A Journalist?!

What do you want to be in the future? A statement every young adult has heard time and time again. I know I have heard it a fair few times and my response is always the same. “I want to be a journalist.” Now this statement is my answer and yet my answer is often questioned with uncomfortable intonations and pursed lips as if my recipient has just sucked on a lemon…
“A JOURNALIST?!”
“Yes. A journalist.”
As they beg me to question why I have chosen this career path, I can often say that sometimes I am unsure myself. As a child I dreamed about saving the world. Maybe I wish to write as a way of letting the public know the rights and wrongs of our society? Then I discovered music and a love of entertainment. Maybe I want to incorporate my two passions into one written nirvana?
But these are two very different routes in such a diverse circle. And for the most part, many people jump to assumptions about ones reputation in this career before they get a chance to explain their personal likes and interests. I know this because it has happened to me.

“A JOURNALIST? But why, is that not a bit…sleazy?”
I always answer adamantly that this career path is one of choice. But I can fully understand why assumptions into the trustworthiness of such a person can be made. We have seen unruly behaviour occur in the media time and time again consequently forcing the public into seeing these public servants as the equivalent to vermin. Corporate giant Rupert Murdoch for example is seen to be one of the prime contenders in the debate of why so many people in society are abhorrent of journalists.

Ethical dilemmas are a wandering disaster for the reputation of such a person, hence why it appears that one small slip up can damage the face of the journalist instantaneously. And one small minority of ‘the bad’ seep into the minds of the public reinforcing the idea that this industry is untrustworthy. But this is not the case.

What about those that want to make society happy? Those that simply want to inform? Those that seek to make people laugh? And those that are covering the human’s own interest?
Are these bad journalists? And for someone who wants to go into this industry, it continues to pain me that there is such a negative light on these public servants. I want to change people’s pre-conceptions of my chosen career path.

I just want to make people joyful with what I write.