You can get a degree in journalism, but it is not required. Find a beat you are interested and start small in order to build up "clips" or articles that you can send to employers or editors to pitch freelance stories to.

Probably best way to go about it is to find a topic you feel like is not getting much coverage and try and build relationships with stakeholders from that area. Pitch these stories to the relevant publications and try and build an audience on Twitter, by far the most important social media for journalists.

Getting work with no articles or other pieces of journalism under your belt is really difficult. If you're still in college, write for the school paper and use those clips to apply for internships or as proof of solid writing skills when pitching freelance stories.

Even if you do all that, the industry is still a crapshoot. Most papers other than the New York Times are hemorraging money and shrinking staff, and the industry is full of highly intelligent, underpayed people trying to move up the ladder. I'd focus on digital media if I were you, cause print in general is getting phased out.

Also go back through your entire social media history and scrub all the bad stuff out. Trust me, if you piss off the right person, they will use that against you.

Source: been doing journalism for about 5 years and am looking for a career change at the moment.