These past few days, I had the chance to chat with a fourth-year female student about the profession of #journalist. It was actually quite unexpected—she's not from a journalism major, but she has many senior classmates who are journalists, mostly in independent media rather than mainstream media. She's also considered becoming a journalist herself. Since I've worked at online media, commercial television, and my current niche media outlet, I shared some brief thoughts with her.
My journalism experience is somewhat unique. When I was in online news, I happened to cross over as a social media editor and editor. In television, besides being a text reporter who appears on camera, I also worked as a columnist in the online new media department—an experience relatively uncommon among young journalists. While I don't have the decade-plus of reporting experience of senior veterans in Taiwan's news media, I've had plenty of opportunities to shift perspectives between different platforms.
When I was in online news, I happened to cross over as a social media editor and editor; at television, besides being a text reporter who appears on camera, I also worked as a columnist in the online new media department—an experience relatively uncommon among young journalists. While my reporting experience in Taiwan's news media certainly doesn't match that of veterans with ten-plus years, I've had many opportunities to switch between different ways of thinking.
For me, the value that being a journalist has brought is #courage, #boldness, and #achievement.
#Courage is when I stood at a niche media facing Taiwan's richest person running for president, with no company direction, purely documenting what happened on the ground, and had the opportunity to pose sensitive questions rather than follow the angle the company would have dictated—because at my previous media outlet, I might not have been able to ask that question.
#Boldness is when I hold a television station's microphone, knowing I'll be the first to ask a question, positioned in the middle of the line, unable to fear speaking up and having to be decisive. Or kneeling next to Jeremy Lin, unable to let on that I completely don't understand sports. Or attending Wang Po-jung's press conference joining the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, and also having to raise my hand to represent the TV station alongside NHK to ask questions—but behind that is me shaking in body and soul, and hours beforehand reviewing Jeremy Lin's life story, memorizing Wang Po-jung's accomplishments like homework. Yes, our preparation time is maybe only a half-hour to an hour before the interview, and if we're lucky, we can prepare the day before.
#Achievement is knowing that every day I've made some progress, even though 80% of the time is spent managing expectations and coordinating with various units. It's also hearing perspectives from interviewees that I didn't know, getting access as a journalist to venues that most people couldn't visit in their regular job, and seeing reports get published and have impact on events.
Although journalists are filled with online criticism, I myself was once attacked and called "brain-dead" because I got the decimal point wrong on a birth rate statistic. I was also once tagged as a "prostitute" for being too sensationalistic in my social media posts as an editor. That incident affected me greatly—I've chosen not to forgive what those self-righteous trolls thought was justice.
I decided to pursue journalism in my second year of university and even took a graduate entrance exam for it. But news media from ten years ago differs vastly from now.
Taiwan's media environment has not provided a mentally and physically balanced and healthy workplace (such as a certain red media that removed 30 years of Tiananmen Square coverage from its archives). Watching my colleagues and friends, these past few days they've had to be at strike sites at 4 or 5 in the morning, quietly taking photos with strike banners, yet they still remain at their posts. I truly feel that media is the industry that needs strikes, but in reality, there are many limitations to actually achieving this.
Although the news environment is dire, there are still many outstanding seniors and friends working hard in this field. We just try to do our jobs well, yet we spend much more time trying to tell others how hard we work. This must be the occupation in the world where people suffer in silence the most.
