 |
| Sarah Ditum |
I got into journalism twice. First, the old way. When I was doing my A-levels, I arranged work experience stints at three local papers – one for each of the market towns in striking distance of my village, the smallest with an editorial staff of about half a dozen and the largest run by a team of maybe twice that.
... the perception that journalists are beacons of middle-class privilege persists. People have always thought badly of hacks (I remember a secondary teacher who, when I told her I wanted to be a journalist, looked appalled and said: “But you’ll have to do some awful things”), but today journalism occupies a strange niche of being low reward and low prestige, yet still high resentment. There’s an assumption that writers have reserves of wealth and power which means the public is entitled to a piece of them.
There’s a tiny element of merit to this, which is that as opportunities to get into journalism have declined, it’s become more dominated by those with personal resources (aka well-off parents).
... the perception that journalists are beacons of middle-class privilege persists. People have always thought badly of hacks (I remember a secondary teacher who, when I told her I wanted to be a journalist, looked appalled and said: “But you’ll have to do some awful things”), but today journalism occupies a strange niche of being low reward and low prestige, yet still high resentment. There’s an assumption that writers have reserves of wealth and power which means the public is entitled to a piece of them.
There’s a tiny element of merit to this, which is that as opportunities to get into journalism have declined, it’s become more dominated by those with personal resources (aka well-off parents).
Continue reading @ UnHerd.
No comments