I’m going to give you, the journalists of the future, some advice.

I’m going to keep it short and (hopefully) easy to remember because, if you follow these few simple rules, I have no doubt that both you — and the journalism industry as a whole — will succeed.

Why am I offering this advice? Well, because your success as a journalist matters a great deal to me. I not only want you to be successful, I want journalism itself to thrive.  Journalism has proven to be invaluable throughout our nation’s history and I want that to remain the case.

That said; there is more to reporting than shooting something with an iPhone and posting it on your Facebook page.

You, as the reporters of tomorrow, will shape our nation’s societal discourse. You will educate a country. You will provide context, depth and information. You will perform a vital public service.

You should do this to the best of your ability and cut no corners.

You can do this by adhering to the 4 A’s. So, without further ado, here’s my advice (a word that also begins with A).

1. Accurate: When you enter the real world, you will be under incredible pressure to meet deadlines and to get stories out to the public first. But, remember, wrong information fast is FAR worse than correct information slightly delayed. It only takes one wrong story for you to lose your credibility as a journalist. Check your information before you report it as fact. Your readers/viewers/listeners deserve the true story and you should expect nothing less of yourself. No matter what medium you choose to deliver your story, above all else, ensure that what you are presenting is accurate.
2. Adaptable: The tools you use to do your job today could very well be obsolete tomorrow. Journalists who only wrote print stories for newspapers now find themselves producing multimedia pieces for the web — or out of a job. You MUST stay abreast of changes in technology and learn how to use these new tools. You have to be able to deliver the news to media consumers in a way that they are willing to pay attention to. That, today, happens to be in a mobile format. Know how to produce stories for that platform. Know social media. Don’t be afraid of change — embrace it. Be ready for the next big thing and stay adaptable. Your career in the future depends upon it.
3. Aware: Be aware, as in self-aware. Know one thing: Your responsibility is to report the story, not be the story. You are not a celebrity.  You are a journalist with a sacred responsibility to objectively report the news to a population hungry for accurate and fact-based information. Stay humble and take pride in the quality of your work, not the number of times people recognize you on the street.  Additionally, on the topic of awareness, stay curious and remain aware of what’s going on around you. Pay attention to topics people are talking about on the street, find the stories nobody else is working on. Staying aware and looking for these opportunities, and taking advantage of them, will help you stay relevant.
4. Aggressive: Don’t wait for stories to come to you. If you do, you’ll be behind everybody on the street with a phone and an internet connection. Get out from behind your computer and go find a story. People aren’t always going to want to talk to you. Do your best to make them. You have to work to get the story. Passive reporters are reporters without work. Everyone and everything has a story. It is your job to tell these stories and you can only do this by staying active and aggressive.

There is so much more to being a journalist, but keeping the 4 A’s in mind will set both you and the industry on the path to success.