Benjamin Jackson
Verified
(He/Him)
As seen in:
Yorkshire Evening Post,
MSN UK,
Nature,
Mashable,
The Atlantic,
Flipboard,
The Next Web,
Edinburgh Evening News,
The Scotsman,
Royal Society of Chemistry,
BioRxiv
and
Covers:
Concerts, music, film, live events, festivals
Doesn't Cover:
Politics, religion, sport
Journalist for Yorkshire Evening Post. Pop culture junkie. "Fountain of weird, useless knowledge" - school teachers. Opinions my own and own alone.
Interview
What was your first job as a journalist?
Interviewing a New Zealand duo called The Bengal Lights. True story - I ended up marrying one of the members.
Have you ever used a typewriter?
When I was knee-high to a grasshopper!
How is social media changing news?
It's making it hard to determine what is real and what is not, and the dissemination of a lot of rumours through social media doesn't help.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Spider Jerusalem from the "Transmetropolitan" comic book series.
What does it mean to be a journalist?
I get a real sense of enjoyment from writing about pop culture, it means that all the "junk" my teachers told me I consumed has come to good use.
What's the funniest news-related #hashtag you've seen?
That would be for Susan Boyle's album release party or
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
I prefer getting an email more than over the phone, though I've been known to have people "slide into my DM's" for pitches.
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
I use Google Docs, a CMS system dedicated to filing stories and the odd bit of Photoshop to jazz up some images if required.
What's your favorite social network?
I've been getting back into Twitter... sorry, "X," recently so I guess by default that's my favourite social network?
Who do you wish followed you?
Mark Kermode if it relates to film and Dave Grohl if it relates to music. Because it's Dave Grohl.
Why did you become a journalist?
I joke "to meet celebrities," but I do enjoy writing. I found I was good at it, so why not study it more and here I am.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Write what you are passionate about; it will always feel a lot easier and more importantly, it shows when your audience will reads it
When's the best time to pitch you?
Please feel free to pitch to me between 8am - 5pm most weekdays as I'll be in front of my work laptop.
What's the best pitch you ever got?
"Do you want to talk to Henry Rollins? Don't look up any of his interviews while in Black Flag and let me know if you're interested."
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
I got asked to review a demo by a musician that was all lo-fi bedroom punk about Harry Potter. I couldn't do it.
What's your favorite drink?
Coffee - and a lot of it of course!
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
In front of another laptop, sadly.
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
I enjoy reading Sight and Sound, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Soompi and The Wire: Adventures in Sound and Music.
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
That it's "totally easy" to review a film or album; some things you hate still might have some merit for someone out there.
Would you like to take the Muck Rack Interview?
Create a Muck Rack profile.