Do You Really Want to Be A Journalist?

Alan Capper, President, Foreign Press Association, New York

I am currently reading submissions from foreign graduate students of journalism in the United States. The Foreign Press Association Scholarship Find is again offering a minimum of three scholarships as encouragement to the pursuit of a career in journalism. Recently, a German journalist told me that he had dissuaded a younger friend from pursuing a career in journalism. “It’s changed so much, it’s riskier than ever, and at the end the pay is not that great.” So is journalism a career still to be pursued?

Under the able leadership of our Director Suzanne Adams, our students are being specifically invited to relate to a hypothesis from Chris Anderson’s new book, “Free; the Future of a Radical Price.” Among other things Mr. Anderson believes that newspapers need to accept that content is never going to be worth what they want it to be worth and they will need to reinvent either business.”

With 60,000 layoffs across the media spectrum in the United States in the last 14 months, this is probably a thoughtful time for all of us. The decline of newspapers, the falling audiences for network and cable news programs and the ability to get news whenever we want it from a variety of new sources does indicate a seismic change in the prospects for our profession.

Mr. Anderson continues, “Out of the bloodbath will come a new role for professional journalists. There will be more of them, not fewer, as the ability to participate in journalism extends beyond the credentialed halls of traditional media. But they may be paid far less, and for many it won’t be a full time job at all. Journalism as a profession will share the stage with journalism as an advocation. ”

If we are to continue as journalists in this changing environment will we be part of a new vast spectrum of information delivered by blogs, instant messaging, and websites?An optimistic view is that this will create more opportunities as Mr. Anderson suggests. But is it also the end of the crusading campaigning journalism that newspapers have particularly implemented so well?

The role of the foreign correspondent is particularly interesting in this context. The early pictures from the appalling tragedy of Haiti were delivered by cell phone cameras and private individuals, a striking example of citizen journalism. Many foreign news bureaus are already being reduced in size as technology provides further opportunities for cutting costs. I do not believe that anyone can completely foresee the result of all of these factors.

So why be a journalist? Personally I never wanted to be anything else when I was growing up. But this is a question that that the FPA will examine further during 2010 and invite participation from the schools of journalism, many of whom provide the student entries for the Foreign Press Association Scholarship Awards. What those students say in their submissions will provide a revealing view of the aspirations of the next generation of journalists, and how they see the future of our profession.

The distinguished British Journalist Robert Fist is quite certain about why he is a journalist. “Journalism is about watching and witnessing history and recording it as honestly as we can. At best, journalists sit at the edge of history as vulcanologists might clamor to the lip of a smoking crater, to peer over at what happens within.”