My Motivation

While thinking about the topic of my motivation for pursuing a career in journalism (or a writing career in general. I haven't quite decided on my future occupation, but I know I want to write) I came across this article, which broke down the journalism profession into four categories. Of the four, I think I am either a storyteller or a provocateur. I don't want to be a writer so that I can stop all the corruption of the world. I'm sure it's a worthy goal, and somebody needs to do it, but I don't think that person is me. I like feature stories. I like talking about the world. For me, hard-hitting or investigative stories aren't the only stories worth telling. I wouldn't mind being a narrative writer, or putting a new spin on an old concept. I like to think about things in a creative way, and share my way of seeing things with the world.

My ideal job would be writing novels, but I recognize that this is not a completely practical goal. I am majoring in journalism because I think it will help me break into the writing/editing world. If I do fall in love with journalism over the course of my college career, I would have no problem with trying to write stories for a newspaper or magazine. The only problem with journalism, for me, would be keeping my own opinions in check, which is why I wouldn't enjoy being breaking news reporter.A features writer, one that would allow me to tell a creative story or introduce new ways of thinking, would be better for me, even if I couldn't share my opinions in that format either.

I would rather write features than hard news.