Whatsa matter?
A couple of years into being a journalist and I started feeling like a fake. I mean while preparing to go take an interview of an industry expert, research was done and yes I did not ask any dumb questions that made me look ignorant and like I had not done enough homework but still I mean someone would read what I write and if he is anything like my dad, he would believe the newspapers are the last word on anything and totally irrefutable.
Nowadays I still write, in niche publications rather than in newspapers, but the feeling of being a fake does not go away. As a friend pointed out, may be you are not supposed to be writing! Well since I postponed the making that decision.. am going to rant in the way I know best!
So yes feeling like a fake... dispensing advice to professional when all u know can be found off a google search engine. Read that book btw and I know its good! So really where do we get by so I-dont-know presumptuous? Eventually I guess you do get knowledgeable on a particular subject and stream but till then.. hmmph...
The whole gamut - how news is trivialised, how journalists are ghetto-ised, how nothing really matters any more, how when press club came out with a survey, which among others things said, how there no tribal journalists... I dont know .. its probably an ennui with the profession itself. .
On a totally off note.. a couple of my colleagues came across a white paper that was replicated in its entirety in a book on the subject, without any attribution wotsoever. So to my colleagues who are first time journos, this blatant plaigarism totally irritated them.
Both of them wrote to the original author in the US and much to their surprise he responded with much alacrity. "I did not know this kind of thing mattered in India.." he said among other things, and was happy we noticed it and asked for the publisher's name. The authors, one of who is, an IIT Delhi professor! So lets see if anything comes out of it.
posted by Janaki @ 1:04 AM
6 Comments:
jaygee,
The number of half-a***d reports one gets to read makes one turn to alternate mediums like blogs and online forums. There is no dearth of reporters rehashing and regurgitating old stuff to the extent that it becomes truth. There are very few journos like TSSubbu of Hindu who really know what they write about.
It is good that you are conscious of this. I am happy that you are worried about how you write & what you write. That will make you write what you actually believe in and thus stand out. Don't be too hard on yourself though. Developing insights takes time and effort. Arun Shouries and Sucheta Dalals do not happen overnight.
And the US based author you mention has to be a slimy ball regardless of his impression on India - for he tried to take credit for that piece of text at least in his country. I have seen this happen a few times in other fields.
Cheers!
you know Jay.. you're are one of the few idiots who bother with morals and ethics and ask existential questions. most journos dont care, as long as they get to see their mugs on tv or get bylines. dont beat urself up. i have yet to come across anyone who truly believes in the work they do.... this is professional life today.
hey dont call me an idiot on my blog!!:D existential questions!! hardly.. but may b its some Sartre forced on me.:)
sometimes it's good to be a jack-of-all-trades. journalism demands versatility, and if you can offer that, your career options grow. if you wrote only about let's say insurance... how far would you go?
but certainly, if you had more expertise, you'd ask more compelling questions. if you write for expert readers, you feel right. if you write for laypeople, nothing is fake. you are as good as them, just a better writer and data analyst. sometimes you are an expert, you don't even know that. the learning curve is endless. and if you didn't write about the topic well, your publication will fire you.
As long as you are purveying the information correct, I guess you need not worry about being a fake.
being from a news wire service, I operate in a deadline environment, no time to sit and add expertise to a topic. That is what is so frustrating. I'd love to experience a niche pub environment.
J, this is exactly the same army of thoughts I have battled with for over 5 years.. Sadly a whole lot of us who get in the profession are trained to think they do have the right and authority to dispense advice and pass on their versions of the situation -- I'm avoiding using the word truth -- to unsuspecting readers and believing that there is nothing wrong with that. Is Journalism not the place to be if you have a conscience and ethics that don't allow you to pass random judgements on things and subjects that you have an outsider's view of? I don't think we need to feel so guilty about being here...No matter how much I have been pushed to colouring the message of my story with an opinion or a belief the editor has -- and I think I have usually not given in -- I have kept telling myself that I am here because I like expressing, describing and analysing and not dispensing advice. The role of a journalist is to be the window, the medium. I still remember what Jaggi said long back when he was sending us to an interview. He said, "Always remember that you are not the expert, you are the journalist. You can analyse but don't exhort or take sides." While this approach might result in giving a neutral impression, it is still a fairer approach to have. As for expertise, yes, expertise in a particular subject helps, but it helps your vertical growth within an organisation more than your overall development, as a person and a journalist too. Put v broadly, journos prefer doing either one of these: specialising because it results in a good deal of comfort level and also to gain expertise in the subject or become mavericks or generalists..It's just a matter of choice. I have grown to believe that you might choose from any set of preferences but in the end, you really don't have to be an super-specialised expert to be a good journalist.
Hye khakra.. niche publications yes have its own plus and minus points and also helps me build expertise in a subject.. and unlike a paper I dont always need a voice to my article, therefore absolving me of the responsibility that I am pretending to be something I am not.
SC - I always wished I could work with Jaggi. Even emcee thataway had amazing fundas that helped. But the bosses we worked with.. bylines were more important than whether it was really news. Yes a good journalist is my aim!
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