Every addiction has a beginning. The same is
true for journalism.
For many journalists, the addiction to low
wages, sitting through endless city hall meetings and letting out a high-pitch squeal every time they see their name in print all started with their college
newspaper.
Like wearing hemp jump pants and doing keg
stands, most journalists got into journalism while in college because it sounded like a
good idea at 3 a.m. after a two-day study marathon.
At the disappointment of countless parents,
so many young college students make the unfortunate choice; drop their business major and
promising future for journalism.
But journalists like their alma mater newspaper
because college newspapers set unrealistic and idealist expectations of
journalism.
It's at their college newspapers where
journalists first learn to ignore friends, responsibilities and hygiene to meet
deadline.
College newspapers typically do not have to
worry about profits. Working at a college newspaper usually means not worrying
about rounds of layoffs. And sadly, college newspapers are better funded then
their for-profit professional counterparts. If there is doubt, look inside
any college newspaper and compare the rows of gleaming new Mac with the the
out-of-date artifacts found in a professional newsroom.
If college papers really wanted to prepare
students for the real gritty world of journalism, they would just have a
300-pound guy punch each student in the crotch when they entered the student
newspaper office. If student journalists can survive four years of getting
punched in the junk then they can survive the newspaper business.
And more than any other time, journalists are
reminded how much they like college newspapers when they make their annual
pilgrimage to their own stomping grounds.
When journalists return to their college
newspaper, usually in the same car they drove in college, they relive the glory
days of journalism without consequences, sleeping in the newsroom after long
deadlines and where they used to stash the hootch.
Funny how some things don't change.
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Topics:
working for the college newspaper
So true, so true…
I’m going to a city council meeting right now. Already worked 8 hours. No funny/ironic/weird/awesome college newspaper friends to come back to.
There will always be a soft spot
in my heart for my college paper…
and the good times I had there!
Other than being a wee bit sexist this was a joy to read. Reminded me of when my now assistant editor started here two years after I did – she couldn’t lay out a page by hand or count a headline – by 1997 the school stopped teaching that and was using Quark for everything. We barely have Macs that work here in Southeast Indiana.
Perfect. Especially the part about the computers. The junk-punching image made me laugh out loud. Awesomeness.
Interesting the way my accurate but unflattering comment is not displayed.
I work at a college paper. I must admit this makes me feel nostalgic for a stage of life I’m already in. I already know I’m going to miss this. It’s too much fun.
So true, especially about the newsroom. My college paper had a new $2 million newsroom built a few years ago. It is absolutely gorgeous.
My current newsroom is cold in the winter and hot in the summer, has leaky roof, torn carpet and small bathrooms. There were plenty of days I worked 10 hours at my newsroom and missed class just to meet a deadline, you know… “for the greater good”.
I have very fond memories of my days at The Daily Texan at the University of Texas. Let’s say the all-expenses paid trips to national sporting games made me a Daily Texan fan for life.
Very fun to read but definitely not my experience at my college paper. Being independent from the university, only receiving a room to work in, we were completely reliant on advertising revenues and needed to make a profit to stay in business. I loved it because working at The Daily Egyptian was working for a real newspaper in a real working environment, and I learned more there than any class in college.
I’m with Maddie. A college newspaper without funding has an office that looks more like a homeless shelter than a professional newspaper’s ever will. New computers? Try duct-taped rejects from the College of Communcation. Never cleaned carpet/tables, a couch that should have been retired 15 years ago that you sleep on every night…that’s a college newspaper.
And I hated, complained…and LOVED every second of it.
PLEASE COPY EDIT THIS.
I think I’m rethinking journalism after college … Nah! Journalism runs in my blood no matter those small/little details!
Working for my college’s newspaper is making me appreciate more what experienced journalists do every single day so I can read The Washington Post early in the morning!