For those of us who write for a living, we know how important it is, not only to know how to write or exercise your writing skills, but also building a habit of reading or taking in as much as information as you can from various sources. Only then can we become more adept in the craft of writing. That is what Katharine Wu, a journalist writing for The Open Notebook, had discovered:
“To be a good or a great writer, you also have to be a good or great reader,” says Mary-Rose Abraham, a multimedia journalist who covers agriculture, food systems, and the environment. Doing so helps ensure that you’re “keeping up with what’s already been covered in [a] story, what’s lacking, and what you need to look at next.”
Staying on top of the news makes our own stories timelier; it can inspire new and interesting angles and provide pegs for ideas that have been lying dormant for months. Regular news consumption can also be a way for journalists to tap into new sources—and to take writerly inspiration from colleagues around the world.
In her article, she gives suggestions on how one can build a healthy media diet especially for journalists whose livelihoods depended on the stories that they tell.
(Image credit: Wan Chen/Unsplash)