Lists are always popular online, but this one by Paul Bradshaw on how to be a journalism student is useful too.

Top of the list is “Read the news.” This echoes what we tell our students at the UBC School of Journalism. As an incentive, we test the students on their knowledge of current affairs in a weekly news quiz, which is run more as a TV game show than as a serious test.

As Mindy McAdams commented on the list, curiosity is key. To succeed as a journalist, you have to engage with the world with a desire to find out something new.

I would make one addition to the list and that is flexibility. Today’s journalism students are entering an industry in transition. The likelihood of spending your entire career working just in newspapers or television are slim. Instead, today’s journalism students need to be able to adapt to changing circumstances and news demands, working across print, audio, video or online.

At the start of term, I ask my students to list the qualities they think they need to succeed as a journalist. This year, flexibility was up there with traditional skills associated with journalism.