Profession journalist: myths and reality
Journalism as a profession, perhaps moreothers are shrouded in a halo of all kinds of myths, and some of them we will try to dispel in this article. For many, journalism looks quite an attractive activity, because with this kind of activity it is possible to visit interesting places and communicate with new people.
This is the first myth. No, of course, journalists visit interesting places and events, but this happens much less often than, say, going to the shooting of another accident or tedious meetings of the city council.
The opportunity to earn a lot of money and become famous
Traditionally, it is believed that journalists, especiallyworking on television, receive a lot of money, but this is far from the case. Yes, of course, the stars of journalism, who have already acquired their own author's project or achieved fame through long-term work, are becoming very successful.
However, such stars in the post-Soviet spaceonly about two dozen among hundreds and thousands of ordinary pen workers. In order to earn good money in journalism, you need to work very hard and, preferably, for several organizations (newspapers, TV channels). The reason for this is quite simple, on TV and in newspapers, as a rule, the "rate", if it exists at all, is low enough, and the rest of the earnings depends on how many plots or articles you can prepare within a month.
It should also be taken into account that materials for newspapersand you will not be prepared for news alone, but there will not be enough space for everyone on the band and air time. The exception is, perhaps, only "stringers" who can afford to sell material for tens of thousands of dollars to the most famous publications. However, they are a special caste of highly professional journalists, who climb into the very heat of hostilities and natural disasters to receive material.
Everyone can be a journalist
This statement is not so far from the truth. If you ask any experienced expert in this field what you need to become a journalist, then you will be answered - practically nothing. Most modern journalists do not have a higher profile education (philology, journalism, etc.) and this is not considered a disadvantage. However, to become a professional journalist you need either to have encyclopedic knowledge, or a desire to constantly learn.
Well, and most importantly - you need to be able to think logically andcoherently express their thoughts. Also, in addition to knowledge, it is very important to be able to "talk" an absolutely unfamiliar person. At the same time, journalistic ethics prohibits posing frankly provocative or offensive personal questions, which for some reason is constantly forgotten by certain well-known "sharks of the pen." So, to ask a question from the category "What are you feeling right now?" To relatives who suffered in the disaster, this is the height of rudeness and unprofessionalism.
Internet kills journalism
There has been a lot of talk lately,that with the advent of the Internet and, in particular, blogs, traditional journalism began to die. This is far from the case, the spread of the Internet has pushed journalism to a new stage of development. Yes, many small prints fell into decay, but the rest were quietly adapted to new trends and now offer both traditional newspapers and magazines and their electronic versions.
In addition, newInternet publications, which in terms of the quality of preparation, submission and content of information are in no way inferior to traditional printed ones. Important qualities for a professional journalist are communicability, objectivity, the ability to quickly navigate the situation, curiosity and, of course, stress resistance.
Author: Vyacheslav Kinko
