Journalism is fun.
Journalism is fun when you get to read, see or hear a really good story. Journalism is fun when you discover something important about the way we live. Journalism is fun when we get to follow our favorite sports teams and learn about our favorite stars. And journalism is fun when it helps to deflate the pompous and phony among us. Journalism is perhaps the most fun when it helps change the world for the better by exposing wrongs and giving people information they need to make the world a better place and help them to lead better, more fulfilling, lives.
I think reading and writing for newspapers are fun (or at least is used to be. ) I think watching television and putting together video packages is fun. Blogging and tweating is fun. Both producing and “consuming,” to use an ugly word, journalism is fun.
Okay, maybe I am a being a little Pollyanna-ish but every semester I work with students eager to become journalists. They are not unaware of the crisis in professional journalism but they are itching to join the fray because, in large part, because they think it will be fun. So to paraphrase a country music song, that is their story and I am sticking to it.
This blog is dedicated to exploring the joy of journalism, the cool of experiences involved in journalism as both a consumer and a producer.