So You Want to be a Journalist? YIKES

You know when you’re growing up and you tell people, “I want to be a doctor!” “I want to be a teacher!” they meet you with “that’s very good, you have to work hard.” I genuinely don’t think I was ever met with that when it came to journalism. I think my ambition of being a West End star was met with more enthusiasm… and I can’t sing.

I remember going on a night out and the taxi driver asked what we all wanted to be when we finished university. The girls around me told him their careers, nursing, social work, teaching, you know, pretty normal, sensible jobs. Then it got to me and I confidently said “a journalist.” I was met with “so she wants to tell a pile of lies” which really got me thinking why do people hate journalists so much?

Now, I know that I've made that sound like one of those cinematic moments, where the protagonist has this inspirational moment where they state their career and a montage starts playing of them in the office working really hard. Spoiler alert! That didn’t happen. I probably went out, got drunk and ordered a McDonald’s at 3am. But my point still stands, why do people hate journalists so much?

Recently, there has been an influx of working class people not trusting the media, because apparently they tell lies. All very ironic that the same people who say this also get their main news source from TikTok and Facebook, but is there a reason?

Yes, well I think there is anyway. See, as I said in my last blog post, I grew up watching the news. My mum was a dinner lady and my dad was a cleaner (actually my dad walked so Kirk from Gilmore Girls could run), so I’m from a very working-class background. But when the news was on I never saw it as relatable, was this because I was 8 years old? maybe, but still at 20 sometimes I find it really difficult to relate with the news.

Reading constant articles about this billionaire CEO and this MP that had a £100,000 spending budget, it’s very difficult to empathise with that because funny enough I am not a billionaire. I also believe there are journalists that have tainted the view of the industry. Not to point any fingers but Martin Bashir I am looking straight at you. There was also a recent clip from Good Morning Britain (my bread and butter as an eight year old) of Susanna Reid slating another presenter for what she was wearing, which I honestly don’t think helped. Now Good Morning Britain has had issues for years from Piers Morgan to, well actually, let’s just leave it at that. But Susanna Reid has tainted yet again the view of journalists, that they are snakes and pugnacious people who just want to sell a story.

But I don’t want to do that.

I want to tell stories, I want to give people a platform to tell their stories. Somewhere where people like me can talk about how government funding has forced them out of their home, or how tax cuts are forcing people to get another job. Real. Life. Issues.

So in conclusion, people still hate journalists, and maybe we’ll never be liked, who knows? But I believe that the furture generations of journalists want to make stories more relatable and more accessible, so maybe then we can redeem ourselves.

Feel free to let me know what you think, and I’ll see you in the next one.

Eva :)