Journalism, an industry under metamorphosis

Shock, disbelief, anger, impatience? Yes, these might be just the right words characterizing an aspiring journalist’s feelings when job hunting in today’s market economy. Self-proclaiming yourself a ‘writer’ has never been more real and effective than now, when credentials seem to become more and more unnecessary, and opinionated pieces seem to matter more than facts or reality.

Frustration might be the common language that unites all those with writing aspirations, and if you’re looking for a piece of advice, you’re going to get what you already knew – work for free is the key! Especially now.

I opened today’s email with new hope: I discovered through mediabistro.com an interesting article in London’s Sunday Times, “Hold the front page, I want to be on it.”  I read a deep, focused and very interesting approach written by Ed Caesar, as to why “tens of thousands of journalism graduates clamour for increasingly rare jobs.” I was hoping for an answer when finishing reading it, however I couldn’t make myself aspire less to make it in this field. I was pleasantly surprised reading the comments-opinions written by those who ‘already made it,’ or by others still searching. The truth is that us, those with desire and those who understand our desire – because they’ve been here – are the victims and, ultimately, the winners of this industry’s metamorphosis. As I strongly feel that in the end, this change is only going to make us strong journalists (whatever that will mean in the future).