My take on journalism

I’ve wanted to be a journalist for as long as I can remember. Or at least something that involves writing. I love writing, like, I will sit at home and just write things, anything. Lists, Diaries, random emails, short stories or even an article or two about something that I’ve been thinking about. Why else would I have two blogs and a tumblr to keep myself busy?

Having just been accepted on a course for Journalism which easily rivals the more esteemed colleges in the country, I’ve been starting to seriously think about my chosen career path. Journalists undergo some serious generalisation and one has to admit, the public’s idea of a journalist is in the toilet.

Thats the point that got me thinking. Newspapers, News channels, Magazines, Radio stations… these are all mediums of communication that everyone is exposed to daily. What we see, read and hear are the basis of every day conversations, the shaping of opinions and the public’s idea of the world we live in. If Journalists were so hated, why do millions of people each day willingly expose themselves to these forms of communication, and decide to base their opinions of the world from it?

Newspapers are designed to be unbiased and factual, merely reporting the news without a take on it. This sadly, we all know to be false. Left wing, right wing, everything has a side and an angle to take. So from that we get buyers choosing what they wish to believe.. Am I Tory or Labour today? The Guardian or The Times? These basic choices subconsciously shape our opionions on news.

People read the newspapers and tune into the programmes because they want to keep up to date. They wish to hear the going ons in the world, they want to have an input in day to day chit chat. So with that in mind, do people actually want to buy a newspaper with an opinion? Surely not. Surely the public wish to hear about their local MP, or the mass murderer in their city with all the correct facts, no political angle and nothing missing. News is news, news is not opinion, news is history that might impact your life.

I want to be that journalist that writes what the public wants. It might be boring, it might be mundane, but wouldn’t we rather know the whole truth, as little as it may be, rather than some sensationalist rubbish? Of course sensationalist rubbish makes fantastic conversation, but at the end of it, where is the substance?

Being an honest journalist might mean I don’t get hired, or published, or earn any money, but if I wanted to get into a profession to earn money, I’m definitely in the wrong game. I wouldn’t want to read something about my local area and find out key facts are missing, key facts were downplayed, and something completely irrelevant takes the basis of the story.

I want to be an honest journalist, and I really hope I can succeed.