Does Distance Learning Journalism Work?
All about my experiences of becoming a journalist, my alternative route into the career and my training. Click on the image above to read the full article.
I would love any feedback on the article and to hear from other aspiring journalists – please do get in touch by commenting below.
AbsolutelyLucy 
Hi I’m the girl from twitter. Just wanted to ask a few things. A) did u feel like u got enough support from your online tutors or would u have preferred to have been in a classroom? B) much like u financially its not viable for me to do the nctj conventionally do u think it would affect my job applications if my nctj was done through distance learning? C) is learning shorthand as scary as it sounds?
Thanks so much
Maryam
Hi Maryam, I felt that the support was sufficient, but I am very independent anyway and prefer to do things on my own. If you need a lot of extra support and to be pushed by tutors then perhaps distance learning is not for you. You do have to be very driven. It will not affect job offers in any way, if anything it would impress prospective employers that you were self-taught. Learning shorthand is pretty scary at first but it is just a case of putting it into perspective. A good textbook (I used the standard Teeline old Standard for Journalists) will work you through the theory from the alphabet to word combinations with exercises to test you at each stage. You need to set yourself certain amounts of time to work on each section or you could drag it out forever. Once you have learnt the theory, you can teach yourself speed up to a certain point but I think you will need lessons after that – luckily working at the paper I have these paid for.
Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any more questions..