Out on the ground
Day 3 of my stake-out and I’ve hit jackpot.
You know, that rush when you know you’ve got all the gems for your story. I can’t say too much, since the story is not published yet, but this week has been hard. I’ve been working daily shifts from 9am to 7pm, then going to some blocks of flats after work to investigate and get more facts/quotes for my story. It was gruelling, at times demoralizing, and most of all, humbling.
So much for capitalism, I saw for myself how the country’s economic boom hasn’t benefited everyone, people living in one-room flats, sparse with furniture, paint peeling, and I thought about how lucky I was, and promptly felt very embarrassed about my earthly desires.
Interestingly, I had a conversation with a colleague today who has, sadly, just resigned. We were debating on the profession and its merits. He said he’s leaving because at the end of the day, journalism doesn’t pay that well and sometimes, it’s just too much leg work. Leg work of the sort I’ve been doing for the past week.
On my part, I have always loved journalism. From the days as an intern, to days of being a temp in London newspapers, to my full-time job now, I have loved (almost) every minute of it. I like the job, what it offers, the people I meet (not all), the flexibility, the unpredictability, the very nature of it - but obviously it’s not the easiest job on earth.
But to me, journalism is all about the ground work. You can’t sit in ivory towers pretending to know what’s happening below, or dish out stories based on phone calls you make - what someone once said to me was phoney journalism.
I have to agree, though, there’s the easy leg work, and the difficult leg work. And there’s different kinds of work you have to do, depending on your beat. For general news, there is definitely much more running around, speaking to strangers, trying not to get the door slammed too quickly in your face… For business journalism, there isn’t the physical tediousness of knocking on doors, speaking to heartlanders, people on the ground etc, so you could say it’s an easier kind of journalism. But then, deciphering documents, financial statements, and balance sheets, is gruelling work of a different nature. And grooming contacts for that business story of the month - be it an M&A deal, a corporate scandal or a high-profile resignation - is also not easy to achieve and involves years of “working the ground”.
I can’t say which I prefer, although I think what I’m doing right now is the healthy dose of each for me. Perhaps I’m privileged to be covering beats I’m actually interested in, and that the scope of my work enables me to do a wide spectrum of “working the ground”. I love that I can be interviewing Lord Nicholas Stern on climate change one day, and then be speaking to a 70-year-old retired uncle who lives in a one-room flat about prostitutes on the other.
The truth is, you’ve got to love everything about journalism to want to do this for life. I’m not surprised my colleague is leaving. It’s a job that isn’t sustainable if you don’t love it completely. And not many do. For me, work doesn’t really feel like work because I enjoy what I do. J oftens says to me he’s so envious that I know what I like, and I’m doing it. For him, his work is a chore, a burden to bear, sales targets that will never ease… It’s the reason why I sleep like a baby at night, and sleep often eludes him while he tosses and turns and murmurs the names of his sales clients each night (which wake me up, btw!).
So although I’m really tired from the past few nights, doing what I was doing, going places that I wasn’t invited, and not being really sure if the story is going to be worth all that, I do it because it’s my job.
And I’m lucky enough to like it.
