I've been working at a local paper for about a year now and the honeymoon period of "being published" wore off--fast.
The pay is crappy.
The hours are long.
But more importantly, I feel icky and sticky at the end of each work day, as if the dirty, insensitive things I have to do to be good at my job stay on my clothes like smoke and beer at the end of a late-night rock concert.
I don't fit into the news industry. I am not outgoing. I do not feel comfortable calling and pestering a mother of a child who died. Or trying to weasel my to an exclusive.
I am not cutthroat. Nor do I ever want to be.
I want OUT. As soon as I can possibly find another job.
Has anyone else had this reaction to working as a journalist? I write fiction but it hasn't exactly panned out as a source of income...
But really, journalism has nothing to do with writing. The writing itself is a jigsaw puzzle formula that a high-schooler can follow; for the most part it's calling numbers, pressing the cops or lawyers or public officials for info, chasing documents, and breaking news however possible.
As a cops reporter, the constant death, violence, heartbreak etc. wear on me as a person, and I hope that I never lose the truly horrid feeling I get when I call some of these victims. I do honestly believe what I get payed to do is unethical.
I would rather work a non-writing job than continue in my journalism career, with the possible exception of landing a court-reporter job.
Has anyone else had this reaction to working in journalism?
The pay is crappy.
The hours are long.
But more importantly, I feel icky and sticky at the end of each work day, as if the dirty, insensitive things I have to do to be good at my job stay on my clothes like smoke and beer at the end of a late-night rock concert.
I don't fit into the news industry. I am not outgoing. I do not feel comfortable calling and pestering a mother of a child who died. Or trying to weasel my to an exclusive.
I am not cutthroat. Nor do I ever want to be.
I want OUT. As soon as I can possibly find another job.
Has anyone else had this reaction to working as a journalist? I write fiction but it hasn't exactly panned out as a source of income...
But really, journalism has nothing to do with writing. The writing itself is a jigsaw puzzle formula that a high-schooler can follow; for the most part it's calling numbers, pressing the cops or lawyers or public officials for info, chasing documents, and breaking news however possible.
As a cops reporter, the constant death, violence, heartbreak etc. wear on me as a person, and I hope that I never lose the truly horrid feeling I get when I call some of these victims. I do honestly believe what I get payed to do is unethical.
I would rather work a non-writing job than continue in my journalism career, with the possible exception of landing a court-reporter job.
Has anyone else had this reaction to working in journalism?