After all, there are regular polls of employment experts that smugly proclaim that news journalism has the worst prospects for the future out of all possible careers, and journalism schools are finding increasingly hard to fill classes with keen young things.
To be totally fair, this kind of pessimism is hard to avoid when there is constant talk about redundancies in the industry, and no shortage of commentators lamenting this loss (including, obviously, this very blog). It really can be as grim as it appears for many in the industry.
But even as newsrooms staff levels are slashed, there is still a huge need for new content, no matter what the format, and if there aren't going to be journalists in the future, who the hell is going to create it all? Content doesn't create itself, so there will always be opportunities and openings for journalists, even if - especially if - we don't have a fucking clue what they might look like right now.
Technology isn't going to do it. There is a huge need for a human eye overseeing the news, because computer algorithms, applications and programmes often miss the 'holy shit' moment in a story. Experiments with computer-written stories are always dry as fuck and often hilariously miss the point - the stories often forget to mention those 'holy shit' moments because the thing that humans find so interesting is something that hasn't happened before, and no piece of tech can ever expect or anticipate this kind of novelty.
So there will always be a need for people to produce the news for everybody else to consume. There are now more news sources than ever before, and even with all the dull moaning about fake news - which is a lot easier to avoid than some people like to pretend it is - there is a real thirst for information, which needs to be collected, collated and presented to the world.
There is a chance that the future will be engulfed by news generated by sentient data bots created by nerds on Vladimir Putin's payroll, but with more platforms than ever before, there will be a never-ending need for journalists to report, analyse and explain whatever the fuck is going on in this world of ours. You can't rely on your Uncle Barry to find out all the facts in this crazy universe.
When all the blood has finally been spilled in the ongoing hacking of newsroom staff, the public will still need to get their news from somewhere, and someone will have to provide it.
While things do look grim for many people who have been in the field for years, at the entry level of journalism there is an unending hunger for new talent to do local and breaking news, covering big and small issues. The surveys on employment prospects always ignore this ongoing need and desire.
Sure, journalism offers shit pay, shittier hours and dumb criticisms from people who think they know how it all works, but it can also be insanely satisfying and enjoyable, you get to work with great people, cover huge events and be enormously creative. Those employment surveys always try to tell you that you should be a chartered accountant if you want to get anywhere in life, but not everybody wants to stare at numbers all day. Some of us just want to tell stories.
Don't let anybody tell you there is no future in this business. It might not be so bright you have to wear sunglasses, but it's bright enough to walk a new path.
- Steve Lombard
Editors note:
After 50 posts on this blog over the past few months, we're starting to repeat itself a lot, and we're also busy as fuck dealing with the actual task of working in this crazy industry. For the tens of regular readers - and the weird 30,000 hits we got from Turkey last week - this blog will continue, but will only feature new content once a week now, with something new every Tuesday morning from next week. Sorry, but it's an election year and we've got a shit-ton of work to do.
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