Journalism = Character Building

The longer I am involved in journalism, the more I realize it's a lot more difficult than I ever expected. I knew it would be hard - ya know - take me out of my comfort zone, but I never realized it would be this hard. But after pondering the difficulty for awhile, and debating over journalism or dietetics, I realized, everything that I don't like doing about Journalism is something that builds my Christian character.

1. Deadlines - ummm . . . okay, maybe not everything I don't like about Journalism is characer building. Let me know if you can think of any eternal benefits to dealing with deadlines.

2. Finding to random sources - I can't even count the number of times I have had to walk up to random people and ask them about a particular topic, or ask if I can take a picture of them, or ask if I can video tape them. It's hard to walk up to some random person you've never met and ask them some annoying questions that they probably don't really want to answer anyway! Kinda like it's hard to walk up to a random person and ask them about their spiritual beliefs and if they were to die today how sure would they be that they would go to heaven? Talking to random people for news stories or photojournalism assignments or what not gets me out of my comfort zone. I'm constantly worried that the person I'm talking to thinks I'm stupid, or really isn't intrested in talking to me, or doesn't have the time to chat with me. It is my hope that dealing with all of these fears for my journalism classes will help me overcome my fears with sharing the gospel and doing cold turkey evangelism!

3. Interviews - Interviews are just weird. I never know what questions to ask, I'm always worried that the person I'm interviewing thinks I'm doing a terrible job! But there is a lot about interviewing that builds character too! It's a great test in listening. You may go into the interview with a plan of where you think the interview will go, but you have to be open to where the subject leads it. I constantly hear the same example: You're talkin' to someone and ask him or her a question, he or she answers "Yeah, that's cool, but I really hate my life and I think I'm going to kill myself." Or "Yeah, and I started a meth lab in my bacement." And then the reporter goes on to ask the next question on the list having nothing to do with the suicide threat or the meth lab. BAD IDEA! When interviewing, you have to listen to the person you're talking to. You can't just turn your brain off. It's kinda like what ya have to do when you're talking to someone about a problem. You have to listen to what they're saying and let them explain it to you. You may have an idea where the conversation is going, but you have to let the person you're talking to lead it there. Also, interviewing requires silence. You have to shut-up and listen! You may want to put your two cents in, but the story's not about you - it's about your subject! So let them talk! Same deal with talking to people about threre problems (reflective listening), it's their problem - let them tell you about it. Don't chime in with how hard your life is too! I mean yeah, sometimes it's appropriate or okay, but most of the time people just want to be listened to, they don't want to hear about your problems. It's a selfishness issue. Who are you really thinking about: the person you're talking to, or yourself?

4. Not being able to use the word "fruition" - Journalism is all about writing for the mass audience. You have to use words that the masses understand. Aparently the masses don't understand the word "fruition." Pathetic! What are our schools coming to?!! Anyway, although the Christian life doesn't forbid the word "fruition," which I am very thankful for, by the way, I guess you could liken this to swearing - I don't know. I don't really have a problem with swearing, but some people do. You just can't use every word that you want to! So restrictive!

So yeah, I really hate Journalism, and I hate stepping out of my comfort zone and doing things I don't like to do (hence I hate doing them - I'm pretty sure hence is a no-no in the broadcast world too). So I might switch my major to dietetics and go to college for three more years. But I think that I'll find there are a lot of things about dietetics that I hate too . . . and I haven't found many character building opportunities in science.

Thanks for listening to my banter! It was great fun!