Why all the hate? Journalists are people too.
In the United States, journalists are seen as nosey, invasive and often downright sleazy. For some reason the American public doesn’t have a generally good feeling or trust for reporters. Maybe the resentment was born back in the age of yellow journalism when newspapers would print just about anything to sell stories. Or maybe it’s from all the bad—excuse the pun-—press that journalists are just out to get people.
No matter what you think of journalists, you should always know that most journalists are just doing their job. Sure our job might require we be there asking questions during death or difficult times, or we might bankrupt a company due to a scandal that is reported on. Journalists act the same way you do about working, we complain and drink lots of coffee to make it through the day.
A lot of people don’t really understand what a journalists does. Most people just pick up their morning paper and take it for granted. Behind every article, every section, every issue, there is a hard-working team that spent eight to 18 hours working on that newspaper.
This means we find stories, go meet sources, we talk to a lot of people, we dig through records, and so much more before we even sit down to write. Those 300 to 500 words you read have hours of time put into them, all to inform the public.
Journalists don’t have a malicious intent when they’re reporting. We’re not out there to get you. We don’t want to ruin your life or reputation. Especially student journalists. A lot of us are just here at The Colonnade for the experience and fun. We do this in our spare time for the most part. It just so happens that for some of us The Colonnade is also our employer.
Now this isn’t meant to be all about how under-appreciated we are because we certainly recognize there are jobs a LOT more under-appreciated than ours. We simply feel that people shouldn’t feel so nervous, angry, resentful or generally freaked out by a journalist.
When we come up to you and want to ask you a question, try and remember we’re just doing our job. It’s a job that we love and work very hard at doing. So trust us a little more, please.
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