Tag Archives: Journalism

No Longer Wanting to be a Journalist?

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I have always wanted to be a writer, and ideally within the realm of creative writing. However, being realistic, I have also recognized for a long time that one cannot simply graduate from college and become a full-time novelist—at least not if one wants to actually be able to pay rent and eat. This in mind, being a novelist has always been my “slightly unrealistic” career choice that I am determined to pursue, but is also secondary to something slightly more… likely to have a salary.

But what was this “real” career going to be? As much as I want to be a writer, with my busy life I find it hard to sit down and write consistently without solid motivation. Asking myself what best motivates me, and figuring that out to be a looming deadline and the idea of being accountable to others, I put two and two together and settled on magazine or newspaper journalism. For the past two or three years, when asked what I wanted to do after school, I would answer, “Well, I want to be a writer but I’ll probably go into journalism.” It sounded perfect to me, since I would still get writing published frequently, would write because I would have deadlines and topics assigned to me, and could explore other interests such as popular culture and current events.

The past couple of months, however, I’ve started to question this “perfect” career path more and more. Being a journalist still appeals to me; it’s easy to imagine the places I could possibly go and the people I could meet. It sounds like a job that would lead me to be much more engaged with the world more than, say… being a writer, sitting alone in a room with a laptop. And being engaged, through having a variety of experiences, meeting new people, and making a difference, is very important to me.

At the same time, I’ve started to realize that image of the Journalist is less that of a supreme writer—though this is important—and more that of a Researcher, researching the latest scoop and following a story through to its end. The journalist is out there to relay the “truth” or, at least, their opinion, to the public—not just to write. As my passion for literature continues to develop, I’m starting to wonder which I would like more—being a journalist and involved with the world? Or concentrating on something literary, my true passion? (Of course, the ideal job for me is a combination of these two: book critic.)

It is because of this re-thinking that I have recently turned to publishing as another plausible career path. Although it is a business that does not necessarily involve writing, I would be constantly emerged in the world of literature and books. This is not to say I would never try journalism; I’m still very young and am open to a variety of possible careers and internships. I have also started to consider continuing studies and eventually becoming an English professor, which is a profession I used to always believe I would not like. I’m not sure if I would be a good teacher or not, but the idea of being so knowledgeable about a field and then sharing my passion with others appeals to me. It’s too early to truly decide what I want to do, especially since it is now apparent that my ideas are changing constantly.

Of course, no matter what I ended up doing, I will always work on my creative writing on the side.

The Future of Journalism

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Recently, I went to a discussion panel titled, “The Future of Journalism: The End or a New Beginning.” The debate featured two writers, Hugo Martin from the Los Angeles Times, Richard Perez-Pena, from The New York Times (both of which are Pomona alums and alums of The Student Life) and Geneva Overholser, director of USC’s Annenberg School of Communications.

It was very interesting to hear the perspectives of three different people who are actively working in the industry. Richard Perez-Pena has specifically written about the changes in the journalism industry for the NYT. Based on what Pena said, it seems that it’s hard to predict what will happen anymore, especially in journalism. All three agreed that journalism is going through some major changes, moving more and more into the online realm. Pena from the NYT said that while the newspapers for the times have horrible numbers, their online numbers have been breaking records every month. The move to online journalism has also led to a lot of layoffs and a move towards hiring more freelance writers. Hugo Martin of the L.A Times said that there used to be hundreds of people that would just cover a certain L.A neighborhood, now that team has been reduced to just one person. Martin suggests that this is problematic since there are not enough people to cover the smaller, but nonetheless important stories that are deserving of attention.

Geneva Overholser, Director of USC’s Annenberg School of Communications, was very positive about the future of journalism, suggesting that with the changes that are occurring right now, this is a good time for journalism to reinvent itself. Often these changes are characterized in such a negative way, so it was good to hear something positive from someone who knows the business. While this is encouraging, it’s still difficult to think of the unknown, especially when so much of my life after college is unknown at the moment. Personally, I think it would be very difficult to make a living doing freelance straight out of college. Especially since no one knows your work or your name. If I end up not doing grad school, maybe I could try to get an entry level position somewhere at a PR firm and continue to do freelance on the side. No matter what, I want to keep writing, it just might be difficult to pursue a career in journalism right after college.

Right now, grad school still seems like one of the best options for me. My first application is due tomorrow for UC Berkeley’s program, thankfully they don’t require the GRE, however, they want their applicants to have more experience in the journalism field. I am not sure if I have enough experience to be admitted but I decided to apply regardless. One of the great things about Berkeley is that they have a magazine writing program, which would be perfect for me. Some of the other schools I am applying to (like NYU) have similar programs. I will be taking the GRE this Friday, so wish me luck!

Senior Thesis: It’s Like a Really, Really Long Article…

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Here we are, already half way through the second week of class. Getting back into the swing of things was a little harder than I expected, especially after coming down with the flu and missing my last “first day” of classes (since its senior year) as well as an interview I had set up for my first Friday back in California. Needless to say, school and the internship search process got put on hold for a while. Luckily I am healthy again and am getting back into a regular routine.

I wanted to spend this post talking about thesis. So, what is the topic of my thesis? Well, that’s something that I haven’t quite figured out yet, although that is not to say that I don’t have ideas, because trust me- I have plenty. Whatever my thesis topic will be, it will involve hours of observations and interviews. The Sociology department at Pomona (where I am carrying out my major) requires that students have a minimum of 20 hours of research. According to Gilda Ochoa, associate professor of Sociology at Pomona and one of my thesis readers/advisors, this can either be through observations or interviews (or both).

Although thesis is going to be incredibly time consuming, I think that I will gain a variety of skills that will be applicable to a future career in journalism or publishing. The most obvious transferable skill is writing. Clearly most magazine articles do not take the same style or form of writing as a thesis, but it is still writing. No matter what my topic is, I will have to convey the results and observations I find in a way that is coherent and thought provoking to my readers. Like any good article, it should grab my attention and make the reader want to know more.

Another applicable skill that thesis will help with is learning how to conduct intensive research. The literature review that I will have to do will involve reading lots of books and reports on what has been written about my topic. Reviewing this information is something similar to what I would have to do if I were to write an in-depth article for a newspaper or magazine, but instead of going through Sociology texts I would be reading through past news reports on a particular topic. In addition to conducting intensive research, conducting an interview will be another very valuable skill that will help me later on in journalism, as many articles or stories are based off of interviews or get their information from interviews. Although I have conducted interviews before, I think having to conduct up to 10 hours of interviews will really help me refine my skills as an interviewer.

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