STUFF JOURNALISTS LIKE

#89 electricity

Journalists’ lives are pretty simple.

After diving into their coffee, journalists spend their days hunting for news and then reporting it. Throw in an angry e-mail or phone call and it’s straightforward enough; report the news before the other guys.

However, there is a common thread that makes all of the above possible – electricity.

Without those magic wall sockets the coffee machine wouldn’t hum to life, the web wouldn’t generate e-mails and inch counts would be reduced to zero. 

Cell phones and laptop batteries would run dry. Twitter and Facebook updates would cease to exist. Even the phones, faxes, printers and copy machines would grind to halt.

Journalists would stare at blank computer screens and bang their heads against their iPhones.

For anyone who doubts journalists’ deep seeded addiction to the “juice,” simply attend an event where there is a press table with only two wall sockets. There will be blood.

Journalists are like junkies when it comes to electricity. They need it. The first thing a journalist does when he enters a room with a laptop is scan the wall for the nearest electrical socket.

Yes, there was a time when journalists were able to get by with nothing more than a typewriter and a carrier pigeon. But there was also a time when journalists didn’t have to write four stories a day, file three web updates, tweet, take photos, record video and get laid off by noon. 

#8 the first day

Every journalist has this entry at least once - the first day on the job.

All journalists remember the unbridled optimism they had on that first day. They even showed up early, which is still five minutes late for a journalist, wore their best unironed slacks and even decided to pass on that second bloody mary that morning.

The first day is always filled with filling out employment forms, learning and forgetting everyone’s name, what does and does not constitute sexual harassment and learning how to scam free pretzels from the vending machine.

There’s the familiar booting screen of a 10-year-old operating system (XP never gets old) and that distinct burnt coffee and hydrogen sulfide smell that is unique to newsrooms. The setting up of the email, deleting the first spam and ignoring the first email about the upcoming dog show.

And despite it being the first day, editors will expect new journalists to miraculously know the 20-year intricate history of the water rights case that starts in 30 minutes.

On their first day, journalists should be prepared to see a dead body, meet the mayor, piss off the mayor, attend a 100^th birthday, be arrested, get lost and quietly sob in a bathroom stall.

And while the newbie frantically tries to figure out the newsroom’s archaic filing system as deadline looms, the veterans in the room snicker at the fresh fish while also quietly hopes that he's not there to replace their jobs.

And some journalists, for better or worse, have a first day more than once.

Then there's that first story.

Though most journalists can first see their stories published online, it’s not as rewarding as getting up at 5 a.m., running to nearest stand and being the first (and perhaps the only) to buy a copy. Plus mom will be more impressed with a newspaper clipping than one from the Interwebs (though it still won't make up for the disappoint she has for going into the profession of journalism).

And the high from that first day will last and last . . . until payday.

That’s why journalists like the first day on the job.

On a personal note, Chris would like to report he has returned to the world of journalism and had the pleasure of reliving that first day all over again.