Still a Journalist

One of my job duties for the college I work at is to produce our semi-annual alumni magazine. When I started in this job, I decided I wanted to take the magazine into a bit of a different direction and write some substantial articles for it. I'm in the midst of the next issue right now.

Yesterday I was talking with our new VP about his background, etc. for both a press release and an article to run in the magazine. He looks at me at one point in the conversation and says "You're good at this. Most people don't get this much information out of me. Have you ever been a reporter?"

I laughed. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I have," I responded. (Those of you reading this who know me from when I worked at that newspaper or for Internet Broadcasting Systems at WYFF obviously know this already)

So I shared a little bit of my background. Then he asked if I miss it.

I really have mixed feelings on that. There are days that I do and there are days that I don't, both for various reasons. Admittedly, I often enjoyed the byline. You won't find a journalist who doesn't to some degree.

I miss the adrenaline of it. I miss getting the scoop. I miss knowing things about situations or things about people that they don't want other people to know, whether you have found this out by them telling you or through other means; free food at various functions; or getting to talk one-on-one with Dan Quayle after a politcal rally. I miss the confrontation -- again, to a degree. I miss, although I did find this a little shocking to take in the first time, hearing other reporters talk smack about the governor, minutes before he walks into an executive press briefing.

There's a certain part of me that really enjoyed sticking the First Amendment in people's faces -- working your way into a county council, city council or school board meeting that they had no intention of letting anyone else into, only for them to realize they're against the wall, you're not leaving, and they can face some serious repurcussions both from a legal and publicity standpoint.

One of the elementary schools in our coverage area lost a student (Kindergartener, he accidentally became hung on a shoestring he was playing with when it became wrapped around a clothesline and died) and a teacher (died from from a burst brain aneurysm while she was giving birth) over the course of a school year. At the end of the year, I was sitting down with the principal talking about the year and what the school (it was new that year) had accomplished. He started crying as he was talking about these two individuals and how difficult their deaths had been on the school. I don't miss situations like that. That's one of the those situations where you can almost never find what you feel are the right words to say. I don't miss being in that kind of position.

I don't miss getting to the scene of a car accident before they've gotten the white sheet out. I don't miss being called at 8 am in the morning on a Saturday by an angry school superintendent.

I was at a professional development conference in Wilmington, NC a few weeks ago with colleagues from several dozen other colleges and universities. During one of the sessions, on new media and new techniques for news delivery, the speaker, Doug Fisher, a journalism prof from the University of South Carolina advanced to a slide saying:

You are a journalist

Whether you're writing a press release or an article for a magazine, working in public information for a college basically means you're a journalist - if you were brought up in journalism or not.

The big difference is you don't have to write about bad stuff all the time. Occasionally, yes, you have to do a press release or talk about something not real pleasant like a crime on campus, or the passing of a former faculty member. But it's enjoyable for a change to tell the stories about these kids and of the faculty and staff or the school's growth and plans for the future.

The students love seeing their photos or having their names appear in the newspaper or on TV; faculty and staff enjoy it just the same. It is so rewarding to see these kids' faces light up when they know that you're there to tell the world something about them or take their photo and put it on the website or in one of our publications.

So, yeah, I used to be a reporter. But I'm still a journalist. At least according to Mr. Fisher.