{"id":3022,"date":"2021-03-14T13:01:05","date_gmt":"2021-03-14T17:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/?p=3022"},"modified":"2021-03-14T18:54:04","modified_gmt":"2021-03-14T22:54:04","slug":"justin-morris-how-to-navigate-the-journalism-industry-at-a-young-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/2021\/03\/14\/justin-morris-how-to-navigate-the-journalism-industry-at-a-young-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Morris: How to Navigate the Journalism Industry at a Young Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justin Morris, who graduated from Seton Hall University, has written for numerous outlets including SBNation’s Blogging the Boys\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0BrightSideSun<\/em>, FanSided’s\u00a0HoopsHabit, Our Daily Bread, Blacque Magazine <\/em>and currently covers high school sports for NJ.com.<\/p>\n

Jorie Mickens: What was the moment or when<\/em> was the moment you knew you wanted to become a journalist?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Justin Morris:<\/strong> I would say high school. I\u2019ve always had a passion for writing, but it really depended on what they allowed us to write about. If it was for a gigantic novel, you already know that\u2019s tedious stuff. But I was in a sports broadcasting class my senior year of high school, and that was dope. It was essentially the same thing as WSOU, just announcing games at a high school level. That was my first introduction to the industry. I also remember that my high school had a dude who played professional football in Germany and my teacher was asking who in the class wanted to interview him and I took it. He actually had a tryout for the Denver Broncos, his name is John Tidwell. I got an interview with him on the phone and wrote the story and it ended up being pretty good because my teacher got back to me and was saying how I needed to be working for the school\u2019s newspaper. He basically recruited me like a high school athlete. But just figuring out that I can have a substantial income, feed myself and feed my family and still enjoy myself and my life doing something I love, I told myself I was going to put everything into this because that\u2019s what I wanted to do.<\/p>\n

Mickens: You mentioned that you like sports journalism, is that what you prefer over all other forms of journalism?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morris: <\/strong>I would say yes. I prefer sports journalism because I\u2019m always paying attention to it. I probably wouldn\u2019t be paying attention as much if I wasn\u2019t working in the industry, but I remember getting up and watching old NBA highlights on ESPN classics before they took it off. I watched NBATV and every day after school I\u2019d watch \u201cAround the Horn\u201d and \u201cPardon the Interruption.\u201d So sports is what I prefer, but I\u2019ve gotten the chance to branch out and do other things. I\u2019m going to stay far away from politics, I don\u2019t want to mess up my morale or mental or anything like that. But I\u2019ve been able to do some spiritual writing that I believe can help people. I\u2019m not going to push any type of religion on anybody, but I have a viewpoint and being able to express that in my words is really cool. I can focus primarily on sports journalism while at the same time be able to branch out and talk about other stuff. Sports journalists have a lot they can bring to the table.<\/p>\n

Mickens: Do you think it is important for journalists to be multi-faceted?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morris: <\/strong>It definitely helps. Even within sports, I\u2019ve traveled down a lot of avenues and a lot of people have told me that doing a lot will stick out more than doing just one thing. By branching yourself out whether it be television, radio, podcasting, writing, those are all things that will help you get your foot in the door and make you stand out among everyone else. But you have to find your niche, find what you\u2019re good at and what you like to do and then go from there. But I would definitely say try not to be one-dimensional.<\/p>\n

Mickens: You worked at WSOU, The Setonian and Pirate TV, if you had to pick a favorite, do you have one?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morris:<\/strong> Who\u2019s going to hear this interview? Hahaha! But I\u2019d probably have to say WSOU because the community and the familial bond that exists there. I think they do a really good job of keeping people ingratiated. Before COVID-19, people would go to the station just to hang out all the time. Pirate TV was cool, but a lot of those people worked at WSOU as well. But I would say WSOU because of the family-type vibes that they try and keep and at the end of the day, the people that I met there are going to be a part of my life for the remainder of my life.<\/p>\n

Mickens: Do you have a favorite assignment or story that you worked on during your time at Seton Hall?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morris:<\/strong> Yeah, when I got to interview Stephen A. Smith that was really cool. I always wondered, and I feel like a lot of people do, if that\u2019s really him on TV. If he\u2019s really that flamboyant and brash and bold and everything. He\u2019s pretty much like that. But being able to pick his brain and see how he got to where he is and also the fact that he is Black, he\u2019s notorious for his work with HBCUs and uplifting Black people. He\u2019s not a person that got his platform and said, \u2018I\u2019m just going to keep this for myself.\u2019 You can tell he loves to give back. But he gave me some advice and elaborated on what it took for him to get to that point.<\/p>\n

Mickens:<\/strong> I think if I\u2019m remembering correctly, that was the first story of yours that I ever read. It might\u2019ve been two years ago, around the time he got his big contract with ESPN. That was a nice piece you did. But you recently joined NJ.com as a sports reporter, is that right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morris: Yeah.<\/p>\n

Mickens: Could you elaborate on that hiring process and how you intend to continue building on your career?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morris:<\/strong> The hiring process was submitting the application and a cover letter. The cover letter obviously has to be good, but it should be yourself. I think you should be yourself when you\u2019re writing. Inserting your own vibe into it. But I also sent in some samples and they got back to me and told me they were interested. I had to take a writing test and they gave me like an hour and a prompt to write a story and I guess they liked that. They told me in 2020 I was going to get the job, but they wanted to wait until some more sports seasons started up because they didn\u2019t have any work to give people and they weren\u2019t going to pay me for nothing. But that was really cool, I felt really blessed to get that. I talked to a lot of people who said it took them a long time to get a job after college, and with COVID and the way the environment is now, I just felt really blessed. And going forward, I think it\u2019s really important to embellish yourself in the moment and be appreciative of what\u2019s going on. I\u2019m trying to do my best at NJ.com, reporting on everything that\u2019s happening sports-wise, for them I\u2019m doing a lot of high school sports and there are a lot of teams here. And I\u2019ve realized that there are a lot of die-hard people in terms of high school sports. But I\u2019m always looking for my next step so I\u2019m trying to find a balance of working at NJ.com and going toward that next level. I want to get to the top of the sports journalism game so that might be CBS or Fox or whatever, so I\u2019m going to do what I can here because dominating and trying to be the best that I can be here will help me get there.<\/p>\n

Mickens: Last question, I know you\u2019re still young yourself, but do you have any advice for aspiring journalists and finding their way in the industry.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morris: <\/strong>I think being at Seton Hall has helped me connect with a lot of people, and that\u2019s what I would say, build up your network. The old adage of \u2018It\u2019s not what you know but who you know,\u2019 but obviously you can\u2019t have an empty brain, you have to know some things. But try and build your network up and make connections because that\u2019s really important. Also be yourself. At the end of the day, you have to know there are a lot of talented people in this industry and you shouldn\u2019t try and compete with other people but rather hone in on what your craft is and that’s what will get you places at the end of the day. We all have our own styles, so I think trying to perfect who you are in your own craft is really important. Also you have to keep at it. You have to be patient because you\u2019re not going to get to wherever you\u2019re going to go overnight. Put your all into everything you do whether that be a podcast, an article, a broadcast, don\u2019t take that lightly because you never know who\u2019s going to be listening. But yeah I would say those three things: connections, being yourself and then making sure whatever you do from a work standpoint, you\u2019re doing your best.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justin Morris, who graduated from Seton Hall University, has written for numerous outlets including SBNation’s Blogging the Boys\u00a0and\u00a0BrightSideSun, FanSided’s\u00a0HoopsHabit, Our Daily Bread, Blacque Magazine and currently covers high school sports for NJ.com. Jorie Mickens: What was the moment or when was the moment you knew you wanted to become a journalist? Justin Morris: I would…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4985,"featured_media":3024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4985"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3022"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3053,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3022\/revisions\/3053"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}