Student to Professional Journalism: What changes?
I've been a student journalist at my university's newspaper, The Asbury Collegian, for four years now, from a staff writer freshman year, to the executive editor now my senior year. However, during the summer of 2016, I got my first taste of professional journalism, and it was eye opening. I interned at my local weekly newspaper for eight weeks, essentially joining the team for the months I was there. Whether you're a student getting ready to enter the professional world, or you would just like to understand a little more about what the job of a journalist entails, here are the lessons I learned about the difference between a university newspaper position and a community newspaper role:
1. LIFE AS A REAL WORLD JOURNALIST AT A LOCAL PAPER IS NOT GLAMOROUS.
At Asbury University, where I'm currently completing my undergrad degree, the budget for media communications majors is fairly high, courtesy of well-off alumni and a school that takes what we do very seriously. Our newsroom is housed in a wonderful space within a university building, and our needs are paid for by student fees. We have the budget to buy a new Mac desktop computer when our old one breaks down. We have the budget to sustain morale by providing one free dinner a week to our staff. And on that note, we have the budget and enough interest from the community to maintain a staff of 16 students—not that they get paid much, but we can give them all something, as well as structure our working hours to allow for another job if need be. I'm lucky that Asbury views the Collegian as an asset and such an enjoyable leadership experience.
At the newspaper where I interned, we worked in an old, slightly rundown office. Some of the lights didn't work, and there were holes in the walls. We worked in cubicles—not even the editor had his own office. This newspaper had recently been bought by a large organization that owned hundreds of community papers all over the country. As with most large corporations, executives saw the employees as numbers—costly numbers—and fired several reporters before I arrived. Upon my employment (an internship made possible only by the Kentucky Press Association, which covered my paycheck), there were three other editorial positions: the editor, a reporter, and a sports writer. There was no copyeditor. On deadline day, we passed proofs from desk to desk, taking turns editing each other's articles. There were no photographers. When I covered an event, I had a Canon Rebel slung around my neck and a reporter's notepad in hand. There were no layout designers or a creative director. The editor, reporter, and sports writer were in charge of designing their own spreads, editing their own photos, and creating their own graphics.
Interning in this environment taught me to be more self-sufficient. It also taught me how versatile you have to be as a journalist in the current tight-budget climate. You have to be able to write, take photographs, and design spreads. It's not enough to just be a good writer, or just be a good photographer, or just be a good designer anymore. Sometimes you'll have to be on the side of the road in the middle of summer, snapping photos of a wreck and interviewing firefighters, then you'll have to attend an art gallery opening and write the article about it the same day.
One week this fall, we decided to toss copies of the Collegian in the air outside the office for a photography project and ended up with this gem in our outtakes.
2. BOTH STUDENT AND PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS FACE MORAL DILEMMAS.
As a student journalist, particularly for a college newspaper whose funding comes from the university, we face challenges against our journalistic integrity every day. I have been asked by the administration to let a big story die because it was bad publicity, not to run controversial stories during prospective student visits, and not to write about important issues because "it's all you talk about." I was once told by a member of the administration that faculty and staff would trust us more if we wrote only positive articles.
One of my first experiences as an intern was traveling to Frankfort, Kentucky's capital, to join several other Kentucky newspapers under the large organization's umbrella. We met with Governor Matt Bevin's communications director about how we could best cover the government there. She began the discussion by pointing out how the Herald-Leader, Lexington's newspaper, had given Bevin very bad press and had fostered a negative relationship with the governor. She then encouraged us to write positive stories about what Bevin was doing, essentially glossing over any controversial or negative issues, and in turn, we would be given first access to stories and exclusive scoops.
Any journalist knows that PR, whether at a university or in the Kentucky government, is a nightmare—but it's one you have to learn to deal with. Without PR, we wouldn't know what stories to write and have access to important interviews, but it's a constant battle not to create scorched earth when they're asking you to turn a blind eye on controversy or misconduct.
Governor Matt Bevin. Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore.
3. COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE MORE WILLING TO TALK THAN THE REST OF THE WORLD.
This was a lesson I learned the hard way. One of my first experiences in the field, as you say, was covering the Democratic primary. I was given the task of waiting outside the polling station and asking every person who voted for their name, who they voted for, and why. This was Kentucky, so as you can imagine, there were about four people who came through in two hours. Three-fourths of those people were either secretly Republicans who were trying to sabotage the Democrats or just plain angry that they had the misfortune of being a Democrat, and the other person was a college student—go figure. One man actually yelled at me, "Are you kidding me? Of course I don't want to be in the media," as if claiming his Democratic alliance in the community newspaper of all places would be the worst thing ever to happen to him. The vibe I got from nearly every interview I did while interning was that I had to prove that I was trustworthy because the mainstream media had it out for every person in the United States, and I would somehow slander these people's good names in an article about a fundraiser for cancer (a lady actually called me worrying that I would misrepresent her about that exact thing).
In all my years of working for the Collegian, I am thankful to say I have never had one student yell at me. I've never had a student deny an interview, except for legitimate safety reasons for missionaries. I've never had a student be anything except happy to have their name in the paper. I've even had students speak openly about being Democrats (!) without anger or fear. Suffice it to say, something about the transition from college to the real world hardens people against the media and against poor community journalists who are just trying to do their job.
These students pretended I wasn't even there taking pictures of the event—a.k.a. the best kind of people for journalistic purposes.
Do you have similar stories about facing challenges to your journalistic integrity or being a "Renaissance" journalist in the tight-budget world of today? Tell me about it in the comments!