(opinion article)

They say that if you cross a sports reporter and a vegetable, you will get a ‘common tater’, and if you cross a ghost and a newsman, you will get a ‘spooksman’! Would you like to be a journalist, peeps?

The journalist’s profession is interesting and relevant, but not for everyone. In order to become one of them, you need to be sure, smart, active, sociable. The journalist can perform various duties, so he does not necessarily have all these qualities. But there are disadvantages in this profession: unlimited working day; impossibility to be off from work; journalism is a dangerous profession.

You must be interested in the world around you. You must want to find things out and share your discoveries with your readers or listeners – so you should have a broad range of interests.

It is also desirable for a journalist to know several languages. He must be able to filter information and always keep track of the news flow.

To be a professional journalist, you also need to know and adhere to journalistic ethics. Journalism ethics and standards comprise principles of ethics and of good practice as applicable to the specific challenges faced by journalists. This subset of media ethics is widely known to journalists as their professional “code of ethics” or the “canons of journalism.”

While various existing codes have some differences, most share common elements including the principles of honesty, precision, objectivity, justice as these apply to the acquisition of newsworthy information and its subsequent outspread to the public.

Journalism ethics include the principle of “limitation of harm.” This often involves the withholding of certain details from reports such as the names of minor children, crime victims’ names or information not materially related to particular news reports.

So the journalist’s profession is definitely interesting, but it also has its pitfalls. It should be understood that journalism places a huge responsibility on your shoulders. And if you dream of working in this field, you need to understand the difficulties you face. Ask yourself the questions you want to find yourself often in stressful situations or to will to sacrifice your personal time for constant self-development, not to be exposed to someone’s influence, but to convey objective information to society because true journalism must be honest.