I had always dreamt of being a Journalist since I went to University but when I graduated and I decided that I wanted to work in Marketing.
And I am glad I made that change as now in a world filled with termoil and bad news happening every blooming second, Journalists have to report the harrowing goings on- I don’t think I could be cut out for it.
Laura Kuenssberg is a total legend and a massive inspiration to me- plus she wears pink blazers so what’s not to like? But she has to report about Brexit, interview politicians and now report about Covid19 and I wonder how the heck does she sleep at night?
How do you report to the world about the s ituations going on right now to then suddenly go home to her loved ones? How can you switch off? Perhaps she Laura doesn’t I don’t know.
All I know is that if that were me, I would come home in rage and anger and want to vent out my frustrations to my family when I got home. I would try to do yoga and practice mindfulness but then I would know I would have to face it all over again the next day.
It’s not just Laura though, all reporters out there no matter what the platform ar having to report about deaths, bodies, murder, politics, racism.., the list goes on. As a reporter you need to remain professional, balanced and not bring your own emotion or opinion to a story and I know that I get emotionally invested in hard hitting news stories. I would find it hard to hold back the tears when reporting to the camera, I would end up crying when the camera’s off.
Obviously reporters are human and they will have times when they need to take a moment for their mental health. They must be really strong when having to be a Journalist in the world that we are living in right now. I bow down to them and appluaude their work as I could not be a Journalist not where everyday was a bad news story day.
Gemma's Journey 
As a former journalist not every day is a bad news day at all. You do got emotionally invested of course, for example I covered lots of fundraising stories of a little lad called Ethan Maull who had cancer and wanted to open a respite centre for children and their families. I had a great relationship with his family. When he sadly passed away they spoke to me exclusively and I helped to plan a special balloon release so the city could say goodbye to him. They invited me to cover his funeral and it was incredibly sad but an absolute honour. I’ve covered some lovely positive news stories too. I’ve met MPs, ministers, Professor Brian Cox, veterans, the Red Arrows pilots. As education reporter I got to judge story writing competitions with schools which was great. It’s a tough job absolutely but the support you get in the newsroom massively helps when you’re covering something so devastating.
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Hi Rachel, Thank you for commenting on my post 🙂 Thank you for telling us your story, it sounds like you had an amazing career as a journalist and experienced some amazing things. I just think you have to have tough skin and I could not do it.
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