New Beginnings

I’m almost on my way to becoming a journalist*. So, before the course ends, I thought, I should write. The thought of making assumptions and adding opinions had managed to keep me off the Blogosphere for long.

In retrospect, when you write for a living, the lines blur—the lines between what’s personal and what’s professional.

Like my professor says, in the world of journalism, everyone knows one another. So it’s possible that your blog will be looked at and analyzed, much more than any other ordinary blog. So you can’t really write about stuff that happens in your everyday life, given that it could be potential newsy or newsroom stuff, can you? Well... Nope!

Can you write about what a nice day you had interviewing a source who was ultra nice to you? Can you divulge information that could be potentially hazardous to your story? Of course not.

Can you write about your hostel life or hostel mates, in turn offending sensibilities of a number of people who you live with everyday? Hell no.

But what you can write is what you saw, what you heard, what you think- that’s everything that my job demands me to do, except for the last part. Here I can give an opinion. And I cringe at the thought of that as well. Because, your opinions stand to fall like a pack of cards if they’re not well researched and backed by a strong argument. Lines blurring again..you see?

On several occasions when I did make an effort to write, I asked myself if this was way too opinionated way too many times. I had to remind myself that this was a private blog and I could make assumptions.

And, even as I write, I’m mentally spellchecking, looking for structure, avoiding passive voice, looking for sentences that don’t fit, reducing the number of words in sentences. I had to remind myself, proofreading the page was not part of the exercise. I guess once an editor, always an editor.

Well yeah, journalism changes you, radically. You see things critically. For example, prior to this, I would look at ads with an awe of monstrous proportions. My sister was right in calling me a sucker for anything flashy. I’d believe every word they say, and hope that the product will work its charm eventually, much like a big eyed bunny. And now, well, let’s just say, my sister would be proud of my judgments.

When you’re a journalist, you become a bitch for facts. You inherently develop the knack of getting outraged at anything that hurts the public. For example, you look at the traffic and wonder not about the number of cars in the city, but the terrible town planners. I could go on..but well, you get the idea.

I guess, I’ve changed in more ways than one. I’ve tried so hard through the year to get my writings published on TheSoftCopy, that I forgot that I had my own space as well. So well, hello blog..! And best of luck, because the editor in me is going to look at the previous posts with a critical eye and is sure to frown at them . :/
Old me versus new me. Perfect :/


*To everyone who I’ve interviewed, I was a trainee journalist the past 9 months. Just saying.