The Essence of 'This'

What makes someone want to be a journalist? What is the one factor that makes them want to be the ones that find out everything about anything and publish it for the world to see? What makes me want to do what I am doing?

It's a tough question and I'm not quite sure what the answer is. If you are like me or aspire to be in some form of the media, then you know that our industry is having a huge job shift right now that a lot of people are not ready for. And yet, some of us still want to pursue a career in the journalism field. The real question is why. Why on earth would we want to put ourselves through such a struggle, during such a horrible economy, through such hard times, with so many obstacles, etc?

I think it's the passion we have for words. The saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words"...but in my book...the words are what make the picture a picture. A picture is described with words and the words give the picture meaning. Rereading what I just wrote, I'm not sure that made much sense. But what can you do without words? What can you do without knowing what is going on? What can the world do without journalists?

If I were on the outside looking in, I believe that the world would live in fear without us. Nobody would know what was going on without internet publications, print publications, radio announcements, television programs, newswires, podcasts, netcasts, audio clips, ect. Nobody would know if they were in a safe place or in the middle of hell, if you believe in such things.

I know people hate to say it, but we as journalists are the real protectors of the world. You can't know about crimes and speculations of nuclear bombs if there is no form of communication to the public. Do you really think that if the government was on it's own and didn't have journalists in D.C. that they would let us know about anything? I have very little faith in the system, with or without President Obama. The government only has time to stop things, not play show and tell.

There is a point to my rambling. The fact is, is that somebody has to do it. Somebody has to keep the public informed. The amount of journalists in the world...I will never know. There are tons of us. But the truth is...we're needed. And we like to be needed. We want to be trusted with your protection. We'll always be here and we'll be the ones to do it.

According to the 'unreliable sources of Wikipedia', as of May 2008, the United States has 1,422 daily newspapers and 6,253 weeklies, thousands of news channels, thousands of radio stations, and thousands of magazines. But believe it or not, they are all here just for you.