Jack Horgan Jones, an Irish Times journalist, discussed how the industry is “a people business” in an informative talk to transition-year students taking part in a journalism access programme run by The University Times.
Speaking about the expertise needed to be a journalist, he said: “The best football journalists weren’t football players.” He then stated that contacts and sources are key to a good piece of reporting and how talent is not always essential to “making it” as a journalist.
Though he describes growing up with a “silver spoon in his mouth”, he spoke of his difficulties breaking into journalism when he left college at the beginning of the financial collapse.
Horgan-Jones said that “understanding what people are doing and why” was vital in journalism, emphasising the importance of developing sources. As sources progress to a more senior level, he said, a journalist can report on topics in more depth.
Although Horgan-Jones highlighted the financial difficulties facing media organisations in recent years, he also spoke about how “no two days are the same” and also how journalism is a career for a thrillseekers – he compared the feeling that he gets from writing a piece that makes a difference to the world to a “dopamine rush”.
Bridget Galvins and Ben Norton also contributed reporting to this piece.
This piece was written by secondary students taking part in The University Times’s journalism access programme.
