Journalist Jordan Green

At only 21 years of age, Jordan Green already has many accomplishments as a journalist. The Alva resident is a reporter for the Blackwell Journal Tribune, a weekly community newspaper.

Green is also a student at Northwestern, and at the college he is the editor-in-chief of the newspaper and has held that position for about a year and a half. He has interned at the Oklahoman for a couple of summers as well. 

Green stopped by the Journalism and Broadcasting Program at OCCC in mid May to discuss his career. 

“I’m on fire for journalism. It is what gets me going in the morning,” Green said. “Once the news bug bits, you stay infected.” 

This is true for many young journalists. 

The love of writing, reporting and finding the truth is not a common combination. Many students who take journalism classes often get burned out and drop the course before they can finish it. 

However, the true reporters, the ones who will stop at nothing to uncover the truth, are the ones who make it until the end. 

Those are the journalists who make a difference and reveal the big stories. It is hard not to be moved by journalism, with all the people you can meet and the places you can travel. 

Starting out as a journalist is difficult. Trying to get a job or even an internship can seem like a daunting task. 

“The best thing you can ever do in this field is try to create an opportunity,” Green said.  

That is how Green got into the biz. He noticed errors in his local paper when he was a sophomore in high school. 

So he went to his local paper and said, “I would like to be your next newspaper editor.” 

A staff member there told him to come back next week to get started working as an intern. 

What Green did there was look over the stories to see if they had any grammatical errors. 

After a couple of weeks, he wrote a feature story. The position was a huge commitment. 

Green worked “about twenty hours a week. Gave up lunches, evenings, [and] weekends. Wrote stories, copy edited all the time, and don’t regret a bit of it. Because after a year and a half that led to me getting money to work there.” 

This is what most journalists do. They apply for internships or freelancing to get their foot in the door, so they can work their way up to getting a paying job through building their portfolio. 

It isn’t easy, and not always preferable, but if you love writing and you love the job, then it’s worth it. 

Applying for internships and working at local newspapers is extremely beneficial to someone’s career. Not only do they look good on job applications, but they provide great experience. 

When Green went to Northwestern, he was “given the editors job because I [already] worked in the industry for two and a half years at the time.” 

It is uncommon for a freshman to be given the managing editor job on a college newspaper. Usually, the top job goes to the senior members of the university. However, since Green already had prior industry experience, he was the most qualified for the position, which allowed him to be higher up in the newspaper. 

Aspiring journalists should look up to Green. He was a sophomore in high school when he got his start in journalism. Also, he didn’t sit around waiting for an opportunity to come to him, instead he went out and chased it. 

Green looked for a way to get involved in the reporting world and has been in the business since. 

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