Journalism Broke My Heart

2003 was probably the last time I loved journalism.
The late nights at the school newspaper, editing an article for local and AP style, writing a feature story – those things rocked my world (in a good way).
But anymore, I could take them or leave them. I just want to go home and watch TV.
I’m not quite sure why my passion ended. Maybe the low salary, the annoying schedule and the lack of jobs were factors. But the sick thing of all is that I am employed as a professional journalist, make decent money and work a fairly normal schedule, so it’s got to be more than that. If I had to try and put my finger on it, I would think it was just the cold reality of the industry. Print is being phased out, fewer and fewer people are needed at news organizations as companies scale back their budgets, celebrity magazines have taken hold of a core of readership (yeah, I read that junk, too, but I don’t need five publications telling me the exact same news in the exact same way) and television hammers the news into your head 24/7.
There won’t be a return to simpler print times, I’m certain. But maybe there will be a return to ethical reporting and editing. Until then, we’ll be complaining about the irritations of the industry.