As most of you may know, I am in school at Marshall University getting a Bachelor's degree in journalism. I've loved journalism for many years and have been working toward this goal since high school. Many people don't know much about journalism and what the job actually calls for, so I want to break it down for you. After this article, you may wonder why people ever dream to be journalists because there are several obstacles that they must face on a daily basis but do the job despite it all. Journalism is one of the few careers I sincerely believe you have to love deeply to do and there are quite a few reasons why.
1. You want to be a journalist? Why?
As most people know journalists don't have a trustworthy and clean reputation. Especially now when our Commander in Cheif often calls the news fake. Even when you are just beginning in the career field, you immediately adopt the awful reputation professionals have. When people ask about my major and I tell them journalism they often say "really?" in a questionable tone as if they cannot believe I want to be one. They make jokes about me writing "fake news" and reporting incorrect information which is all in good fun but is also an implicit attitude they have toward the news and reporters. This isn't just about their political stance either, both sides have this strange aversion to the news and it's reporters. I am by no means saying this may not be justified to some extent because there are questionable journalists who give us this bad reputation but I promise we don't start out like that. We learn to only report facts, to be as unbiased as possible, and to get both sides of the story. But still, I face the status journalists before me have set for everyone else. If one person in this career field makes a mistake, it reflects just as badly on the rest of us.
2. All about the Benjamins? Not in this Career
The average salary of a journalist in the United States is about $38,000 a year. The average salary of a teacher in the United States ranges from around $43,000 to $49,000 a year. That is quite a difference. Teachers have a tough career for sure no matter what grade level you teach. They hold our future in their hands and have to deal with a lot of backlash from all sides. I'm not saying teachers are in any way less important than a journalist, what I am saying is both are vital to society. Without journalists, no one would have information about politics or current events. No one would know anything about what is going on in the world around them, we would be blind and uninformed. Running around life with no direction and no information. The pay isn't worth what we do. There is so much that comes from journalists. TV news and newspapers, public relations and events of that nature and even advertising! There are so many moving parts that go into the information we take for granted every day and journalists do not make enough money for it. A friend once said to me that it's easy to do a job you dislike if the pay is good, but you really have to love a job that pays terribly to do it day in and day out.
3. News Never Sleeps
This one will be rather short because it's self-explanatory. Most careers give you a set amount of hours. From this time to this time every day 5 days a week. It's pretty standard. As journalists we have a saying, the news never sleeps. You may get called into work at 3 in the morning because someone decided to rob 5 gas stations and then jumped off a bridge into a lake naked. You never know what could happen and when it could happen so you have to be ready at all times in the night to wake up and go to work. You can imagine the torture.
4. Deadlines, Deadlines, Deadlines.
If you think normal college deadlines are stressful, don't be a journalist. Right now I have to write at least two stories a week, which means two events a week on top of my other classes and our print deadlines are Mondays and Thursdays very strictly. In the professional world, you may get a story thrown on your desk at 3 in the afternoon and your editor will tell you they need it for print by 5. You have two hours to do the research, get photos, get interviews, get the facts and have your editor look over it before the final copy has to be done and ready to be seen by the public. Deadlines come up faster than you think and you have them constantly. It's incredibly stressful.
Though there are a lot of stressors in this career field I love it and this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. You might think I'm crazy, sometimes even I believe I am but this is a job someone has to do and I love it so I guess one of those people will be me.
