Why journalism: take II

After expounding reasons not to be journalist, here’s a little video I’ve knocked up about the things people here at City University love about doing it.

Featuring (in order) Jesse Whittock, Jenny Ruby, Chris Hall, Iain Withers (off newspaper, not mag), Stephen Eddie and Lauren Vandekar.

Why journalism?

A bit behind the times, but in his lecture last Monday Roy Greenslade put forward the view that one reason why more and more people are signing up to journalism courses is because they (misguidedly perhaps) believe that journalism leads to fame and fortune (well maybe not the latter). Apparently this year the number of applications to City has shot up (so best of luck to those of you I know have applied). Is this because all potential City bloggers have a burning desire to be the next super-celeb columnist or editor?

When Greenslade asked no-one admitted they had chosen to go into journalism in order to garner fame and plaudits. But if you have an ambition to do something to the best of your abilities and are a high achiever, then is some sort of fame or at least recognition really that out of your trajetory?

Myself, I chose to do journalism because I love writing. I was heavily involved with my student paper at university and loved every minute of it, the all-nighters, the arguments, the slow, slow computers with an early edition of Indesign and a propensity towards crashing. I also love meeting people and since coming to City doing interviews has been the highlight. I have met drug addicts, environmental campaigners, cancer sufferers, celebrities, bog snorklers and many others. I have learnt so much about subjects I had never even considered and that is what I love about this job. However, it would be churlish of me to deny that being recognised in my field wouldn’t be a nice perk, and that the idea of being famous one day isn’t just a little bit appealing.

So, what was it that made you want to get into journalism? And would you turn down fame and fortune if they came knocking?

[Note: video to follow. Once I get a handle on multimedia and stop approaching it like a monkey trying to turn on a computer. How exciting.]

Magazine work experience: a glamorous prize?

Work experience is a necessary evil for all student journalists. Sometimes you can get lucky and be treated as one of the team turning out lots of copy. On others you will not be so lucky. Perhaps you will be asked to tidy the stationery cupboard (lots of journalism in there I’ve heard), or too organise business cards or perhaps address envelopes. Or maybe you will be left staring into space for hours at a time as no-one attempts to keep you busy enough (yep, these have all happened to me).

Either way, it’s something that has to be done and the contacts and cuttings (if you’re lucky) are usually worth it. But whether it is useful or a waste of time, work experience is not a prize.

Currently the Sunday Times style magazine is offering “one lucky reader the chance to enter the world of fashion journalism with a two-week internship”. You could be lucky enough to tidy the fashion cupboard and make tea for two weeks. It’s dogsbody work no-one else wants to do tarted up as a prize. In the small print it says that the “lucky reader” won’t even get travel expenses. Even a small B2B will usually cover that. The Times, for shame.

And a few months ago Grazia ran a competition entitled “Grazia’s Next Top Intern” where candidates had to pass a series of tests at Westfield shopping centre in return for an internship. Such competitions seem incredibly patronising, especially when pro-active wannabe journalists will no doubt have applied for work experience the old-fashioned way: by making hundreds of phonecalls and sending thousands of emails saying how much you admire their publication. But perhaps this marketing of journalism as so aspirational and desirable only the “winners” need apply is a knock-on effect of the such high numbers of student journalists at the moment.

Still, I’d rather win a holiday I think.

10 reasons not to be a journalist

As Gary Moskowitz said in a lecture today, the money is minimal and everyone hates you (see 1 and 2), but more and more people want to be journalists. Seeing as how the dreaded credit crunch means we will all be unemployed and sleeping in bins when we graduate from City, I have compiled a list of why being a journalist is rubbish. This will make us all feel better when we are working in Dominos/KFC/Macdonalds/whichever other companies are laughing in the face of recession, while we dream of newspapers and magazines.

1. Everyone hates journalists. As I previously blogged, we are consistently voted one of the least trustworthy professions.

2. The pay. Or rather lackthereof.

3. It will swallow your life. No sleep, no social life. Only journalising.

4. We all know traditional media is dying and the future is in blogs. Anyone can blog provided they have hands. Actually, a cat could stand on a keyboard and perhaps put pressure on the right number and order of keys and post something. It might not make any sense, but neither does 98% of internet content.

5. Lack of stability, you’re only as good as your last piece of work.

6. Using twitter is practically in a journalist’s job description these days. I dislike Twitter. It confuses my simple mind. Sorry tweet fans. (Yes, I am aware of the irony of using twitter to publicise my blog, but I also drink Diet Coke and occasionally eat Nestle – massive hypocrit)

7. Journalism is one of the professions where you are expected or even required to do months of unpaid interning before getting a real job. Cue tidying the fashion cupboard, fetching lattes, doing endless research for articles and getting no credit. Hurrah.

8. You can never take anything at face value. You must question everything. You will not be able to read anything without analysing it.  Kiss goodbye to being able to enjoy things innocently. Sigh. Your friends begin to hate you as you constantly question their stories.

9. You have spend much of your time fending off PRs. And if you’re not trying to get rid of them you’re trying to charm them into giving you stuff.

10. When you hear about a tragedy, your first reaction is “Fantastic. How many people died? Anyone famous/attractive/young/who had previously triumphed over adversity?”. Where is your soul?

Anyone got any more to add? Or conversely, what is great about being a hack?

Student or journalist?

One issue all student journalists will doubtless have encountered is whether or not to lie to get yourself a story. When phoning an organisation, a council, the police, do you tell them you are a student or lie and call yourself a freelance, or even employed, journalist? Tell the truth and you risk rejection on the grounds of being utterly useless to them, tell a lie and gamble on becoming entangled in a web of lies so complex you are bound to be found out and humiliated.

Our first term was a training ground in dealing with people, this term I think I may have cracked the formula. When dealing with organisations and PRs, a half truth (‘I’m a freelancer working on spec/I’m doing some research/I’m working on a top secret launch, ahem) can go a long way towards getting you what you want.  However, what is easy to forget is that real people tend to hate journalists.

We are consistently ranked in the top 10 least trusted professions, along with politicians and estate agents.  So in recent assigments involving ordinary people rather than experts or PRs, I have found playing the ‘I’m a poor student card’ has worked to my advantage.

How journalists are seen by many