Friday, December 23, 2011

A checklist to see if you really are a journalist

Getting a degree in journalism isn't on it, it might be interesting.
Written a 15-inch story in 30 minutes
Corrected a loved one’s grammar in a greeting card
Replaced one of the major food groups with coffee
Own your own police scanner
Eat in your car more often than you do at a table
Gotten fired/laid off for no good reason
Forgotten what it’s like to have the weekend off
Can no longer read a newspaper without scanning for typos and errors
Learned that being told to “fuck off “ and “go to hell” is part of the job
Woke in a cold sweat thinking you forgot to change the date on A1
Spend your down time coming up with the perfect lede
Slept in your car and not because you were too drunk to drive home
Found that fine line between harassment and persistence
If you needed bail, the first person you would call would be your editor
You analyze city council meetings the way sportscasters break down Monday night football
You think it’s normal to work 16 hours a day for 8 hours pay
Have conducted a phone interview while completely naked
Can write an entire interview on a cocktail napkin
Threatened to quit over an editorial decision
You couldn’t imagine doing anything else

And from the comments
You’ve every gotten into a long or heated discussion over the use of punctuation, spelling or word definitions.

Via Stuff Journalists Like

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