English corner #2 – Journalism as a lifestyle
It is known that journalism is one of the most flexible jobs in the 21st century. People with different education and experience are free to produce media content of those topics they are competent at. Moreover, nowadays there are many various opportunities to get most important journalistic skills at workshops, learning from media specialists.
Fact-checking, critical thinking, informing your audience on particular events and issues, generating more contacts with people are also useful in our daily routine. Does it mean that journalism may be regarded not only as a regular job but also as a lifestyle which we can be included in permanently? It depends on each type of personality.
The interviewees are the students of the University of Wrocław who are majoring in journalism. Each story is unique, and discovers journalists` work from different angles. Each interviewed student has a particular goal to realize during his or her studies.
Background
Barbara Pereira, NOVA University, Portugal: “I am a third-year Bachelor in Communication Sciences. This program is more theoretical than practical. However, theoretic subjects about culture, arts, images and languages develop your critical thinking and spirit. In our university we have four different branches of our studies that we can choose from the second year of the program. I wanted to specialize in journalism”.
Ana Giorgadze, University of Wrocław, Poland: “I studied Journalism and Mass Communication in Georgia. I liked the studies there. Georgian professors had a broad experience in journalism. I knew them from Georgian media”.
Pietro Allodi, University of Milan, Italy: “Milan is the best city for communication fields so I chose it. It was a little bit scary because I came from a small town, and Milan is a bigger city. I realized that if I want to work in the communication field, then, I have to move to a vast city in Italy to know more journalists, learn more about features of their job and functioning of newspapers, TV and radio as well”.
Journalism Experience
Barbara: “I chose journalism because I am really interested in music. I started working voluntarily in a young and dynamic media project. It is a platform which informs on culture, entertainment and leisure. I made reports about music festivals and concerts in Portugal, wrote news and articles about new groups, songs, videos, albums` reviews etc. This media taught me the most about journalism because it is made by young specialists who used to work in big media companies in Portugal”.
Ana: “My first journalistic experience started on television. I was at the news department so I had to take interviews and make small reportages. It was daily news about politics, economics and sometimes about art. I had an internship on another TV-channel as well but soon I found out that I did not like television anymore. Then I worked for a magazine about art, urban stories, blogs and literature. It was like a book because you could read it after one year, for example, as well. I liked its genre, and this type of media – it is not a tabloid or a mainstream. I was doing a lot of things starting from sales: I had to find the topics, collect subscribers, conduct surveys about audience satisfaction with the magazine etc. We were selling pages for the advertisement as well because we needed a budget”.
Pietro: “On my first year in Milan I started to work at two sport magazines. The first one is about football only. The second one is about each kind of sports that exists in the world. I was a content-editor of our magazines` social media last year. I had also a sports program on one of the biggest radio stations in Italy. We talked about different stories and characters in sports, sometimes mixed with politics or music. Now my friend and I are making episodes at the radio station of the University of Verona. We talk about travels, our universities, and parties here, in Poland. Generally, the goal is to give an idea of the Erasmus experience for those students who want to study abroad”.
Future plans
Barbara: “I do not want to be a cultural journalist anymore. Now I am passionate about politics, activism and all these kinds of issues. Next semester I will finish my Bachelor program. I plan to get a gap year, or two, so that I could earn money to do a Master program abroad. Actually, I want to study international relations. Perhaps I already decided where I am going to do it: my dream is to go to Brussels. I do not think there is a better place for studies than Brussels because it is the center of European institutions. It might be more challenging than in Portugal. In the future I would like to be a press journalist and a correspondent. One of my idols is a Portuguese journalist who lives in the Middle East. I really would like to learn more about military conflicts in that region, and live in that special kind of issues…”
Ana: “I was about to find a job, and suddenly I got a chance to go for Erasmus in Lisbon, Portugal. It has changed all my plans for the future. Right now I am concentrated on going there. After it I would prefer having some experience in Europe, and then, going back to my country. But I am not planning to stay forever abroad”.
Pietro: “After finishing my Bachelor program, I have to do an internship at a Parma football club. I will work as a media manager at its communication office. My dream is to follow journalism or something connected with writing, books, and radio, for sure. During these years I understood that you just have to keep working on every day, even if it is sometimes difficult. I study in Italy but at the same time I work as a journalist. You often want to spend some time with your friends and relax but you have to finish your articles. This beautiful job at once can be very dangerous for your social life”.
Whatever journalism is, it will captivate those who cannot imagine their life without interesting stories and interaction with people through texts. Journalism provides many chances both to build your career and get the best and various life experiences. Once you try it, and the habit of investigating, analyzing and contacting others will remain with you for a long time.
Author: Yevheniia Savchenko
Picture: private archive
