All the things people studying journalism are bored of hearing

Studying journalism has made me realise how many misconceptions there are when you think of journalists and journalism as a subject. The media can sometimes portray us in a bad light and I’m here to fight back on behalf of journalists everywhere.

Life as a feature writer is just like Sex and The City

Just like Carrie Bradshaw

We wish. It would be a dream to write one column a month and be able to afford those Manolo Blahniks or Jimmy Choos. Never mind drinking countless glasses of bubbly in high-end establishments. Reality is gruelling hours stretched across long periods of time and being nudged by your editor to finish the piece. If you get an advance you’re lucky but it won’t be enough for half a Jimmy Choo never mind Carrie Bradshaw’s shoe rack…

We can hack

Myth. All this news lately on the phone hacking scandal and hidden cameras etc. is some very extreme circumstances with a lot of planning, research and money.

All our ideas get commissioned/published

We’re human and not every idea is everybody’s cup of tea, and 3am brainstorming sometimes isn’t ideal.

You think you’ve got it in the bag, you’ve been up all night and you’ve found a right banger. Hold the phone…it’s not really up to you, you pitch your idea and your editor says no, moves on, and you get sent down a different trail. Possibly doing something you’re not keen on.

Exposing cultural and environmental issues sadly isn’t on everyone’s agenda.

Drinking heavily comes with the job

I feel like this is one thing that is so contradictory, have you ever tried to read something with a banging headache and feeling slightly nauseous?

I mean, I’m sure there are some machines out there who can just keep churning away but I’m not sure I’ve ever thought of a great story with my head in a toilet bowl and short-term memory loss.

You can’t trust a journalist

Historically we’ve been given a bad name. Twisting or fabricating stories to meet deadlines and/or tricking someone into giving you some information.

These days most of us really do care about telling the truth. We’re taught our ethics and we don’t want to burn bridges. Don’t worry, I’m not going to bring up that conversation we had in the pub about how you think your dad is dodging tax because we’ve got writer’s block.

We set up camp in coffee shops with our MacBooks

I’ve seen them too. I’m not sure who they are. Artists, wealthy people, businessmen, actors? Again, I think this one is a myth. Have you seen the price of coffee these days?

Journalism is dying

Getting involved in a journalism degree was a hard one. So many of your friends or family have said “newspapers are dying out, The Independent isn’t in print, numbers are going down”. It may seem that journalism is dying if you’re only considering newspapers but these days journalism is multi-platform, it’s online, on radio and on television. Many investigative journalists also release novels or documentaries.