A dose of reality and a touch of self-hate
Journalists are the lowest of the low. Aren't they? We are observers of the world when we are working, not participants. Expertise is deferred to the experts, the talking heads, the change-makers and journalists record, synthesise, regurgitate.
Occasionally there's room for opinion, which bends journalism from its original path, the subjective lens presenting the facts. Occasionally there's room for analysis. Those long in the game, or at least with the maturity to understand news history, can give depth to an issue, offer insights that provide context, clarity and a new perspective.
I have never been a news journalist. Somehow I managed to scrape a credit in my final-year News & Current Affairs subject at university but there was no love or passion there—it was pure diligence and a certain desperation to get out of there and get writing. I admire those in the job who feed off the events that occur every day and present them to me, a passive news consumer, in its various forms.
I used to buy the Sydney Morning Herald every Saturday and read the main news and the News Review cover to cover. I figured that if the week's news was sufficiently important it would make it into the Saturday edition. Today, I receive my news via Twitter, following hundreds of media types on my prjournolove list and wait for a weekly wrap-up via my subscription to The Week. I've never considered news 'boring but important' (no thanks, mX) but rather the ink that gives feature writing its shape.
At university I had the pleasure of having media course convenor Willa McDonald as my tutor. She introduced us to the art of creative non-fiction. Until then I'd been disillusioned with my choice of course. One year in, I'd decided not to become a journalist and thought a career as a cultural studies academic looked like the most likely path. Creative non-fiction changed that. It made me believe I could write stories that were not embedded in news, that were instead following a narrative of which fact played only a fleeting role. A career path was saved.
Dealing with rejection
Since then I have been an editorial assistant, copywriter, features writer, and editor of magazines on topics as diverse as cars, shopping, art, design and architecture, travel, business, gifts and homewares, and project management.
My strength is writing about complex, sometimes banal, topics in a clear and engaging manner. I often weave background information with expert comment and have a habit of pursuing the juicy details about challenges. I've interviewed politicians, government officials, CEOs, managing directors, economists, subject matter experts, academics and practitioners as well as celebrities and the general public.
However, I have been to launches for hair products, cosmetics and fashion lines where the glamour girls of the glossy mags snubbed me for not wearing the right clothes or any makeup at all.
I have been to tech launches where IT journos used to look at female attendees with barely disguised disdain (for what would she know?).
I have been to business forums where journalists from the dailies puzzled at my age and dismissed my publication. Once, after being brave and introducing myself to a nearby Fairfax representative, she literally turned her back on me when she discovered where I was from i.e. nowhere of use to her. I was 21 or 22 at the time.
Almost 10 years later still feel the crush of rejection from these people who are supposed to be my peers. What's a girl to do? Do I stop calling myself a journalist and just use the generic term 'writer'? Do I get nasty the next time someone brings out their barely concealed sneer?
I have spent a large part of my career in custom magazines, which appears to be the lowest of the low (or maybe above custom newsletters). I may never score a scoop or win a Walkley, but I have learnt so much about the politics of committees and managing stakeholders it would turn your eyelids inside out.
I have spent the other part of my career freelancing. Titles that have published my work have been as diverse as body+soul, Australian Traveller, and YEN. I'm now the Sydney correspondent for Australian Security Magazine and provide ghostwriting services for a number of PR clients which sees my work in Smart Company, The Daily Telegraph, and Yahoo!7 Business. Apparently there's some discrimination here too. Freelancing isn't a 'real job', so the cliche goes.
Fortunately through the work of some high profile freelancers, this lifestyle choice has gained acceptance in recent years but you can still see it in some journalists' eyes when you speak to them: 'couldn't you get a round in a newspaper?' A news round on a daily newspaper isn't the only fruit on the journalism tree. Can I have a little respect for what I do?
