This just in
I work in a busy newsroom, and my entire professional life has been related to journalism. This is not a romantic job, as here are a few truths about the industry.
1. Breaking news
The electronic age means that no one is really first with the news. They may be first to YOU, at that moment, but someone else somewhere was first at the same time. We’ve come a long way from Mr Reuters’ pigeons.
2. News is history
Mostly, it’s just 5 per cent telling people what could happen 5 per cent telling people what is happening, and 90 per cent telling people what has happened. Even the self-importance of the phrase “the first draft of history” is pretty meaningless, because the second draft is about 15 seconds behind that.
3. Journalists do not make sense of the world
People make sense of the world. News journalists just tell you what’s going on. Or what HAS gone on. I would like think I am helping people make sense of the world, but I’m probably just telling them what’s going on. News is very rarely a public service, history often repeats itself and most people have very little control over the things that take place.
4. The biggie - I make a living because of the suffering of others.
I do. I might think I’m not, but I am. To my knowledge, I have even contributed towards the suffering of others, but they were bad people and they deserved it. By this I mean telling people about the bad things that bad people do and getting them in trouble. But without the original suffering of events, I would be out of a job.
Do I sleep at night? On my side.
I figure that suffering is a part of the human condition. I am not cold and heartless, there’s no bubble that’s going to burst when I hit fifty; I know what’s going on. Pretending people don’t suffer is like pretending a football match isn’t going to end. It will, and when it does, there’s going to be a score at the end of that game. And people will want to know what that score is.
It’s the same with a ferry sinking. Ferries contain people. Ferries float. Things that float can sink. Floating, like life, is a temporary state - it’s engineering against the elements and the elements are always an opposite force. If you don’t oppose that force I the right way, they win. So ferries sink.
I’m not waiting for it to sink, but when it does, I can tell you what I think you’ll want to know.
Now, a critic would argue: “Hang on, people also take drugs. Does that mean it’s ok to sell heroin?”
No. Wait. What? Drug dealers provide a harmful product. A news report about a ferry sinking is not harmful. It may even prevent future disasters from happening again. Maritime security regulations may be improved. People may find out that their loved ones survived. Good things could happen.
I make a living because of the suffering of others, but I’m not making a living from the suffering. There’s a big difference.
I’m able to do my job because suffering exists. And whether or not I’m there to do my job, it still exists. And whether or not I exist, guess what? Suffering exists. I don’t depend on the events any more than the events depend on me. People depend on me and I can do some good there every day, with the constant reminder of suffering.
What could be better practice than that?
July 28th, 2006 at 1:45 pm
All makes perfect sense to me. What can ya do: if you weren’t doing it someone else would be. And we all want to know what’s going on. Sometimes we want to know a bit more than we really need to, but that’s where gossip mags fill the gap. Onwards and upwards.
July 29th, 2006 at 10:34 am
True there. Would a chef worry that he makes a living from people’s hunger?
Table nine - let’s go.
July 29th, 2006 at 11:27 am
Go for it ! You’re supplying a desperate need. Ask ‘er indoors - I’d rather watch news that’s badly-presented than miss any. (Without verbs even.)
July 29th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
ouch! that hurt!
you burst my balloon!
Thanks eh.
www.westcoaster.ca
August 3rd, 2006 at 8:57 am
You know,. I used to love ot read the news. Not watch on tv, but read about it, because when I was 6 years old I watched Walter Cronkite criticize the war my father was currently fighting in and I didn;t like that one little bit. That turned me off live news for good. So I read the papaers, and over the last two decades, the telex, newsfeeds, and now articles on the web. I’m not so much a news junkie as I am a person who likes keeping up with current events. It’s always been this way.
And now I have an issue with the print and Internet media outlets- they aren’t reporting the events any more. Now they’re reporting how THEY feel about the events. That’s just plain WRONG.
I took a journalism course once a long time ago. It taught me the 5 W’s, how to form intelligent questions, how to write a lead and how to form a headline. And it also taught me that true journalism has an ethic, and part of that ethic is impartiality. And that’s obviously not being taught any more.
The press is having as field day with Mel Gibson. Here is a man who’s going through a persojnal crisis of seriouslyu suicidal proportions and most every article I’ve read on the event is saying only that he’s a Jew-Hater, how he called a female sugartits, how he went driving and driving , how BAD a man he is. And then the followup articles start attacking the Sheriff’s office , accusing them of covering up the worst of it.
I’m thinking I’m just plain sick of the news- and it’s not even an election year.