journalists but lots of people don’t read newspapers anymore, even online. They get their news from YouTube and Facebook and if you’re not playing in that space you’re not telling your stories.”