Is it the passion that
drives one into the field of journalism or the mere joy of being famous or is
it just the curiosity that leads to the field? Malavikka Sridhar talks to some
faces of the industry that have left their set careers and joined the field to
feel the craze of the industry.
Journalism has a speciality of its own. Unlike
any other profession, journalism can neither be chosen for money nor parental
pressure. It’s the passion that drives people towards this career. No matter
where life’s maze directs them to, at the end of the day they find their way as
they are destined to be a journalist. One can even call it as the power of
ambition. It is that passion and ambition that gets people back on their track
towards journalism despite having worked in various other fields. There are
people who gave journalism a second chance and as a result, they are where they
are.
“I had passion for writing ever since my
school days. But due to my academic excellence, my parents enrolled me in
engineering and I landed at an IT company. But there, as a tester, I had to sit
at my desk and mechanically repeat the same testing process every day. I wanted
to use my creativity in a better platform and I switched to journalism”, says
Naveena Vijayan, reporter of City Express, The New Indian Express.
Journalism has a wide scope for
learning. You just don’t hear about the news but also get to see the happenings
live on the spot and report about it to the channel or newspaper. It might seem
pressurizing to finish the report or story within the given deadline. But
tracking down a scoop on deadline, when the newsroom is buzzing with dozens of
people doing the same — it’s an adrenaline rush. Plenty of jobs in this world
offer the prospect of unrelieved boredom. But this pressure is something
enjoyable rather than a stress.
The joy of seeing ones by line rewards all the
pressure undergone and it turns out to be an excitement instead of a stress. “I
used to work for a leading IT company in Chennai for not more than two years.
My life became a routine, from office desk to home and was a victim of a
stereotypical life system in our society. I had a passion for writing that grew
me out of the routine and made me look out of the window more often. This is
why I chose to walk away from my routine and walk into the career of writing.
Today, being a journalist has helped me get access to many things. Knowledge is
the base for everything, journalism provides me that”, says Priya Sridhar,
reporter of City Express, The New Indian Express.
‘Mass media’ allow people working in it to
become celebrity themselves. The taste of fame is more delicious than the taste
of authority. With authority, one could control a restricted number of people
whereas as a journalist, what one portrays in their write up has the power to
even change the government. It influences the decision of people in voting for
candidates. Working for the masses or say, being someone known by the whole
country and being someone that the whole country trusts is a better compliment
and has better satisfaction than working for a single company and its welfare. “I
worked in a corporate office for two years. Although it offered me perks and
benefits to make me look happy, at the end of the day I realized I was not
satisfied with the work I had done. The newspaper always attracted me, not only
because of the fame it got along with it but also because of the satisfaction
it gives when you know you have made a small difference in the society today. The
joy of reaching out to a wider audience was not found in working for a
corporate all through the day”, says Preethi Thomas, reporter at Edex, The New
Indian Express.
Journalism is a profession widely sought
for satisfaction and the happiness of doing it. Journalists get to meet
interesting people and celebrities. They get to build a lot of contacts which
would help them at every point of life and nurture their growth in the
industry. They also have the power to write the truth and express their opinion
on things. They can review various things, guide people towards what is right
and what is wrong and tell them things, exactly the way they are. “I was a
content writer earlier. My interest was definitely in writing. But as a content
writer I had to be biased and promote the company I worked for. Though the job
involved writing, after a point of time, I realized that there was more to
writing than just promotion. It is journalism that has supported me to write
straightforwardly and put forth the real facts”, says Zara Khan, Sub Editor at
National Desk, The Hindu.
Being a journalist is the best. That’s
all there is to it. Yes, there are too few really good jobs and too many people
fighting for them. Yes, salaries start out quite low. Yes, the hours can be
long and irregular. Yes, the industry is in a period of extreme disruption,
with lots of old jobs being destroyed, and the new ones typically offer less
security and require different skills.None of that changes the core fact here. For
those who are cut out for it — and that’s definitely not everyone — journalism
is a uniquely rewarding, wonderful career.
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