The moments journalists work for! But is it worth it?

It was the 9^th of May, 2017, just another normal Tuesday. I headed off to my internship like any other day that summer. It had become a routine. Travel in the packed trains on hot summer days that were supposed to be my vacation. The past 5 weeks had seen me learn to write news wraps and packages, cut bytes and observe the workings of a newsroom. I didn’t want to go there, but, the certificate and experience gained is what drove me.

It was just another boring day. A stupid train ride which made me hate every single person and made me hate the fact that I’m spending summers in an office. I trudged along from the station to the office building and got down to the usual. I had spent the day monitoring many websites and searching for news stories to feature on news wrap.

It was nearing quitting time. I used to leave by around five in the evening and it was at 4 p.m. when I decided to refresh the websites to see if anything new had popped up.

A story of 10 shooters being detained at the Indira Gandhi International airport, as their guns were not getting cleared by customs department, is what caught my attention.

Among the 10 shooters were 2016 Rio Olympians, Gurpreet Singh and Kynan Chenai. They had been waiting at the airport for the last 12 hours. Over the course of the 12 hours they had been subject to foul language and rudeness on the part of the officials. This after they returned from the shooting Grand Prix in Plzen with the same guns that had been cleared by the customs department when they departed for the tournament.

The day at the IGI airport had cost them a day of preparation for the World Cup on May 17^th.

I alerted the sports desk and the Olympians in question were contacted by our Olympic correspondent who happened to be in the Newsroom at that moment and we realised that it was a legit story. No other news channel had broken it yet. So, we decided to act and the entire team congratulated me on my alertness and for my first breaking news spot, while I as usual observed how a breaking news was prepared.

We prepped the breaking news, contacted a few experts (former Olympians in this case) who would provide their views on the story, as it would be broken. Their phono plates were prepared and then at half past 4, we broke the story.

As is the case with sports that are not cricket in a non-Olympic, non-commonwealth games fortnight, the story didn’t get much air time. The director was yelling out that we had only 3 minutes with no extensions.

 I was in the PCR when the story broke and as no one else had broken it we flashed the watermark saying “EXCLUSIVE” on the screens. We had 3 minutes of air time and I finally experienced that thrill of having found a story that broke on air.

I left at 5 pm and was feeling amazing. Just by sitting in the office, I had found a story that could be broken and the next day I found out that the story had had an impact.

On the 10^th of May, I headed off to work in high spirits and was told that the story had an impact as within minute after the show was aired the Olympians were released from detention just minutes after it was aired. One of them had phoned up the organisation and thanked us. We were the only channel to air that story and the fact that I had made some effort to help out someone in society through the power of media made me realise exactly how powerful news media is. These are the  moments that journalists work for and in a few seconds the monotonous reality of the profession hit home once again as I sat to monitor websites for wraps and packages. The 9th of May, was the best day of my Internship! For the thrill it gave me and the fact that it got me thinking.

Some days were difficult, I understood the reality of the profession. It got me thinking whether I want to make a career as a journalist. I thought sports is a glam career but then the reality hit home. I saw the main correspondents work weekends. I saw their weird shift timings that changed almost every 3-4 days. I saw the uncertainty of when they would get their weekly off and the lack of a social life. I wondered why they would do such a job. I saw days go by with absolutely nothing happening, but you can’t relax as something can happen at any time. You have to be alert throughout.

The same applies for when you go for on field assignments. You end up lounging around in the hot sun, or in a small crowded room with so many other journalists, waiting for when the person to be interviewed will decide to make themselves available. The waits are endless and energy sapping, but if you are out of focus, you won’t be the first to the person and you won’t have a good vantage point to put your question across. One moment of loss of concentration can ruin over 5 hours of concentration. I went on field a few times and I saw the time and effort they require while waiting for an interview.

Then the phrase “Journalism is a calling not a career” hit me. Maybe the reason they do it is because it’s their passion? Why though? What good can come out of this? They like doing what they do and it doesn’t feel like work and hence the lack of holidays doesn’t affect them.

I am a final year undergrad student and hence I look at a career from the perspective of having some sort of a social life. There's no time for social life! I too am a human and the sort of uncertainty of the shifts and hours they keep don’t excite or convince 19 year old me. Scepticism about the career hit me.

 Yet other days, the thrill of creating something would make up for all the scepticism. This was one of those days. The split second and momentary thrill exists. But, is it worth it? Matter of perspective.