Just A Humble Journalism Student

All journalists are not television reporters

Twice this week when people heard I just graduated with my journalism degree, they said to me, “Oh, maybe I’ll see you on T.V. someday!”

This is a huge pet peeve of mine: People automatically equating “journalist” with “television reporter.”

Photo by flikr user stekelbes

I’ve always wanted to be a writer and in recent years developed an interest in multimedia (including shooting and editing video), but I have never had an interest in doing stand-ups in front of the camera. I’ve always wanted to be a writer or run an editor at a publication. While print and television reporters may employ the same research and interview techniques, there is still a difference in what we do.

I don’t consider it an insult or anything — I’m just not a television reporter; I chose the magazine and multimedia route. I, too, watch the news (in fact, I have CNN Newsroom on right now) and I have great respect for the reporters. Several of friends who took the telecommunications track at UF.

What upsets me the most about the “maybe I’ll see you on TV”-comment is the reasons WHY the public automatically makes this assumption. Is it a sign or symptom of the death of print journalism?

In an age of the 24-hour news cycle, smart phone applications and social media, does the public forget about the journalists whose faces they don’t see on TV? They don’t realize that it is because of a journalist that they are getting news updates sent to their phone. Or that because of a journalist that some of them still get that black and white thing called a newspaper, or that colorful, glossy thing called a magazine.