IT PRO: Blogs: Asavin Wattanajantra: Seven months in as an IT journalist

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Seven months in as an IT journalist - 20 things I’ve learned.

Posted in list, IT PRO, Security, Social Networking on July 14, 2008 at 10:56 am

Seven months in working as a Staff Writer at IT PRO… What can i say? Probably the best thing to do is in what my editor does - write a list based thing about what I’ve learned.

1 Journalists always complain about pay (especially me)

2 Some IT journalists are very strange. It’s a very incestious bunch.

3 IT journalists love getting free stuff - and won’t give it back unless prompted by the PR about fifty times.

4 Once you get a reputation in IT journalism, it’s very difficult to lose it.

5 You’re never sure if a PR is being friendly because they want you to write a story, or because they genuinely like you. I’m hoping they like me.

6 You only get back what you give.

7 Arrogance gets you nowhere.

8 I’m awful at podcasting, but I’m trying to get better.

9 I place a lot of importance in readers looking at my stories - hence I try to write good ones rather than rehashed press releases (as much as I can anyway).

10 If you give me free pints, I will drink as many as I can before the bar shuts.

11 I think IT PRO has a lot of potential, but we’re young and we’re still learning.

12 Lists are a good way of saying something if you’ve got nothing to say.

13 Facebook is the best social network and I’ve got too many drunk pics on it (that’s not directly related to IT PRO, but it seems to have happened more in the last six months).

14 I’m a reasonably decent journalist - This is pretty much my chosen career.

15 I’m really not geeky. I like tech like normal people - after a while I get bored and want to talk about something like movies or what club to go to.

16 Cycling to work is fun, and I’m glad Dennis got me a discounted bike.

17 Las Vegas is one of the maddest places I’ve ever been to. It’s like a cartoon world, but there’s no soul underneath.

18 I like writing about security, but I’m not exactly the best in practising what I preach.

19 I like free lunches.

20 I think I’ll be in tech journalism a long while yet.