Be in the News and the Question Is Not Why, But How

People may expect too much of journalism. Not only do they expect it to be entertaining, they expect it to be true. 
— Lewis H Lapham

The role of journalism is as huge as it is powerful. Its impact is the engine that drives democracy.

People have different reasons why they are or want to be a journalist and how they are or want to be in journalism. We can make it better if we understand how role-playing can be incorporated in the job. We can also make it even more fun if we put the things into practice.

Introduction

In my post-graduation days, in my class I had a friend from one of the corners in North India. His aspiration was to become a crime reporter. He would say he loved crime —not in a Charles-Sobhrajistic style or being a ‘partner’ of crime. By crime, he meant those that we see on television or read in newspapers. He considered it as the supreme form of infotainment and his goal was to be right there at the centre of all the action, and inform the public about excesses of human folly. And while he is into it, he can as well earn some good moolah.

A thousand of reasons exists why people want to be in this trade. Above anything else, let me share with you one of them. Journalism allows you a lot of role-plays. What’s more, you can even make the roles fancier according to your whims. This is exactly what I have understood, solely from all the theories and concepts I have learnt from journalism and media studies.

First, you can be a Firestarter. As you stoke the embers of a previous day’s happenings, be it local or global, you start the fire of debates and discussions. You don’t have to yap continuously like a lapdog, like Arnab Gowami would do, but you can still stoke the embers of a major event. You stoke the embers of a secret dealing, a secret happening, an important dealing, an important happening. You stoke the embers in government offices. In important places. Important residences. On important occasions. Just start the fire! The fate of democracy depends on the foundation of this fire.  

If that is too hot to start with, you can play the role of an Idealist. Journalism and democracy might not be the two sides of a coin yet both of these are dependent of each other. One of the essential tasks is to help build democracy with journalism and you can start where the Greeks left off. You can begin by, well, thinking about an ideal world. 

 

Write about all the dreams and expectations, no matter how outlandish those are. Abnormality is not the issue; the point is to be an idealist. And journalism―with all its space and time slots―gives you the privileges. Just in case, if it sounds too utopian for your hyper-active life, there are other roles on the platter. 

How about being a Moral Scientist? Rocket scientist is a cliché, and mathematics might be too cruel to let you be one. 

 

The best thing about this option is that you can help people distinguish between the good and the bad and the ugly. Even if you care less about the moral part, journalism can help the public make informed and important decisions. It does not matter even if you are a cow-loving gentleman who would buy land and sell it off at an inflated rate to people building a temple. As long as you have a pen and a mic, you can be a real moral scientist.

As it has been mentioned, when it comes to role playing, the options are limitless. Next on the line, without being the Lucifer, you can be a Light Bringer or an Informer. You bring the light by informing the people about what’s happening around us. So, a Light Bringer or Informer, you choose the title. Or you have another one entirely different?

Suppose you are just an intern who is yet to complete your degree in communications or media studies. Worry no more. You can start your career, right away, as the General Manager of the Universe. You need not be from Krypton or be Superman’s cousin. You can care about and talk about the world and specifically about how to make the world a better place with journalism. 

 

To be a general manager, you just have to create stories about everything in the universe. Write and talk about how climate change is a curse; why, as of July 2021, Twitter has been banned in Nigeria; how Elon Musk became a human being though he was born on Mars; when Adolf Hitler had sexually assaulted his niece out of frustration because he got only one ball; which countries have extended lockdown restrictions; how China had created coronavirus deliberately for research but the Chinese scientists made a mistake and it has caused a pandemic; why the Olympics is going ahead in the middle of a pandemic; and so on and on. In this age of smartphones, Facebook, Blogger and YouTube, it’s even easier to jumpstart a career in this field.

See, in less than five minutes, you can play as many roles as you want. With journalism, you can as well be a Responsibilist, who makes the government and the authority responsible and accountable. You can be the Rebel who, without wearing a cape or a carrying a magic wand, would right the wrong at the right time and right place. All you need is a pen and a sheet of paper. All you need is a smartphone. All you need is the passion.

So, in a nutshell, you can be a/an:

1. Firestarter
2. Idealist
3. Moral Scientist
4. Light Bringer or an Informer
5. General Manager of the Universe
6. Responsibilist
7. Rebel
8. Newsmaker

People have different reasons why they are or want to be a journalist and how they are or want to be in journalism. We can only make it better if we understand how role-playing can be incorporated in the job. We can also make even more reasonable if we put the things into practice. However, in the desperation for role-play, we might play down the the seriousness of this noble profession. We must not.

 

One last thing. We have the concept of occupational hazards. To give you a broad idea, you can be an icecream maker. Well, that can be one of the easiest jobs in the world. But sometimes, you might have to work with a deadline because a customer has ordered it for a birthday the next day. You might also have problems because of the lack of manpower or the resource. The point is that you can still have issues even if you have the easiest job in the world.

 

In other words, each profession comes with its bag of expectation and reality, the good and the bad, and the fun part and the killing part. It is no different for media and journalism. We can talk about these things after you make a decision to who you are according to the eight options listed above.

Conclusion

The role of journalism is as huge as it is powerful besides being such a dynamic field. Its impact is the engine that drives democracy. How it engages and empowers is its objective. Even my North Indian friend realised, back then, that crime reporting was just a passing fad and joined a mainstream Hindi daily as soon as we graduated.

So, you can be in the news, and by news I’m referring to journalism and media in general. Now the question is not why, but how.

 

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