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News & ArtsMonday, October 19, 2009
Media Who Wants To Be A Journalist?
Posted by Eli Sanders on Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 5:03 PM
I've been meaning to start this up for a while, and today, which brings the announcement that the New York Times is cutting 100 newsroom jobs, seems a good time.
Every week here at The Stranger, we get e-mails from aspiring journalists who want to be part of what we do. The rate of incoming e-mail hasn't seemed to decrease even as the journalism business has done a face-plant (maybe the continued interest has something to do with this). But after a while, one begins to wonder: What are these people thinking?
So I've begun sending e-emails back to these aspiring journalists, politely thanking them for their interest and then asking them exactly that question:
Given all that's going on—newspapers closing, magazines disappearing, writing staffs being downsized everywhere—why do you people still want to be journalists?
I'm going to post some of their response here on Slog, starting with this one:
I still want to be a journalist because it's the only thing that makes me happy. I've always wanted to be a writer. So becoming a print journalist was an easy decision. But don't tell me that just because an industry is downsizing, I can't do what I want. That's mean. Why should we (new journalists) suffer because people won't buy advertising or subscribe to the print edition? If anything, we will figure it out. We have to.I didn't become a journalist to make money and if I did, then I shouldn't be a journalist. Sure it's tough not having a great job right now. But right now, while I'm young, I can deal with tough. I don't have children and I can just focus on working. So I keep working . Even though newspapers are closing and magazines are downsizing that doesn't mean journalists will be gone. Besides, as every good journalist knows, not everything is always as it seems.
(I'm 23, graduated in May 2009 from the University of Nevada, Reno with a journalism and political science degree.)
Thank you,
1
My heart goes out to these kids. Because every good journalist comes to learn that sometimes, if you dig past what you find at first, some things actually do turn out to be just what they seem.
Hang in there.
Hang in there.
2
in that you keep a journal, you're a journalist!
i ask the same question of all the architecture students who visit our office - what are you thinking?
i ask the same question of all the architecture students who visit our office - what are you thinking?
3
I hear they need journalists in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Mind you, you might be held for ransom, tortured for years, and your family bankrupted before you're let go, all to report on the Taliban who didn't attack us on 9-11.
Mind you, you might be held for ransom, tortured for years, and your family bankrupted before you're let go, all to report on the Taliban who didn't attack us on 9-11.
7
Barbara Ehrenreich has a new book about how much damage it does to send 23 year olds out into the world with the belief drilled into their heads by our entire educational establishment that all it takes is a little pluck and everything will work out. And don't tell them they're fooling themselves. That's mean.
8
Everyone should study what they love and what they think is interesting, coupled with something that is at least somewhat marketable. I think a lot of journalism students would be English - creative writing majors but they're still coasting on the idea that a BA in journalism will land them a job. So far from the truth. PR is the way to go if you want to be a writer and ever hope to earn a living. There will be jobs in that field when the economy recovers, unlike straight-up Journalism.
But who am I to talk? I have a B.A. in Spanish, PR and Political Science and it's not doing me too many favors in this economy.
But who am I to talk? I have a B.A. in Spanish, PR and Political Science and it's not doing me too many favors in this economy.
9
Enumclaw Eli, did you read this:
"Ari L. Goldman, a professor of journalism at Columbia, says basic skills like accuracy and fairness are more important than ever at a time when inexperienced reporters are rushing to post news updates on the Web, often with little editorial oversight."
This applies to you too.
"Ari L. Goldman, a professor of journalism at Columbia, says basic skills like accuracy and fairness are more important than ever at a time when inexperienced reporters are rushing to post news updates on the Web, often with little editorial oversight."
This applies to you too.
10
Anyone can be a journalist...but these people want to be paid to be journalists.
Be a journalist. Write a blog. Get a job at Wal*Mart or Wall Street and write about it.
Be a journalist. Write a blog. Get a job at Wal*Mart or Wall Street and write about it.
11
CHRIST what babies, "But don't tell me that just because an industry is downsizing, I can't do what I want. That's mean. " WHAAA WHAAA I want to do what I WANT to do. WHAA WHAA. I understand many industries are having trouble dealing with the over inflated egos of the "young" workers these days.
12
"But don't tell me that just because an industry is downsizing, I can't do what I want."
Of course you can do anything you want. Don't act like the world owes you a living because you're doing what you want, though. Even if your parents paid for a shiny new degree. That's fucking stupid and will get you nowhere.
Of course you can do anything you want. Don't act like the world owes you a living because you're doing what you want, though. Even if your parents paid for a shiny new degree. That's fucking stupid and will get you nowhere.
13
"Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible"
janet malcolm
janet malcolm
14
They're all trying to get on a ship that isn't sinking. you're one. now if only you'd drop that whole expensive "put it on paper" pretense...
16
I think Clarissa Leon can start a nice one-page newsletter at the group home she should be living in, because Clarissa Leon is very obviously a moron.
17
You guys are all assholes. Clarissa can make it work - even if it sucks and is hard.
Sounds like none of you ever had dreams, and if you did, they sure didn't work out for you.
Keep working at it Clarissa, and stay debt free till you manage to land a good job. You can do it.
Sounds like none of you ever had dreams, and if you did, they sure didn't work out for you.
Keep working at it Clarissa, and stay debt free till you manage to land a good job. You can do it.
18
My father tried to discourage first my English major, and then my transer to J school where I encountered a professor who warned us, "90 percent of you won't find jobs in Journalism, even in PR."
I was paying my own way through and that ticked me off enough that I went out and found a paid internship at a national magazine, and dropped out of J school to keep it.
Magazines were dying then, too, as was print, but I worked in myriad varieties of print for over three decades.
Never made a lot of money, but hey, I was supposed to do something I hated instead?
Fuck all the naysayers Clarissa, find a way to do what you want.
I was paying my own way through and that ticked me off enough that I went out and found a paid internship at a national magazine, and dropped out of J school to keep it.
Magazines were dying then, too, as was print, but I worked in myriad varieties of print for over three decades.
Never made a lot of money, but hey, I was supposed to do something I hated instead?
Fuck all the naysayers Clarissa, find a way to do what you want.
19
What happened to the letters from the unemployment line series? I always wondered what happened with all those people.
20
All this raises a larger question: what th hell are young people supposed to do these days? Given Depression-era unemployment and underemployment, going to school/back to school seems like an okay option, especially on the parents' dime if they can. A couple majors (engineering, hard sciences) still pave the way for jobs pretty easily but there isn't much else out there. Too many shrinking fields and too many older workers unable/unwilling to retire.
So should these grads have stayed away from school and tried their luck as uneducated young workers in this economy?
So should these grads have stayed away from school and tried their luck as uneducated young workers in this economy?
21
@19
Advertisers didn't like those reports. They reminded people of the economy. Eli was told to stop.
Advertisers didn't like those reports. They reminded people of the economy. Eli was told to stop.
23
I think it was brave of Clarissa Leon to write back to that response. You go where your talents are, and make it work. I doubt the journalists who are successful today would change their direction if they were in the position this younger generation is in.
24
@20, How about a trade school? Plumbers and Electricians make way more money than most J-school grads ever will. And having a "real job" doesn't mean you never get to write, or do anything creative.
I've never understood why so many people think the only option available without a 4+ year University degree is working at Wal-mart or McDonald's.
As for Clarissa, the whole "If I wanted payment for the services I provide, I shouldn't be doing them" attitude is not only bullshit, it's what killed print in the first place and is quickly strangling internet publishing. The job market is in the shitter because too many people already gave it away for free, sweetheart.
I am curious though - if she didn't want to make money being a journalist, how was she planning on paying off those college loans? Perhaps she had a "Plucky Can-do Spirit Scholarship," or a grant from the Pollyanna Foundation for Denying the Truth in Front of Your Face?
(for the record, I'm a former freelance writer married to a former magazine editor)
I've never understood why so many people think the only option available without a 4+ year University degree is working at Wal-mart or McDonald's.
As for Clarissa, the whole "If I wanted payment for the services I provide, I shouldn't be doing them" attitude is not only bullshit, it's what killed print in the first place and is quickly strangling internet publishing. The job market is in the shitter because too many people already gave it away for free, sweetheart.
I am curious though - if she didn't want to make money being a journalist, how was she planning on paying off those college loans? Perhaps she had a "Plucky Can-do Spirit Scholarship," or a grant from the Pollyanna Foundation for Denying the Truth in Front of Your Face?
(for the record, I'm a former freelance writer married to a former magazine editor)
25
This woman can write grammatically correct sentences and present "facts" about why she wants to be a journalist "it's the only thing that makes me happy" and that's about it. Certainly, she is an adequate cookie-cutter graduate of the Jschool system.
Her letter appears to display middle-school level critical thinking skills (Dan Savage is "mean" for pointing out that the her desired field is at death's door and she shouldn't suffer just because, uh, there are no jobs for her) and an entire lack of knowledge of ANY historical context to the field of journalism and how it's gotten to the state it is in today- which is exactly the type of graduate most schools strive to create in the world of corporate-owned conglomerate media. But I guess it says something that she wrote in to The Stranger?
I suggest to Clarissa (and everybody) to go read The Problem of the Media by Robert McChesney:
"A commitment to anything remotely resembling bona fide democracy requires a vastly superior journalism, and we can only realistically expect such journalism if sweeping changes in media policies and structures make it a rational expectation."
Her letter appears to display middle-school level critical thinking skills (Dan Savage is "mean" for pointing out that the her desired field is at death's door and she shouldn't suffer just because, uh, there are no jobs for her) and an entire lack of knowledge of ANY historical context to the field of journalism and how it's gotten to the state it is in today- which is exactly the type of graduate most schools strive to create in the world of corporate-owned conglomerate media. But I guess it says something that she wrote in to The Stranger?
I suggest to Clarissa (and everybody) to go read The Problem of the Media by Robert McChesney:
"A commitment to anything remotely resembling bona fide democracy requires a vastly superior journalism, and we can only realistically expect such journalism if sweeping changes in media policies and structures make it a rational expectation."
26
"Plumbers and Electricians make way more money than most J-school grads ever will."
Had a conversation a couple months ago with a plumber, and he was finding it impossible to keep his business going in this recession.
So...no use entering a profession for the money alone, there's no guaranteeing even blue collar trades will pay off.
Had a conversation a couple months ago with a plumber, and he was finding it impossible to keep his business going in this recession.
So...no use entering a profession for the money alone, there's no guaranteeing even blue collar trades will pay off.
27
Clarissa, I admire you. Your passion is encouraging and I hope that you find a job that fuels this fire. So many people in your age group are sitting at jobs, doing mediocre work and wishing they could do what they love.
I hope to become a counselor but am currently helping to fuel addiction to gambling by working for a casino. I too, can “deal with tough.”
I hope to become a counselor but am currently helping to fuel addiction to gambling by working for a casino. I too, can “deal with tough.”
28
How old were you guys when your souls shriveled up and died?
Journalism is evolving, not disappearing.
Journalism is evolving, not disappearing.
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