Letters to a Young Journalist (Art of Mentoring) [Hardcover]

Samuel G. Freedman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 28, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0465024556 | ISBN-13: 978-0465024551 | Edition: 1ST

Over the course of a thirty-year career, Samuel Freedman has excelled both at doing journalism and teaching it, and he passionately engages both of these endeavors in the pages of this book. As an author and journalist, Freedman has produced award-winning books, investigative series, opinion columns, and feature stories and has become a specialist in a wide variety of fields. As a teacher, he has shared his expertise and experience with hundreds of students, who have gone on to succeed in both print and broadcast media. In Letters to a Young Journalist, Freedman conducts an extended conversation with young journalists-from kids on the high school paper to graduates starting their first jobs. Whether he's talking about radio documentaries or TV news shows, Internet blogs, or backwater beats, shoeleather research or elegant prose, his goal is to explore the habits of mind that make an excellent journalist. It is no secret that journalism's mission is seriously imperiled these days, and Freedman's provocative ideas and fascinating stories offer students and journalists at all levels of experience wise guidance and professional inspiration.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Former New York Times reporter Freedman is a professor of journalism at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism; you'd expect this to be a book of practical tips and advice for students of the craft. It is not. Instead, Freedman has much to say about journalistic integrity, plain language and honest legwork, castigating recent malefactors like Jayson Blair, Judith Miller, and Dan Rather, and even scolding Janet Malcolm for her famous indictment of the journalist as "confidence man, preying on people's vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse." The book is partly a memoir, looking back on the author's career, partly a lament over the state of today's journalism, a bastion of "chic misanthropy" or sheeplike conformism; and partly a heads-up to youth—he despises undergraduate journalism classes, counseling wannabes to choose almost any other major in favor of practical experience on the school newspaper. Not until halfway along or so does Freedman offer specific advice. Not a journalism primer, this could be an inspirational tract alongside one. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–Freedman began his 30-year career by covering municipal meetings in northern New Jersey. He went on to write books, teach at Columbia, and become a columnist for the New York Times. Letters is not simply his reminiscences, nor is it a screed about the decline of journalism, though he lets his feelings about certain publishers be known. The book is fundamentally a manual that addresses how to be a journalist and how to succeed in the business. The authors experiences writing, reporting, and teaching allow him to compare different approaches to the newspaper business and to give suggestions for newcomers to the field. He offers valuable advice based on his experiences and the collective wisdom of his colleagues, including the need to adhere to such standards as trust, accuracy, and relevancy. Aspiring journalists can profit from this concise and purposeful guide.–Ted Westervelt, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1ST edition (March 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465024556
• ISBN-13: 978-0465024551
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #789,503 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Indispensable Handbook June 20, 2006

By Book Voice

Format:Hardcover

No, this book is not a point-by-point on "How to be a journalist." Thankfully it is so much more valuable.

If you are young and have any aspirations to serious journalism... if you have been a journalist for a long time... if you are just interested in learning what journalism is all about... you will want to own this book in hardcover.

In many respects "Letters to a Young Journalist" is no mere collection of "letters" at all but the final word on the subject.

Reading this book is like being in the presence of a master of his craft who understands both the ideals and the realities of its practice and masterfully --and honestly-- reconciles them. In doing so, Freedman makes journalistic ideals life-giving and heady and well within any journalist's reach, not simply youthful illusions to be discarded after years in the newsroom. I can imagine a well-seasoned journalist jumping up from his/her desk and wanting to go out an conquer the world one story at a time.

Freedman manages to show how by hewing to the ideals and the rigorous practice of craft, the journalist not only can do great work but can endure and love his/her profession for a lifetime. It is funny, intelligent and condenses within its modest frame a journalism school all its own. An exciting one-sitting read and a dog-eared reference book from then on.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best of journalism's traditional values, updated for a new generation June 7, 2006

By Jonathan Groner VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was a journalist for 17 years and have a son who is entering the profession (who's therefore a part of Freedman's target audience of "young journalists"), and Freedman gets it absolutely right. This brief introduction to journalism upholds all the traditional values that need to be upheld in the profession: hard work, integrity, the ability to ask the right questions and to listen to what people tell you, the importance of starting at the bottom and learning one's craft.

Most important, Freedman conveys the importance and the excitement of being a journalist. One doesn't have to cover the White House to be a success; Freedman, a former New York Times reporter who now writes books and teaches at the Columbia School of Journalism, never did that. Rather, good journalism means getting it right, telling the reader how people live day to day, what people care about, how they think and how they feel.

Freedman weighs in not only against the Jayson Blairs of the world but against any nonfiction writer who fudges the details in the interest of a better story, who uses composite characters, or who makes himself or herself the story. But he's no fuddy-duddy. The unique camaraderie of newspaper work, the late nights, the deadlines, even the rounds of drinks at seedy bars --they're all here. And he gives more than adequate thought to technology, recognizing that many of the young journalists he's addressing may be writing for Web sites rather than traditional newspapers.

And he cares about writing. Freedman argues for "a certain kind of subtle, dignified, formally correct prose against the slickness that too often passes for literary style, that grab-bag of sentence fragments, cliches, and elaborate metaphors." He quotes a colleague: "When the reporter in you is finished, then the writer in you has to lock the reporter out of the room. And when the writer in you is finished, then the editor in you has to lock the writer out of the room."

All told, this is an indispensable book for anyone who's starting out as a journalist.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Freedman's Book Throws You a Life Jacket to Save Yourself July 22, 2009

By Wilbert Chinchilla

Format:Hardcover

As an accomplished professor, journalist and author, Samuel G. Freedman's book about being a young journalist confirmed and demolished the ideas of beginning a journalism career. He confirmed many things since his aspirations began young (which reflects my situation) and demolished the idea of an easy lifestyle (the romanticized idea of journalism). Among the rubble, Freedman is also building the early lessons of working for a local paper; the stepping stone of every newspaper journalist. With woes Freedman rebuttals with success -- during the early process of his life as journalist. The biggest gains from this book is the underused journalism jargon. Instead of the inverted pyramid, you receive tactics of a different form that can be added to your arsenal of writing tools. With biographical epiphanies given to this young journalist, one can see why Freedman writes for the NY Times. The unpredictable journey is about to begin and before you can make a foolish mistake, Freedman's book throws you a life jacket to save yourself. But as a young journalist, you will still need to tread water for a long time where some may drown.