how do I get started in freelance photojournalism?

[LightBright]

I have been interested in the career of photojournalism for some time now. I am a 19 year old photography major student that has most of the technical down. I have taken basic photo, photography history, b & w printing, and currently finishing up a 4x5 view camera product photography class. I am planning on continuing my photo courses until I complete the classes I think I will benefit from (next fall I will be taking photo journalism classes). However I am getting tired of my time consuming classes and would like to start my career as soon as possible even before my photojournalism class, and I strongly believe that actually working in the field will be a greater learning experience than being on campus shooting for the schools news paper. My main interest in photojournalism is spot news. I picked up the book "photo journalism, The Professionals Approach, what a great book, it taught me alot! But I need to hear other people’s experiences on this topic.

One important fact about spot news journalism I learned from this book is that scanner radio's are very important. This was a surprise for me because it was so obvious but yet I overlooked it. So I will definitely buy a good scanner radio.

This summer I will buy some more gear. I already have a car with gps so I can get to the location I need. I already have a Sony a700 and a L-758 light meter, 30mm f1.4 sigma, sony 18-70 3.5-5.6 kit lens, a laptop with backup harddisk. I also have a tape recorder.
And will be soon purchasing, a monopod, a 70-210mm f4 Konica Minolta (aka beercan) lens, lots and lots of batteries and extra chargers to charge everything. Will be looking for a wide angle lens something in the 20mm zone. lots of memory cards, thinktank skin belt with skin modular parts, so that my gear doesn’t get in the way. Is there any gear I overlooked?
The book said that many photojournalists have many camera bodies, or at least two. I just want to get started so I don’t think a 2nd camera body is necessary now, Ill rather spend my money on good lenses and other stuff.
Again I want to be a spot news freelance photographer. I know for a fact that I will not be comfortable having people assign me tasks, so as a “freelance photographer” my hope is to shoot news that Interest’s me and If I feel that some of my images might cause interest and possibly make some money I want to start selling them and go from there. My big concern is this, how do I sell my images? Do I arrange for a meeting with a local news paper and other agencies and have them look at my low res images? I understand all this wont be easy but I hope I can start somewhere and build up from there.

Any advice on this topic will be greatly appreciated.

[hollis]

talk to your photography teachers at your university
I'm sure they have lots of knowledge beyond point & click.