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Dianne Selditch (Editor) �My First Year as a Journalist�

Started August 21 � Finished August 21, 2003; 197 pages. Posted 03 September 2003

This is a classic example of a good idea gone very, very wrong.

The idea was a collection of essays by reporters recounting their starts in journalism. My feeling is that this is prime milking ground for cautionary tales, morality plays and insights from a fresh perspective, along with humorous anecdotes and sage-like advice from those who lived it.

But they screwed it up after the inception and decided to go with the safe bets by picking people who have �made it� in the field. We get people who now work at the top papers and magazines in the country and people with name recognition like Helen Thomas and Dave Barry. There are two things wrong with this approach. One, the people involved have spent years and in some cases decades in the medium. They can not and do not have a fresh perspective anymore.

Indeed, most can only offer vague remembrances that aren�t coherent or cogent. What am I, an eager not-so-young or fresh-faced budding reporter, supposed to make of a gem such as, �I remember there was an editor who kept a flask in his desk drawer. I later found out that it was empty.�

And this is where they made their second mistake. By picking reporters who are established, and more important, still working in the field (Except for Helen Thomas, as she�s dead), I can�t help think these reporters are reluctant to burn any bridges they might need at some future date.

A far better approach, I feel, would be to pick a journalism school or three, take 15 to 20 students from those schools, and have them write about their experiences at the end of the year. That way, instead of having some established schmuck wax nostalgically about how the hours were �rough� and that it was �hard,� we get a first person account of something that is still fresh and horrific in their minds.

How many of them decided that the truth of the matter is that reporters are scum and they instead decided to dig ditches for a living? I bet you�d get at least one person like that, and I bet they would be a helluva lot more interesting.

So the conception turned sour, but the real disappointment is how dreadfully boring most of these pieces are. Editors are constantly fretting over the decline in newspaper readers and subscribers these last few decades, and I think I�ve figured out why. Out of 22 pieces, only six were entertaining and one of those was by Dave Barry, which is a given. (By the way Barry, in case you read this, I misspelled your name on the first draft. Thanks for the advice.)

If this is the cream of the crop, it�s no wonder there�s an average of three televisions in every household.

The absolute worst thing, however, was seeing how 80 percent or so of these people went to Columbia University. This is bad for two reasons: First, it reminds me that I really need to kick into high gear for my applications to graduate school.

Second, there�s the realization that if I get into Columbia, they might not have anything to teach me.
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School Progress: Won the battle with San Jose State over my grade, and organized all my files for the six schools that I am applying to.


Rating: Worth library prices.

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