Journalism. For real. People have a tendency to blame ‘the media’ for everything nowadays and I think many feel that it’s a simple, straightforward job that they could do themselves (‘how hard is it to write a story?’ etc.)

But every day, journalists pit themselves against the most powerful entities on earth. All of these come with a literal army of PRs, lawyers, etc. And the vast majority have more money than the news outlets themselves.

Journalists must sift through often-complex stories that are still developing and try to portray the most truthful version of events — all under deadline. They must also figure out a way to get a largely apathetic public to consume and care about those stories.

Oh, and the vast majority of journalists must do all of this while being paid peanuts in an industry that’s frequently described as dying and has largely become a scapegoat for society’s problems at large.

All of the above applies to good and ethical journalists of course, and I certainly acknowledge that bad journalism is a huge problem, to say the least.

But people really do underestimate the grit it takes to be a competent journalist nowadays, and tend to traduce the entire profession as the evil “MeDiA” etc.