在媒体中大展拳脚：写给有志于投身新闻行业的你
Making it Big in the Media: How to Prepare for a Career in Journalism
AF Education
专属博客 Liam Carrigan
亲爱的读者，正如你所知道的，为AF写文章并不是我作为写手的最初尝试。
As you know dear readers, my contributions here at AF Education aren’t my first forays into the realm of the written word.
要说我第一次发表文章，还得回到2000年，当我还只是16岁的时候。我在一个全国性的报纸《苏格兰先驱报》上发表了一篇文章，这份报纸可能不如《纽约时报》或者《华尔街日报》那般家喻户晓，但在当时、甚至是今天的苏格兰来说，都是最有阅读质量的报纸。虽然那个时候的我只是在办公室里做着复印、跑腿之类的工作，但是当时的报社编辑马克·道格拉斯豪恩先生、副编辑凯文·麦肯纳，以及报社的美术编辑基思·布鲁斯给了我一个报道中国少林武僧的机会，让我报道了他们在舞台上关于“轮回”的表演。我永远都感谢他们。
Way back in the year 2000, when I was just 16 years old, I had my first story published in a national newspaper. The Herald, may not be a household name like the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal, but in the little country of Scotland it was, and remains to this day, the nation’s most read quality newspaper. At the time, I was working as the “copy boy” a sort of general office dog’s body of sorts. I remain eternally grateful to the Herald’s Editor at the time Mark Douglas-Home, his then deputy Kevin McKenna, and the Herald’s arts editor Keith Bruce, who gave me my first big opportunity, when I was sent on assignment to review a performance of the Shaolin Monks of China, performing their “Wheel of Life” stage show.
有趣的是，差不多16年之后的今天，我又再一次探讨当代中国的问题，尽管是在一个完全不同的背景之下。
It is somewhat ironic that I now find myself here, some 16 years later, once again writing about contemporary Chinese issues, albeit from an entirely different context!
从那时起我就开始给《苏格兰先驱报》供稿，有时也为她的姐妹报刊写写体育专栏，直到2006年我决定移居亚洲才停笔。
I continued writing for The Herald and its sister tabloid the Evening Times as an occasional sports columnist, right up until 2006, when I decided to relocate to Asia.
我取得的大专文凭以及后来的本科文凭专业都是新闻学，但是很多人也可能会觉得我由此进入新闻行业这条路子显得比较保守。
Although I attained first a college diploma and then a bachelors degree majoring in Journalism, my pathway into the media business is what many would probably refer to as “old school”.
事实上，我在媒体业界的同事很少有人是从新闻学科班出身的。
In truth, these days very few of my fellow journalists actually attained their degrees exclusively in journalism.
现时比较流行的做法不是在本科阶段读新闻学，而是当他们想写一些特定的课题时，就去读一个新闻学的硕士学位。
What is becoming more common instead is for wannabe journalists to instead pursue degrees in the field they wish to write about, and then perhaps doing a postgraduate course in Journalism later on.
比如，艺术记者可以读一个戏剧研究、文学或相关的学位。如果想做新闻记者则可以攻读政治学、历史或者其他的深入研究课题。
For example, arts correspondents perhaps pursue degrees in theatrical studies, literature or such like. Someone who aspires to be a news reporter may pursue a degree in political sciences, history or some other hard research-based subject.
事实上，很讽刺的是我在大学读新闻学的65名同学当中，我是当中少于10%依然在媒体行业就职的，尽管我是在自由职业的基础上做的兼职。
Indeed, the great irony is that of my graduating class of 65 budding young journalists at university, I am one of the less than 10% of them who still works in the media industry, albeit on a part-time, freelance basis.
就我个人而言，我比较喜欢做自由职业者。这给了我决定写什么以及什么时候写的自由。这也帮我免却了报道时涉及的道德和伦理矛盾的麻烦，也避免了一些我不认同、触及我道德底线的问题。
Personally, I enjoy being freelance. It allows me the freedom to choose what I write about and when I write it. It also frees me of the moral and ethical dilemmas of having to report on topics or engage in situations I find disagreeable or morally questionable.
事实上，许多人都怀着一颗崇敬的心进入传媒行业，但是在追寻独家新闻的热望、急于在人前得到消息的焦虑驱使之下，我同行的一些做法就为人所不齿。
Indeed, for all many of us enter the journalistic profession with honourable intentions, in the desperate pursuit of that elusive exclusive, in our anxious eagerness to get the story before everyone else, some of my fellow writers have engaged in actions and behavior that I find unacceptable.
如果你想成为一名新闻记者，这个底线就由你自己所决定了。对于我来说，当我为某个报社兼职写作时被要求“创造性地歪曲事实”以支持当时盛行的右翼势力时，我觉得这是我结束在主流媒体的工作、出去闯一闯的时候了。
If you want to be a journalist, then it is up to you to decide where you draw the line. For me, it was when I was asked by a publication I freelanced for to write what could best be described as a “very creative distortion of the facts”, to support the prevailing right-wing narrative of the tabloid in question that I decided it was time to stop working in the mainstream newsroom environment and strike out on my own.
简单来说，我觉得进入新闻行业有点像选择成为一名医生或律师。这不是一个单纯的拿钱做事的工作。这是一个需要使命感和正义感的行业。
In short, getting into journalism is a bit like choosing to become a doctor or a lawyer. It is not simply a job you do for money. It is a conscious undertaking, a “calling” if you will.
你需要献身于这个事业，并随时准备应付它潜在的负面影响。你的出版商可能会时不时迫使你从某一个角度来写一些文章、让你玩弄一些具有争议性的话题或者贬低别人，写作的内容都要由主编来决定。这就得看你的良心是否能够接受了，我能充分理解为什么其他人能够为了他们固定的、有保证的月薪而降低自己的道德标准，而我只有成为了自由职业者才能获得编辑自由。
You need to commit to it fully, and be prepared for the potential negatives it can entail. There will be times when your publisher compels you to write a story from a certain angle, to perhaps play up some controversy or downplay another, subject to the editorial agenda in play. Again, it falls to your own conscience to decide if you are ok with that, and whilst I value the greater editorial freedom that comes from working exclusively as a freelancer, I can fully understand why others may be willing to compromise their ethics a bit more, for the sake of a regular, guaranteed, monthly paycheck.
如今媒体发生了很大变化，今天You Tube上的某个愤怒的咆哮视频或者是某个名人被泄露的做傻事的视频都可能远比《华盛顿邮报》上关于普利策奖获得者的社评赚眼球。
The media is changing though, and today an angry You Tube rant or a leaked video of a celebrity doing something stupid is likely to gather a far larger audience than a Pulitzer Prize winning editorial in the Washington Post.
有人说媒体日益弱智化，我们生活在一个泛知识的社会，愤怒的言辞和有趣的讲话比理性的辩论和诚实调查的答案更引人入胜。
People say the media is dumbing down and that today we live in a post-intellectual society, where angry rhetoric and snappy sound bites can win out over reasoned debate and honestly researched answers.
我不相信。
I don’t believe that is the case.
只要我们还有新一代具有雄心壮志的年轻作家及研究者，他们勇于追求真相而不畏艰难、不墨守成规，并勇于开诚布公地面对读者，我就依然对未来的出版及新闻业充满信心。
So long as we have a new generation of ambitious young writers and investigators coming through, who aren’t afraid to challenge the established order and inform the public in an honest and open way, regardless of how inconvenient that fundamental truth may be, I remain hopeful for the future of our press and for the future of the craft of journalism.
