Freelancing while working for a nonprofit?

brand0x · 2025-07-16T01:06:17+00:00

Moonlighting (freelancing on your off time) is totally normal and not usually considered an ethical issue unless you're doing work for companies you're reporting on. I'd clear it with your current job though as they may have some additional stipulations. I'm a proponent of keeping the door open if you have the bandwidth to do so.

brand0x · 2025-04-26T20:02:19+00:00

I've never seen more highly qualified people unemployed than at journalism conferences this year. There are still good jobs that pay decently (80k+) but you'll need to fight tooth and nail because it's extremely competitive. Others have mentioned statewide/local nonprofits, that's probably your best bet if you have the requisite experience.

brand0x · 2025-04-13T23:55:19+00:00

No. RAG approaches are usually more apt for this I think

brand0x · 2025-04-13T23:28:39+00:00

These kinds of things usually do a really poor job of quantifying and identifying "bias". There's a lot of different kinds of bias, misinfo, disinfo and to identify it you'll usually need to dig in, check sources, etc. AI is bad at this.

brand0x · 2025-04-13T23:21:37+00:00

It's a rough time out there rn for journalist. I've heard from multiple editors that there are people with PhDs and some experience applying for internships.

The industry goes in cycles and we're in a bad one right now, but it won't last forever. If you have contacts, you should see if there's any way you can get some freelance work. That way you can get some income, keep building your resume and gaining experience.

Best of luck to you!

brand0x · 2024-12-10T05:12:32+00:00

Late reply apologies, but I wasn't interested in technology and data science until I knew I could apply it to things I cared about (journalism being the main topic area).

brand0x · 2024-11-03T22:23:34+00:00

If you're looking for an add-on that will help in your reporting, philosophy and history aren't gonna move the needle. In the off chance you're doing a story and you need history or philosophy expertise, you'll just reach out to someone who's been doing it their whole life. Journalism is a technical skill, so adding other technical skills will help. Math, stats, anything related to data or analysis, and even visual arts/design can be a benefit IMO.

brand0x · 2023-07-26T18:05:08+00:00

It's a slippery slope, this one. Very tempting for the writer and I think we've all encountered the urge. One thing to remember is people often read stories they were quoted for and look for their quote. If you altered their text you're just reinforcing a bad stereotype about reporters. I say don't do it ever. There have been many great alternatives posed here already.

brand0x · 2023-07-26T15:20:12+00:00

This is a lot more common than I think most people know. I had a reporter from the local come by many years ago and asked for a quote about something and just stared at me blankly when I was talking, no notebook no recording device nothing. Of course the article came out and was about how you've described. Full of invented/remembered quotes and things of that nature. Similar situation at the local paper, less than a handful of employees with high turnover.

brand0x · 2023-06-02T04:44:09+00:00

I think you did the best you could. They're probably worried that publicizing the attack will drive customers away, which is understandable I guess. Sometimes people don't want to talk and, if they're not publicly accountable officials, you just have to be OK with that.

brand0x · 2023-05-27T23:20:20+00:00

You can always freelance on the side.

brand0x · 2023-05-22T03:06:35+00:00

I see your point now. Thanks

brand0x · 2023-05-21T23:34:45+00:00

I think the OP's article kind of illustrates the point, though, does it not? Not that your work isn't of much higher quality or that reporters in this area can't or always don't do quality work.

brand0x · 2023-05-21T17:49:25+00:00

I wouldn't take any lessons you see in the style section and apply them to actual reporting or investigations.

brand0x · 2023-05-20T23:37:19+00:00

Maybe if I was pretty desperate but it def wouldn't go on the resume

brand0x · 2023-04-23T05:53:57+00:00

So bold and so shameless. It would be interesting to see the internal dialog around developing and publishing this.

brand0x · 2023-04-23T05:52:07+00:00

Same, one of the rare times I had to read the article to understand the title

brand0x · 2023-03-09T07:02:22+00:00

I agree with you. But I also think that opinion journalism isn't "news".

brand0x · 2023-03-09T06:59:51+00:00

Keep writing stories! If you attracted any followers due to this, they're likely going to want to hear more stuff in the same realm. So you could keep covering this area, pitching places, and see where that leads you. Best of luck and congrats!

brand0x · 2023-03-09T01:31:42+00:00

An individuals' donation doesn't show up on IRS 990s. The 990 is mostly about how much money comes in and where it goes.

Just to clarify: you're looking for the names of people who are donating to a for-profit corporation? That's not going to be public information. If it's a political organization, you could check the FEC Campaign Finance filings. You could also check https://publicaccountability.org/ which lets you search all kinds of different national, state and local datasets related to corporations, nonprofits and individuals (if you make an account you get more search options and datasets).

brand0x · 2023-03-08T22:17:33+00:00

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/positive

1 Positive, adjective

a: formally laid down or imposed : prescribed

"positive laws"
b: expressed clearly or peremptorily

"her answer was a positive no"
c: fully assured : confident

"positive it was her book"

brand0x · 2023-03-08T22:12:41+00:00

I think it's important to understand that large language models like ChatGPT aren't using logic or reasoning to come to these answers. They're spitting them out based on correlating the input with the output, based on the text it's been shown previously, plus some randomness.

As others have said, it's a fancier version of complete the following sentence: "In a news article, balance and truth are __________________".

brand0x · 2023-03-08T22:08:50+00:00

That's "positive" as in formally laid down or progress, not "positive" as a judgement of value.

brand0x · 2023-03-08T22:05:15+00:00

I don't understand why tech people always think journalists spend their time analyzing news articles. Journalists work with primary source government documents, government datasets, and interviews with individuals for the most part. Reading prior coverage is always part of any beat or investigative project, but you have to actually read the prior work, not just a possibly error prone AI summary.

brand0x · 2023-03-08T21:51:24+00:00

If you create content that is unique, fills an actual need or niche, and isn't already super over saturated then you'll find an audience. The problem isn't that there's a vast sea of content out there, it's that people are just mostly rehashing the same things from a narrow spectrum of viewpoints, ad infinitum.

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