Love me or Hate me

Alright guys I’ve had enough. What is good journalism? Because I’m getting a little confused. I mean as far as I understood it for a very long time there is a formula, a specific equation for creating the perfect upside down pyramid news story. And I’m sorry but the majority of the stories I have any interest in writing don’t necessarily fit into that perfect little frame… at all.

News is supposed to be important to everyone, crucial to everyone, information everyone can use. Well NEWSFLASH (pardon once again the ridiculous pun): Not everyone is interested in the same thing. There are certain events that anyone and everyone will consider news. September 11th for example was an event that warranted being on the front page, being covered first – it was huge and 99.9% of the America would probably agree. However when we get down to the nitty gritty, the slow news day nonsense…not everyone is going to have an interest in the same thing. Newsworthy: what does that even mean?

I am so tired of being told what stories I should tell or how I should tell them based on the same formula that everyone before me has used. How is that innovative? How is that effective? How is that worth anything to anyone? Risks and new and different angles are important. I’ve said it from day one: the future of journalism is in the hands of the students currently learning it. We see things differently and THANK GOD! Because I don’t want to wear the suit and cover the same types of stories that have been being covered since forever. I don’t have an idol when it comes to journalism, because as far as I’m concerned I want my work to be my own. I want to write with my own voice, and tell stories with some perspective in them. Alright so I’m not cut out for hard news, I’ve always known that. Ever since my first journalism teacher told me there was a certain way to write a story.

I happen to like a bit of personality in what I write. In fact I would go so far as to say that me spitting out random facts and nonsense in a particular way isn’t even what I consider to be my writing at all. Rather some arbitrary exercise is boredom.

If given the choice between being a journalist who is well respected by everyone around me for work that I hate or being frowned upon for having an absurd and sometimes opinionated voice that I love, I choose the latter. Because I believe that emotion in everything and especially writing is imperative. So love me or hate me and my writing, I really refuse to simply be an echo of the voices before me…I really really refuse.