Thoughts of a soon-to-be journalist

"The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses." -Malcolm X

As a journalist, we often bear the brunt of negative criticism when it comes to reporting the news and the way "we" go about reporting it. Sometimes, the way a story is reported isn't necessarily how we as the journalist want it reported, it's disseminated to the masses how the editor chooses. Either way, we're sometimes damned if we do and damned if we don't. 

If we write about and show pictures of a college shooting, a natural disaster or a missing child, we are "always" sensationalizing the story or re victimizing the people in the story but yet if we don't write about it somewhat frequently, we as journalists and as a publication would be criticized.

Like I said... damned if we do and damned if we don't.

Regardless, I love the profession I have chosen.

Despite the negativity that sometimes surrounds us, we do a lot of good. Whatever you need to know, we tell you. If we don't tell you enough, it's the reader's responsibility to take the next step and research it more. Journalists are often sent to countries like Libya and other torn countries to get news and report back to the people in the United States so the people here can know what's going on in the world. At least 46 journalists were killed last year doing their job. 

There are various areas of interest in journalism that one could choose to focus on. I enjoy the crime and police reporting (even though the police reports are zero fun). No matter what area a journalist chooses to focus on, we are, in a way, investigators. 

Our society is fixated on the "if it bleeds it leads" type of stories even though broadcast and print journalism constantly catch hell because of it. Think of how many shows now include murder, tragedy, etc. in their story lines. We as a society feed on it.

"All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize that society, we can brutalize it. Or we can help life it to a higher level." -Bill Bernbach

I, however, want to take crime reporting a different route. I want to show that the information presented, while sad and negative at first, doesn't always have to end on the same note. Many of the families effected by the tragedies and sad incidents crime journalists report on, while still grieving, go on to do worthwhile things with their lives and maintain a good head while coping with the past. 

What gave me this idea?

Something my broadcasting teacher showed us in class. The piece was about a young man that was beaten and killed at a Mardi Gras party in Oregon or Washington. The young man's organs were donated to a dozen or so people and every year the young man's mother and the people who received his organs meet and catch up. The journalists and photojournalists behind the story took a horrific crime-related story (murder) and turned into a positive, heartfelt piece. 

We talked about how sometimes victims or members of the victim's families don't want to talk about their ordeal to journalists because "we" sometimes come across as abrasive and uncaring of their situation; that we are solely talking to them for a story.

I never want to turn into a journalist that's just out for blood and they don't care who they step on to get a story. I feel like those people you may step on to get that story could benefit you in the long run elsewhere. If you've stepped on all the "little people" they will not be willing to help you later when you need it. In our industry, every little contact helps. 

Not all journalists have a hidden agenda or a set mindset. The majority of journalists try to stay on the straight and narrow and give you, the public, the facts. We are fact-finders, investigators... we are people, too. The news we report to the masses is the same news we see and hear as well. The mass media effects us all, even as journalists.