Aug 19, 2010

A scribes' fortune

Young, energetic, a dreamer, ambitious are some of the few descriptions can define this young journalist. Growing up he often took clippings of his favorite writers and columnists, placed then in his file together with the old stamps and old money he used to collect. Taking mid-school fence jumps to go and buy a copy of the days Newspapers. Clutching onto the "Fourth Estate by Jeffrey Archer." A book he read over and over. He is looking forward to the professional career and once it started it didn't look like what it is, well atleast not on the surface.

There is whole murky world in the media . What you see in the papers, watch on TV and listen too is the sweat of some highly underpaid journalist. Journalism became his interest after during his O'level when he couldn't mix chemical components.
( C + CH = CH2) hmmmmmm

He then focused on becoming a journalist. 8 years down the road he is now in the industry but if you very well know the phrase "things are not as they look" then you will know what happens. Journalists have come under pressure for not digging deep and for being lazy. But if anyone knew what goes on in the industry then they would want to return and gulp there own words.

Journalism is about working hard and loving the job even when you are not paid. Having your name written against a story is something to be proud of. But then the blood sucking work is very hectic. Journalists are not supposed to receive handouts from anyone but in our industry they do receive the handouts (brown envelope). This is an envelope that compromises you. But why would they take the envelope. Because they have had their hands burnt, they are earning peanuts. Some have gone to the extremes of begging for money from whoever it is that wants publicity. Others remain patient and actually love the job they are doing. Others are used and dumped after they haven't been paid for months.

It takes a patient person to grow to become a good journalist. A celebrated one. Its not about the CNN award or any of those. Its being respectable and knowing you are good at what you do. The young man who sleeps for 5hours, spends his time researching is treated like some piece an unknown citizen.
Often there is so much journalists do and they go away without being appreciated for what they do. The information they dig up from there sources is hard to get but do people want to know that.
The boy has been in the industry for 3years now and he has seen what goes on and what happens. The best grow to become very respectable journalists, others buy their way to the top and others cannot take the heat so they jump out and find alternative sources of income.

A journalist thrives on optimism because he knows no matter what he will get a story. That optimism explains the patience that runs in the blood that he waits for the time when things will work out for him.
Being livid doesn't help and he tries much not to be. We live in world where consumerism is on the rise, well unfortunately this life the young journalist will not afford. He will probably go buy a movie from some cheap place and spend his weekend buried in some books. His social life is inactive he attends and event only if he is invited to one.

Staring at the desktop as he types story after story of the rich men in Kampala, CEO's and the private sector institutions, he wonders how long he can stand this. He however looks at the people who are influential to his life, and knows the whirlwind will come, the tornado will scratch the ground and leave it bare but he might just manage to keep standing. So every night before he goes to bed, he knows that there will be a morning where he will repeat the same routine until this one day he get an opening.

He knows that his misfortune is somewhere, but can he be that patient for it?

6 comments:

  1. This all sounds very depressing. But don't lose sight of the dream, man! Maybe it is time to take your skills to a place with higher chances of upward mobility...

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  2. True shit! You have actually edited out some of the real murky unhappiness of the trade. But at least you have put some of it down.

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  3. This is why I intend to be the sort of journalist who writes guffawable-at pieces for the less serious bits of the paper.Forever!
    I shudder to think of attending IPC press conferences and things like that. This was all supposed to be fun.

    But the book-bit is cool, right Mckeith? Much better to hang with Hornby than a bunch of people gyrating to "stamina".
    We will get big. And paid. Because we're not talentless goatoids like...well like some of them, right?

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  4. @Princess Its an industry that requires patience and thats why I know ones fortune is somewhere. And well, skills need to grow, and thats exactly what the dude is doing. :)

    @Iwaya Painful to write down some of the things that remain corrosive to the industry.. But hey ones got to keep pushing...(the right way) and the top will not be very far.

    @tipsyalcophopic Less serious bits of the paper!!!! Don't believe there is a less serious section in a paper... :) Well press conferences can be fun when its one thing you feel attached to. And well I know at times they really really suck
    Yap, the book bit is cool. lol @gyrating to stamina (wonder who those are)
    We will be big. I believe talent needs some naturing and once this is done then the limit is the sky(kinda cliche')

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  5. I admire journalists, i have friends who are in this profession and what they talk about can be crazy. chasing a story on a hungry stomach is never easy, not with envelopes changing hands now and again.

    Stick to it, fight on. and maybe, just maybe one day i will part you on the back and say 'Great job done'.

    cheers

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  6. this is so tue mckeith, i have been at it for ...what? 10 yrs! it gets better by only 100k and people think coz your face graces the news, you are a celeb! they dont know!

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