subject: Get Press Pass And Media Credentials From Iapp [print this page] For aspiring members of the press, media credentials lend an air of credibility. Young hopefuls eagerly apply for media credentials on their first post-college assignments. These would-be journalists must avoid making rookie mistakes like refusing to cover soft stories about human interests. Such stories are boring but one must learn where the focus button is before one can zoom into the shot. In this field, everybody must pay his or her dues.
While events taking place in public areas can be covered without a press pass, only a select few make it past the velvet ropes at private events like award shows, movie premiers, and high-roller club openings. That isnot without the press pass! Many high profile events are very exclusive and will only allow journalists with respectable media credentials. Obviously being on the list is a way around this, but if one is already on it and thus in the party, why spend one's valuable social capital being a wall flower?
In Hamburg, Germany, one can hear jostling journalists yelling their credentials, like Presseausweis" while holding up their press passes. Other countries generally require separate passes, so journalists have to carry many Ids to prove who they are and what they are doing. This practice is mostly safe and helps hosts organize events, but also blocks private citizens from covering certain things.
To some, this constitutes an infringement on free speech and the competition to gain entrance to an event is dangerous. Legitimate journalists must be organized and prepared with all Ids and media credentials necessary in order to cover private events. A journalist begins to feel like an illegal immigrant on unfriendly territory. Getting all of these things together takes time, trial, and error. Without these a journalist can travel across seas and be greeted at events by glaring security guards. Other countries aren't as polite about dealing with unwelcome guests, and a journalist in the wrong place at the wrong time without the proper identification can pay with his or her life.
Because of this need for professionalism, smart beginner journalists take time to build their organizational and networking skills. Soft human interest stories aren't as thrilling as heated political battles and celebrity scandals, but they give the good journalist a chance to network and learn. As in most careers, who you know is half the battle. In time, the breaking news and media credentials will come
