Ryan Singel

   Ryan Singel Tells The Truth 

     Contextly founder Ryan Singel, former writer for Wired Magazine and creator of Threat Level blog, a privacy and security site on the National Security Agency, shared his top tricks for breaking into journalism with students at his alma  mater City Collegeof San Francisco, the place where it all started 15 years ago.

Just do it. 

     His message was simple, just do it, jump in, follow your interest, stay open to process, and let your curiosity be a guide. More importantly develop an eye for what your readers would be interested in."Start to see stories everywhere"

Singel’s top ten tricks of the journalism trade:

1. Lean when not to nod.
2. Pretend to be really dumb and get all the pods of information. Find people who will show you the territory.  Loop back to those people when you know more. Learn more than you will use.
3. Pick up the phone and call. People like to talk. Don’t email. It is too easy to ignore.
4. Develop a reader’s eyes for what would be interesting. Start to see stories everywhere.
5. Trust the process to pick up what is necessary as you go along.
6. Think of every email, posting and memo as a postcard as an opportunity to build your reputation.
7. Check Twitter often. Follow other journalist on Twitter.
8.  Start making connections on Twitter, at meet ups and the Society of Professional Journalists. Find people who share your readers’ interests.
9.  Fully encrypt you hard drive. Remember your password.
10. Use your mailing list for developing a blog following. Share new posts.