This is all the more important to realize, because the very advantages of the profession are inseparable from its problems, and in some cases in the second part of our presentation we will talk about the same thing as in the first, but with a negative sign.

So:

1. Of the many professions, journalism is the most stressful profession. Psychologists from the University of Manchester (England), based on their research, which lasted for a year, compiled a stress scale for 150 professions. The degree of stress was determined by the number of heart attacks and other diseases, divorces, motor vehicle accidents, and by the prevalence of alcoholism among the representatives of the respective professions. The resulting consequences were assessed on a ten-point scale. Journalists took third place in this stress scale with 7.5 points, leaving only miners (8.3 points) and police (7.7 points) ahead, that is, they were the first of all intellectual professions.

2. In the profession of a journalist, success depends primarily on the degree of talent. Where are its sources and when is it revealed? Just because you graduated from high school with a medal doesn’t mean you have enough talent to be successful in journalism. If you have written several poems, albeit successful ones, this is also not a reason for choosing this profession, because journalism is still not literature. In order to do it productively, you need universal diverse talents. However, history knows many examples of the “mediocrity” of the geniuses of youth. Anton Chekhov never received more than a “three” for his school essays. And critic A. N. Skabichevsky, in a review of his early stories, argued that the writer would die drunk under the fence … M. Saltykov-Shchedrin, who wrote the work for his daughter, received a “deuce” from the teacher’s resolution: “You don’t know Russian.” F. Chaliapin was not admitted to the conservatory.

3. The profession of a journalist is endless self-improvement. Creativity as such and journalistic particulars does not know the final level of mastery; it always contains the possibility for even further evolution. Journalist is semper tiro (always a student). He has no concept of “after work”, since it is impossible to exclude oneself from the flow of spiritual labor. A good journalist always deepens his knowledge. He or she reads a lot, works in libraries, collects files, learns the language, improves his or her style, masters the experience of the classics of journalism and journalism.

The profession of a journalist today attracts many young people with numerous advantages and wide opportunities. Among them, the most important should be pointed out to the following.

1. Mass information activity gives a person ample opportunities for self-realization; it includes elements from a range of attractive creative careers that are self-sufficient in themselves. Carrying out his professional activity, a journalist acts during an interview in the role of a psychologist, he must be a good communicator and be able to “talk” the interlocutor.
2. Journalism attracts a person with the opportunity to have a creative work. How important it is for a person to be realized in this world with the help of creativity is evidenced by the experience of one of the leading philosophers of the 20th century, Nikolai Berdyaev (1874-1948), in whose main works “The Philosophy of Freedom” (1911), “The Sense of Creativity. An Attempt to Justify Man” (1916 ) and “The Philosophy of the Free Spirit” (parts 1-2, 1927-1928), the idea of ​​a vital, immanent need for a person to realize himself in free creativity is substantiated. Creativity acts as the main condition for a person to master freedom, at the same time freedom is the main condition for a person to carry out creative activity.

Sometimes in works on journalism studies one can come across the opinion that journalism is not creativity at all, but a craft, the element of creativity itself is significantly devalued in mass information activities. It is hardly worth agreeing with this. After all, in the end, this craft is specific, and still creativity. In addition, a journalistic work, just like a literary one, is a consequence of a person’s spiritual activity, is a way of identifying being. All philosophical provisions and categories used by science to comprehend creativity as such should be applied to journalistic creativity.

3. The profession of a journalist attracts with the opportunity to convey the truth to people, to increase the good in the world, to fight for justice. The implementation of these tasks is the implementation of the direct functions of journalism. A person not only requires knowledge about the world, but requires it for a practical purpose: to create this world convenient for his life, for a community in it for people of different nationalities, excellent social status, different religions. A person is not abandoned by the dream of a perfect society, and hence the thought: it is possible to move from the creation of perfect works to the creation of a perfect life. Journalistic creativity has the goal of improving, improving society. This is its pragmatic, applied meaning.