Gosh, all these kind words!
So journalism = plagiarism + wikipedia + taking out the bits in French.
Since journalism training is, first and foremost, about learning to rewrite copy, we must conclude that this particular Daily Mail Reporter either has no training, or was seriously overworked. It's not like a famous columnist just got into trouble for plagiarism or anything.
Malcolm Armsteen wrote:
Perhaps DMR is usually a low-paid freelancer knocking out a quick filler for a few quid.
At best. As I've mentioned before, the Mail, like all the big media organisations, has a lot of young people in on work experience. Summer is the peak time, as a new wave of ambitious, debt-ridden graduates leaves university. I remember how much competition there was just to get work experience on a national title — and it was 15 years ago that I tried, when there were fewer journalism degree courses and more paid jobs available to the offspring of the posh.
This young woman's story seems typical, for those young people whose surname is not Dacre or Littlejohn:
Quote:
Emily Farley, 24, has undertaken six internships at magazines since leaving university with a first-class degree in her bid to break into journalism - and has lined up two more.
All have been unpaid and only a handful have made a contribution towards her £400-a-month travel expenses into London from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. Although Emily has supported herself by working between each placement, she has grown increasingly frustrated that work experience is the only route to proper work.
"It seems as though internships have replaced entry-level jobs," she says. "It's all about being in the right place at the right time.
"My family have been very supportive, but sometimes they say, 'do you feel you're getting any closer?' This just seems to be how it works nowadays."
Needless to say, if you don't live in the south east of England, and don't have a "supportive" family, you have no chance. The days when the national print media recruited skilled, proven journalists from the regional press are long gone: it's far cheaper to hire eager 23-year-olds on freelance contracts, make them work 16-hour days, and let them go if they can't keep up.
The regional press itself increasingly relies on work experience,
especially when the staff get bolshie. For proprietors in a shrinking market, the attractions of malleable, unpaid, non-unionised labour are irresistible.
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