I was a
journalist too. For a time. I guess, having a
degree in the subject will always make me a journalist, but I no longer engage in the
profession either. Why?
Well, besides low pay and constantly having to hound people to get their opinions on boring subject matter, being a journalist is sometimes a soul destroying thing for one reason: sometimes there is no news and without news we don't have jobs, so we create news.
I sometimes smile when I walk past a newspaper billboard or watch the news on TV. Sometimes there really is not much juicy gossip (news has really been reduced to gossip in the last 20 years) and they blatantly create a mountain out of a silly molehill to make you buy the paper or watch their channel. It is especially noticeable in the United Kingdom when compared to back home in South Africa. Imagine leading a news broadcast with the fact that the Prime Minister's wife is pregnant! Is this news? No. Its gossip. And I will have no part of it thanks. I dont want to work for Hello! Magazine.