LIFE ON THE JOB

A day in the life of a journalist : So you think you want my job?
By Angela Kateemu

It is that time of the year when interns are flocking the work places to get training in the field work of the courses they are studying at the university.  It is important to know things about your job from the people who have been there and done that. We will take a look at the life of the journalist. In this particular job, you do research, write the articles,break news, take the photographs and tackle the desktop publishing of the newspapers. Usually, in many publishing houses/newspapers, there are separate people to undertake each of these tasks. A journalist will normally just write articles for the publication, or sub-edit the articles written by other people.

Typical day
A typical day involves interviewing people about their activities, or asking them questions about their opinions on particular topical issues or stories you are working on. “ My day starts as early 5am: That is on the days when I have not been up till the wee hours of the morning working an event/story or meeting a source. (Which is pretty much most of the week!) I wake up and whip up a cup of tea: it is therapeutic and helps to clear  the system. I get my laptop to catch up on the work that I have pending because I am at my witty peak in the early hours after waking up. I usually get to office around 7am to go through the papers before heading for the daily morning preparatory meetings.”  These meetings are basically there to plan the journalists work day.  The day is a mix of meetings with supervisors, sources and subjects for your story.

The Good
I love to write
You satisfy your desire to know as much as possible about everything and anything. A journalist assumes the role of know-all: at least that is how they are viewed by society. They are always on the ground; breaking news, giving advice, writing opinions on one thing or another.

Go places
When you are a journalist, you get to go places (and I don’t mean having a free pass to clubs and events!)  You get to travel, meet and interview people from all corners of society. You get a kick out of indulging in the vanity of name dropping – the people you get to interact with as you write your stories are so many.  You develop friendships with some of your interviewees and these friendships can propel you further in life.

By-line
Do you know how prestigious it is to see your name in print/media? When you are a journalist, you get your writing, your reportage published.

Make a difference in people’s lives
At times, your reportage results in an injustice being corrected, a lost person being found, a government department taking action: You accomplish something beneficial for society. Such things make you feel like you are making a difference not only in your life, but someone else’s too.


You matter
Your reportage makes you an important person in society. You matter. Reporting from a war zone, for instance, opens the eyes of people who see only stereotypes. You achieve name recognition and sometimes get rewarded for your efforts.

The bad
Getting this job done often involves working long hours: weekends and holidays too.  Finding time for rest is difficult –you just have to decide to take a leave if you have to get some time off to rest.
 
Creepy stories
Being a journalist doesn’t not always include going to cocktails and events, it also involves going to gory crime scenes, spending time at the morgue and at the end of the day you can’t get the stench out of your pores. You get to meet all kinds of people from criminals, to the terminally ill. This could be really challenging!

Failing to make the story
It is very frustrating following up on a story that you are unable to get written or published. Why? You are assigned to report on business or politics, the two playing fields of the most liars in society: they give you ‘bullshit’ and lies and they are gloating as they lie to you but you can't find documentary evidence to nail them. You set up appointments with subjects who don’t value your time and make you to endlessly dance to their tune only to be denied access to the information you were hoping to get. Sometimes, you work for over a month on an article and the publisher won't run it because of one thing or another.

Not measuring up
Your editor hacks apart your story –takes you back to high school when the teacher would bring back your assignment and it is bloated all over in red ink. This can be really frustrating but the editor is doing their job which involves telling you that you didn’t measure up:  you didn’t write the story the way he would have written it or the way he wants it.

Complaints
You write a great article and the interviewee - whom you admire and believe to have represented accurately – calls in too complain about the shoddy job. You know sometimes the subject forgets that whatever you say in the interview, unless advised otherwise, is on record. As such, they will forget some of the things they may have said. When they read the story, they call them lies/distortions.

Uninterested readership
The worst part of being a journalist is to find out that ‘nobody’ actually reads your articles: they just skim over them and throw the paper away. Not because your article is bad but because you write for a field that is not exactly popular like agriculture.

Work hazards
You get beat up or killed in the line of duty (expose on motorcycle gangs, war reporter, jealous spouse of celebrity etc) many journalists have been victims of tear gas, clobbering –reason: you are press!

Still interested in being a journalist?
Work exceptionally hard
You have to be prepared to go above and beyond. It is a tough job, so you have to make yourself indispensable.

Be creative:
People expect you to offer lots of ideas and be able to develop them.

Be personable:
This line of work relies heavily on relationships as you are the mediator between the readers and the world.

 Stay current:
 It is important that you keep up with what is going on around the world. Read widely.

Qualifications
Constant training and refresher courses will come in handy as support to your degree/diploma in Journalism or mass communication.