"Hi, my name is Emily Joshu and I'm a reporter for The Standard..."
As a student reporter, this is the spiel that I have memorized for when I'm on assignment. Or on the phone with pretty much anyone, including my mom. Or ordering food. Student journalists have the advantage of knowing anything and everything that's happening on campus. We sit in the newsroom and eat Chipotle in the midst of putting pages together. However, it's a job that requires more time than we have. As students, we can't always keep up with the local newspaper reporters and sometimes we miss breaking news. But with our cheap voice recorders thrust out and hand-me-down press passes, we do it with smiles on our faces.
When breaking news happens and you forget your notepad.
Yes, I am a competent journalist. Yes, there are now pen marks on my face. No, I don't know what language these words are in. Elvish, maybe? And of course you didn't get the source's grade and major because...priorities.
"I'll email that source tomorrow. It's fine."
Suddenly three days pass and you still haven't contacted any sources. In a deadline-induced panic, you end up running all over campus, calling every number with even slight significance, checking your email every other minute. Somehow you pull it off by Friday's deadline, and you swear you'll be more proactive next week. Sure you will.
The source won't get back to you.
When you actually are productive and reach out to your sources early, they don't always return the favor. You try calling, emailing, making friends with their receptionists. You know them best by the sound of their answering machines. I only want five minutes of your time, is that so much to ask?
When the source doesn't know anything.
This happens way too often with breaking news. Sources are often under confidentiality restrictions and can only rephrase the tip that you originally received. When you ask if anyone actually does have any information, they pawn you off on someone who also knows nothing.
"Do you have any ideas for next issue?"
No, I was too busy taking five seconds to unwind from the last issue. You freeze when your editor comes around to you at the staff meeting because you were either a.) not paying attention, b.) laughing at something dumb that one of the sports writers said, or c.) both.
When you really don't want to talk to anyone today.
It's the classic case of being an introvert in an extrovert's job. As we learned in training, being a reporter is 90 percent talking to people and 10 percent actually writing. But talking to people is hard, especially at public events where you can't even hear over the audio recordings. Plus, standing behind the local news outlets at an event can be intimidating.
Writing like mad at 3:00 a.m. because your day is too busy to meet a 5:00 p.m. deadline.
Let's be real: reporters do their best work after the "normal" people have fallen asleep. We have classes all day, likely another job at night, friends (sometimes), and spend any breaks we have gathering information from sources. So the only time left to write is at your desk in the dark when you have to go to class in five hours.
There are no days off.
News doesn't stop after you meet the weekly deadline. There is always a decent chance that your editor will call upon you to investigate something over the weekend or drop everything so your paper can finally get a brief out before the local papers. We make our own hours, not because we want to, but because our job demands it.
