|
My blog page on the Huffington Post |
|
Me on the front page of the Huffington Post |
|
"I Want to be a Journalist, But I Can't Afford to Work for Free": My article on the Huffington Post |
It
has been a busy few weeks in Libbyland. Last week I was on the front
page of the Huffington Post and on Monday an article by me went up on
the Guardian student website.
Let
me start from the beginning and with the Huffington Post. Recently I
have been involved with a national campaign to end unpaid internships,
and a campaign at my university (University of the Arts London) branded
'The Devil Pays Nada'. I have done seven unpaid internships and have
used my student loan to support myself whilst working for free. This
year, however, I am starting my final year at university, which also
means the final year of my student loan. I will soon no longer be able
to afford to work for free, and I don't think that I should have to.
Last
week I went to my university's fresher's fair to man the 'Devil Pays
Nada' stand and talk to students about the campaign. Unpaid work
experience is something that pretty much everyone at my university will
either have done or be expected to do. Within a few hours I had spoken
to hundreds of students and as a team we had 700 names signed up to the
campaign by the end of the day.
Although
the campaign is something I believe in, I had been unsure about how
public to be about my involvement. It is probably obvious why I was
anxious: I want to get a job so didn't want to cut off opportunities for
myself. I also feel very lucky to have had the experiences that I have
had on my internships; I didn't want to seem ungrateful. But working for free is still something that I believe is wrong and cuts off opportunities for so many people.
I
eventually decided that my hesitations were the exact reasons why I
should speak out, and publicly. I want to be a journalist and for me one
of the main purposes of journalism is to say the things that aren't
being said. I may not want to be a political journalist or a war
correspondent but I still think that with any form of broadcasting it
still comes with a certain amount of responsibility. I want to use my
voice in the best way that I can, so why was I not prepared to practice
what I preach and speak out about an issue that directly affects me?
I
wrote 'I Want to be a Journalist, But I Can't Afford to Work for Free'
and pitched it to the Huffington Post. It went live on the site and made
it to their front page last week. I now have a regular blogger's page
where I will be able to post more articles in the future.
In
the meantime I had also pitched an article to the Guardian student site
which went up on the website yesterday. The article is very different
in subject matter to my Huff Post piece, but similar in its aim. I
wanted to speak openly about my experiences of university and to discuss
whether students are always honest about 'the best days of our lives'. A
few years ago I posted about my experiences applying to the London
College of Fashion and have since then received a large number of emails
from prospective students asking for advice about the LCF application
process. I am always more than happy to respond, but sometimes feel
somewhat dishonest when I do.
Since
I wrote my post about applying to LCF, a lot has changed. The reality
is that university has not been the experience that I had dreamt of. At
the end of my first year I was actually very close to dropping out. I
didn't really talk about the problems that I had encountered because
coming to university was a decision I had made, and a decision I had
been so sure of. I didn't want to admit to myself, let alone to anyone
else, that I had found my time there difficult.
This
is my final year at LCF and I thought it was time to be honest about my
time here. The reality is, although it has been incredibly difficult at
times, if I was given the chance to do it all again I would still make
the same decisions. For a long time I worried whether coming to
university had been the right decision. I seriously considered changing
courses. But now I have come to realise that it was my attitude, not my
course, that I needed to change. The troubles I encountered at
university have made me more independent, have opened my mind to
different opportunities and have made me the person I am today.
Read my articles following the links below:
Through
writing these articles I have learnt more about the way I want to use
my voice in the future. But I have also learnt another valuable lesson
(even if it is one I hadn't necessarily signed up to): how to deal with
internet hate.
Overall I have been incredibly happy
with the responses to my Huffington Post article. Firstly I never
expected it to make it onto the front page. Then I was touched by the
support from my coursemates, friends, family, lecturers and other
interns like me. But as soon as it went online the inevitable 'haters'
came out of the woodwork too.
One main criticism was
that I wrote an article about unpaid internships on a website that does
not pay me for my work. I can understand this point of view but I still
think it is missing the point. I think of my blog on the Huffington Post
in a similar way to this blog: I own the copyright to my work and don't
get paid. But equally I was writing about a campaign so just want to
spread the word of the campaign in any way possible. My mum summed it up
well: "How do you think the suffragettes got the vote? By voting? No.
Sometimes you have to do the things you would rather not in order to be
heard."
On both articles there have also been the few
hurtful comments thrown in for good measure. It is so easy to post an
anonymous comment that this is an issue that anyone posting online
content will no doubt be familiar with. Anyone can log onto a computer
and tap away some words and not think that the person they are sending
them to is a real, normal person who will read them and feel so hurt
that they sit and eat a fish finger sandwich whilst feeling utterly
miserable, until their friends and family tell them not to worry and
they eventually cheer up again. (I speak from personal experience).
I
am only human so of course I read hurtful comments and take them
personally. But this experience has also taught me that internet hate is
just part of being a modern journalist, it is part of the internet and
it is not something to carry with you into the real world. I want to be a
writer and I value constructive criticism, but at the end of the day I
write because it is something I want to do, so feeling confident in what
I have written myself should be the most important thing. And as much
as I want this to be my career, it is still just a job. As long as my
mum and my friends are proud of me and think I'm fab, then that is all
that really matters.
And as they say: 'haters gonna hate'. And there's not much you can do about it, except not let it wipe the smile off your face.
Libby
|
so un-lady like of me but FUCK THE HATERS. I am behind you 100% as a fellow journalist and a friend :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Jemma, that made me laugh and smile a lot and I really appreciate the support :) Libby x
ReplyDelete