Tromping through pouring rain, visiting slums of town where drug deals and violence are normal occurrences, getting yelled at from people you talk to from time to time, pitching a story you're passionate about and spent all night researching, only to have it assigned to a different reporter so the story can be "cast" right.
It's all in a day's work for a reporter.
I was warned from the very beginning that this job is not pretty, like it appears to be on TV. A reporter's 10-15 seconds of on-air glory are attained only from a long day's work, and plenty of stress to accompany it. People may know your name, and one day you may become a local celebrity. You can have the fame, but not the perks that come with it. You will never bask in the riches of today's Hollywood stars.
When you graduate from college, you have to be 110% okay with the fact that you will most likely move hundreds, even thousands of miles away from your hometown, your friends, and your family. Most likely, you will end up in a small town where you know not a single soul, where you will have to start your life over, living on a 25-30 thousand dollar salary.
Why, then, would any person in their right mind want to pursue a job like this? Am I crazy for choosing this field? I could have put my math skills to use and studied to be an accountant. At least then I'd be much more likely to find a job when I graduate, and would probably be making a heck of a lot more than I would be making IF and WHEN I get my first job as a reporter.
Well, I guess you could say reporters are crazy. It takes a special kind of crazy to do what we do and keep coming back for more.
Now, here's why I do it. Here's why I could NEVER see myself doing anything else.
I love people. I enjoy hearing different perspectives, seeing different facets, and meeting all kinds of people from various financial and social backgrounds. As reporters, our job is to give ordinary people with a story to share the chance to speak out to the community.
It's all summed up in one simple phrase: to give a voice to the otherwise voiceless.
I have never considered myself to be a natural leader. All my life, I always thought it was right to keep my opinions to myself and avoid arguments. I've always stood on neutral ground, extremely cautious if I were ever to take a step in a different direction. Some say this is a submissive approach, and they are right. But, I like to be fair and hear from all sides before forming my own opinion about things, and even then, I tend to prefer to stay open-minded. And since I am pursuing this field, it is absolutely necessary that I continue to do so.
A reporter who shows bias is a reporter who has the potential to completely and permanently destroy their credibility with one slip-up. Once that slip-up is made, it can be nearly impossible to recover from it.
I love this job because you don't have to be a leader to get people to pay attention to and care about what you're saying. And the people we interview don't have to be either. Sure, we always interview public information officers, senators, and other important officials. But most of the time, that is only to back up the facts we are telling, and add supplemental information to the story.
The ones the people, our viewers, really listen to are the ones who are just like them.
I would be lying if I said I don't want to become a famous reporter, and have people who watch the news in my local community know my name and recognize me in public. And I do admit that I love getting to be on camera. But I want to be an ordinary person, too. I want to be someone that people will open up and talk to because they know they can trust me to tell their story fairly.
Most of all, I want people to see that reporters aren't the obnoxious people they see in the movies, who hound people for sensational interviews to make good television. My goal is for people to see us for the job we really do: to report on stories that the community cares about, and let people know that we care about them.
I want to make a difference in whatever community I land in, one story and one person at a time. Giving a voice to the voiceless is a powerful thing, and it's a power that even non-leader types can possess. At the end of the day, being able to do that is worth the blood, sweat and tears.
This is my dream, and I will work hard for it with everything I've got until it becomes a reality.
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