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If you’re looking for a job in journalism today, be prepared to see plenty of job openings that prominently feature social media experience. It has gotten to the point where even long-time legacy media brands are throwing caution to the wind and openly telling candidates that they want experience with TikTok. Moreover, they don’t just want you to report the story – they also want you to help in making that story go viral.
New job role: social media reporter
Take, for example, the latest job opening from Bloomberg: social media reporter. Given Bloomberg’s expertise in finance and all things Wall Street, you’d think that experience in this area would be a foundational requirement for the job. Instead, the role is for someone to cover TikTok, social commerce, and the new influencer economy. Thus, the best experience is previous work with social media companies or Silicon Valley startups. And, oh yeah, they’re fully expecting you to have plenty of familiarity with TokTok, Meta, X, and Snap.
Of course, you could argue that since “the beat” (an old newspaper term!) involves social media and social commerce, there’s nothing particularly peculiar about asking someone to have a strong social media background, However, this requirement is increasingly becoming par for the course, given how important social media now is to the legacy media. In an era when many members of Generation Z are now getting their news almost entirely from social media, it’s important for any reporter to package up content in a form that they will engage with.
The social media superstar
Things get interesting, of course, when companies are forced to decide between two very talented candidates for the same journalism role. One candidate might have a strong journalism background, and perhaps even a degree from a respected journalism program. The other might have a completely unconventional academic or work background, but tens of thousands of followers and fans. Which one do you pick?
In the old days, the choice would have been obvious: you pick the person with the conventional background. This is the person who has put in all the work on building a career, and someone you can trust to be a star journalist. But in the new era of media, when big legacy giants are failing left and right, companies are increasingly deciding to go with the social media superstar. Forget about the fancy academic degree, and don’t worry that the person spends an obsessive amount of time on Facebook, Meta, X, or TikTok. After all, that social media activity is just going to drive more engagement for your media brand.
And, for that social media expertise, you can expect to be expensively compensated. The Bloomberg social reporter role says it pays anywhere from $90,000 to $120,000 annually. Of course, the job is based in Silicon Valley, so that’s not nearly as much as it sounds at first when you take into account the cost of living. But it’s still impressive that someone armed with purely social media skills and not much else could theoretically land a prestigious job paying six figures.
Skills if you’re looking to get into journalism
How times have changed! As a result, you might want to think about upgrading your skill set if you’re looking to get into journalism. This is no time to worry about learning the finer points of The Chicago Manual of Style, or about adding a nice little course in investigative journalism to your resume. Instead, focus on positioning yourself as an up-and-coming influencer in the world of social media.
When it comes to presenting your candidacy in the best light, be ready to talk about all the times you helped to make a story go viral. And when it comes to new certifications and skills, choose any that prominently features video-centric social media platforms such as TikTok or Instagram.
That might sound cynical, but that’s the reality in today’s media world. Journalism has gone full-on social media reporting, and there’s simply no way to get around that fact.
