Interview with a Journalist

     Interviewing with an actual journalist, regarding issues discussed in class, actually proved to be rather comforting.  The journalist I chose to ask questions of writes for the Fairfax Times, which is from my home town and has been there for six years.  Her answers regarding the nature of journalism and current issues in the field of journalism were congruent to my own views of the field now, but with a few variations.  Somewhat surprised at the similar and dissimilar perspectives, I found the experience as a whole to be quite rewarding.  

     The path of a journalist seemed to be set before her as she was interested in becoming a writer even as a young child.  This interest grew in her all throughout high school and college (majoring in Journalism) so much that she immediately accepted a job from the Fairfax Times upon graduating.  She has been there up until today where she currently still loves her job and is excited about it.  Being in her position, she had many insights regarding what journalism is and what it means to be a journalist.  

     To this journalist, "good" journalism is defined as anything from, "engaging to read and tells a good story," to "provides information that is important for citizens of a community or country to know," or "exposes some corruption on wrong-doing in a government or institution."  However, no matter what form it takes on, to her, journalism has to be objective and based on hard facts.  This is the bases upon which she feels her organization writes "good" journalism.  I found this interesting because she didn't take a particular bias as to what exactly journalism is.  To her, journalism encompasses it all, which is what a journalist has to accept these days.  

     Working for a smaller community paper has its perks and pitfalls.  With a smaller organization it is simply not possible for her to cover a deep and juicy investigative story.  However, she is able to get to write all those local stories that a big daily simply can not.  As a result of the community setting, she is very close to her sources and receives a lot more, what she said was, "personal, direct feedback about my work."  The community scene has benefits such as a "News By You" program that allows the citizens to post their own news on the Fairfax Times website.  There is also activity from bloggers, but to this journalist, they are not considered journalists because of their biases.  

     Being a practicing journalist for only six years, her experiences have not changed her views about the profession very much.  However, she did mention the "pressure to change the way we do things because of money, and I am committed to resisting anything that changes the ethics of journalism."  Her particular paper seems to be hit by the economic crises america is in and slowing ad sales.  Interestingly, because of the fact that they are a free paper, they are able to control their circulation a lot better and are thus a little better of than some of the big time papers.  I guess smaller community papers are the place to be if you're looking to go into the field.  

     Her suggestions for young budding journalists was to get tech savvy.  Say said, "the internet may be stealing all our classified ad dollars, but it also provides the opportunity to do some really cool things that add a whole new dimension to reporting."  In conversing with her, I found that the community paper can be very exciting and that there are so many options even within a small community, especially with the new changes coming in the industry.