Is anyone here a Journalist?

[Mon Amour]

Hello i was wondering is there anyone here that is a journalist?

 

[Undertow]

Fortunately, I am a former.

These days I won't touch the stuff. *yucky*

Why do you ask?

 

[DBLIII]

Me, too, long ago. Also got a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, if you've got any college or course questions.

These days, I don't even look at the "news."

 

[LizzieMaine]

Fifteen years, wall full of awards, and not a blessed thing to show for it now. Never made more than $160 a week. And yet, I hate to see what's become of the business today.

 

[Johnnysan]

Not for a traditional media outlet, per se, but I am a communications staffer for a statewide labor organization.

 

[Rick Blaine]

After ten years in Newspapers & Magazines as a photographer... I escaped to P.R.

 

[scotrace]

Just a bartender note: It's best for all members if thread titles are specific as to content of the thread itself. Thread titles such as "Question." really cheat the original poster as it won't draw readers the same way "Please help me find this missing button."

Thread title here changed from "Random Question" to "Is anyone here a Journalist?"

Thanks.

 

[Brian Sheridan]

I am a long time TV journalist who moved into teaching journalism and new media at a college about 4 years ago. I still go back to work at the local ABC affiliate now and again. It is something you simply can't get out of your blood.

 

[VisforVictory]

News photog in New York, mostly for the Daily News, covering the courts, police, and fire beats.

 

[Undertow]

...and still I ask, what is it you're getting at Mon Amour? Is there a point to your question?

 

[shortbow]

I'm another survivor of ink-stained wretchedness.

 

[dr greg]

lowest of the low

well according to Zappa anyway, I was a rock journalist for about 6 years

 

[Diamondback]

'Nother ex here, albeit only high-school and college papers. Positively Dickensian about "the best of times, the worst of times"...

That said--no offense intended, BRS--I couldn't be paid enough to go back. EDIT--well maybe, if it was for a year or less, under specific conditions, and I was guaranteed enough to finance an "Old Dog"* build post-taxes and the airframe to do it on.
*Think a stealthed, hotrodded B-52, for you who aren't Dale Brown fans.

----------------
Now playing: John Williams - The Asteroid Field
via FoxyTunes

 

[Bassman]

well according to Zappa anyway, I was a rock journalist for about 6 years

Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read.
Frank Zappa, quoted in Linda Botts, "Loose Talk" (1980)

 

[$ally]

My oldest brother and my son both are, besides being creative writers.

 

[MK]

.

Do magazine publishers count?

 

[Brian Sheridan]

Do magazine publishers count?

Most of them do...(but not Rupert Murdoch)

 

[Mon Amour]

Thank you all very much for your response. Well the reason I ask Undertow is because I interested in a career path and I need a mentor for guidance.

 

[Undertow]

Thank you all very much for your response. Well the reason I ask Undertow is because I interested in a career path and I need a mentor for guidance.

Consider contacting your local newspaper for a tour; no kidding, I was able to get one. If you're in college (or high school) you'll want to start writing for the paper. The college paper will be much more fulfilling, of course. Get to know the photographers and editors; in my experience, those were the guys that could get me stories and that could guide my hand.

And although I'm sure there are some who would heatedly disagree with me, consider reading, and rereading, novels by Hunter Thompson; specifically Hell's Angels. Some folks don't appreciate his style of writing, but the man, a journalist, was able to take a largely uninteresting or vile subject and make it quite entertaining. I was greatly inspired by his journalism.

 

[Diamondback]

Another pointer: Journalism itself is easy, it's good journalism that's hard--by which I mean accurately presenting all sides (with respectable representatives from each, not like bringing in a well-polished spokesman to represent liberals and a raving Bircher maniac for the "conservative" viewpoint) and setting personal bias aside as much as possible.

That whole challenge of setting personal involvement aside and trying to find credible representatives from all sides for a balanced representation is what the pros get the bucks for (or at least should, for the ones who strive to meet that challenge--the ones who don't are just as bad as the "Yellow Journalists" of the Hearst/Pulitzer era IMO).