Alan Rusbridger of the Guardian spent a couple of hours recently answering questions on Reddit. One person asked how to get into journalism these days, and Rusbridger said:
Main thing is to publish. Blog, tweet, write, photograph, tweet, video, code, play around with data - or a combination of all of the above. a) it will keep your journalistic ‘muscle’ in practice. b) if you’re any good, you’ll get noticed.
And bear in mind you can do these things at other places than conventional news organisations. Many businesses, NGOs, arts organisations, public bodies, universities, etc are now publishers of extremely high quality stuff. Good places to practise your craft before moving on...
I'm guessing that he would give a similar answer--not identical, though--if someone asked how to be an effective active citizen. The basic skills or toolkit covers a good bit of the same territory, I think.