You want to make it big in journalism today? Then make it about you.

That’s right. Make it about you rather than the actual story you’re covering, the publication or news outlet you work for, or — God forbid — your audience.

Call it the Kanye West Guide to Journalistic Advancement.

Yes, it’s egocentric — even narcissistic. But in a environment where legacy news organizations offer little in the way of job security, and where everyone under 30 who’s not famous seems to see themselves in a perpetual state of “pre-celebrity,” it’s only natural that individual journalists would increasingly view themselves as brands that need to be nurtured. Brands that demand shelf space in the form of TV face time, Internet followings and other career enhancers.

This “personal branding” approach to journalism has certainly worked like a charm for Julia Allison, the young journalist who first attracted attention with her affair with then-Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford, Jr., which some claim helped to cost him a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2006.

Now, at 26, she’s the toast of New York as a magazine writer and on-air commentator on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, CNBC, E! and elsewhere. Although ridiculed by the New York Press as a “Faming Asshole,” Julia’s template for success is obviously an effective one.

For that formula in a nutshell, check out her blog. Or her photoblog. Or details of her romantic breakups (including e-mail exchanges) on other blogs. Or just read Gawker, where her every self-promotional effort is lovingly chronicled.

I’m sure the journalism and communications students I occasionally speak with are far more impressed by Julia’s roadmap to success than any drivel I can tell them about the Five Ws, Edward R. Murrow, and the founding fathers’ vision of the role of the fourth estate.

Like it or not, Julia’s dream is their dream today.

Forget the Five Ws. Today’s journalism is increasingly about one letter — “I.”

I should add that I don’t blame Julia for her fame. She’s a talented writer and obviously a driven person. I can’t begrudge her success any more than I can blame Britney Spears for the amount of coverage she receives.

She doesn’t control it, after all. The rest of us do.

Since we’ve written more than 2,200 posts over the past three years, we like to occasionally repost a few of the more evergreen items for our newer readers. Here are 10 posts you may find of value on a topic near and dear to our hearts: the journalist/flack relationship.

• Why Journalists Are Right to Suspect That PR People Are Liars
• Why Journalists Actually Prefer PR People to Be Liars
• Why Journalists Think They’re Better Than PR People — But Aren’t
• How Journalists Get Better Stories By Lying
• How Journalists Butter Up Their Interview Subjects
• Forbidden Love: PR Consultants and Journalists
• Trend: Reporters Changing Careers to PR
• Do PR Execs Avoid Hiring Ex-Journalists?
• Where Journalists and Marketers Collide: Capitalization
• More Capitalization Issues
• Why I Love Journalists

G’head — curl up by the warm glow of your laptop and enjoy.

A couple of months ago, someone doing media relations for me got screwed over by a TV reporter. Here’s how it went:

1. We wanted the reporter to do a preview story on a consumer event that one of our clients was sponsoring. The event was targeted to a particular kind of consumer within this reporter’s beat.

2. The reporter expressed interest and said she wanted to interview one of the consumers who would be coming to the show. She laid out a set of criteria for the kind of person she wanted to talk with.

3. Our media relations person said, “No problem, I’m on it!” and set about giving the reporter what she wanted. Since the event hadn’t yet occurred, you can imagine how difficult it might be to find a consumer who was planning to come to an event before the event. Particularly given the reporter’s criteria, it wasn’t easy.

4. Lo and behold, our person scored! She found the perfect candidate for the reporter’s story, which obviously would be a great hook for the reporter’s preview of our client’s event.

5. The reporter was excited to learn that our person had found the perfect interview subject for her. She apparently had been looking for this kind of consumer for some time with no luck. The reporter went to the consumer’s home and interviewed her for more than an hour.

6. When our media relations person followed up to find out when the story would run, the reporter said she “wasn’t sure” if she would be able to do a preview of the event. “What do you mean?” our person asked. “Didn’t the interview go well?”

7. It did go well, the reporter replied. Only she really had wanted the interview for a future story she was planning, and just didn’t have time to do something before the show. In fact, when the story did run, it wouldn’t be mentioning our client at all.

I know how journalists can be with PR people – and I know that PR people sometimes deserve it. But this is ridiculous.

I want to out this $&%#@ so badly I can’t tell you. But I guess I’ll settle for sharing this little story in hopes that it will comfort you the next time it happens to you.