When I wrote my first post on this blog it went something along the lines of, "I CAN'T DO THIS. ABORT MISSION. ABORT!" Well, things have changed since then. I still have my moments of doubt and terror where I believe that I'm not good enough for anything or anyone. But those moments are slowly happening less and less.
My first semester of university has taught me a lot. I've learnt that you need to be persistent to be a journalist. Persistent enough to chase the story you're after, persistent enough to get the information you need, and persistent enough to be switched on all the time. Whether or not I'll be able to do any of those things is anyone's guess.
Our lecturer for The Journalist and Society, Marie, has taught us all she can. Not only about being a journalist, but about how to be a good journalist. Thus far, we have covered an array of topics, including: What is this thing called journalism?, Commercial and Public Media, Convergence in the media, News Values, Agenda Setting, Reporting Print and Online News, Pictures and Sound, War, Disaster and Trauma, Ethics in journalism, Political economy of the media and Investigative journalism. Being a journalist herself, Marie has been able to give us first hand experiences about what it is like to be journalist. So far, the most difficult topic that we've covered this semester was ethics in journalism.
As I disagreed with most of the class about what they deemed to be "ethical", the experience of learning about it was rather an uncomfortable one for me. That's not to say that I believe them to be bad people. Not at all. For all I know, my opinions could be the unethical ones in the long run.
A lot of the class (well, the vocal ones at least) deemed it okay to write about a politician's sexual orientation. Personally, the fact that a person's sexual orientation is news worthy baffles me. They're just a person who happens to like people of the same sex. Big deal. But apparently this is a big thing which needs to be discussed about at great length.
Another topic that was discussed that irked me was learning about reporting on war and trauma. That lesson I learned that day was that I could never, ever be a reporter in a war zone as it would destroy me mentally and possibly physically as well. While this news didn't surprise me in the slightest, it did worry me that my chances of being a relatively successful journalist were slightly ruined. However, that doesn't mean that my determination is gone. Thanks to the amazing lecturers and friends I have made at university, I'm slowly starting to believe that I may have a shot at being good at this.
So, for now, I'm just going to enjoy the ride that is university and pray that my sanity stays in tact through all the hardcore studying I'll be doing.
I'm so happy you wrote this post. It's really great to compare this to your first post and see how far you've come. Your determination and integrity, and most of all your positivity, are going to make this journey so rewarding for you. I look forward to reading more posts. :)
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