Crazy, Stupid, People

Growing up, and when I made my somewhat hasty decision what I wanted to go to school for, I had always thought that I wanted to be a part of the media more than anything. I wanted to write sensational stories about other people. But why? For me, it was mostly because I wanted to write. But after added years of wisdom, and I hate to say it, cynicism, I began to wonder if this was an organization I could really be a part of without becoming just really depressed about life. Of course, there are always the dream jobs, like being actually employed by a travel blog or a quirky site like cracked.com. But if you want a real job in the media, you're probably going to be writing stories about that guy who shot his neighbor over a Philly cheese steak. 

Every day when I sit in the cafeteria at work, someone has Headline News on, and some lady is repetitively telling me the same thing and making sure I know how horrible it is. And it's always the same kind of shit. Sensationalized, terrible human shit that is not going to change your life one bit. And the local media is even worse, because then you sit and watch how fucked up the place you live is. So why do we watch it? So we know exactly how messed up people are, or worse, to bring excitement to our otherwise mundane lives? 

Ok, so you realized this and don't waste your time watching it. Many people don't. Now what about the stuff that might affect us? You've got the media that tells you what to think about policies or the candidates, so you pick the outlets that reinforce what you already believe, when really, that is not the media's intended job at all. Then news outlets need more to report because they've got so much airtime to fill, that they start to report shit that doesn't matter, and suddenly you are being told what to think about. Funny thing is, I am still such a whore to so much of it (the media that is), even if I can't help but be disheartened by it.

I could rant so much further, but this is a blog of musings, not extenuated rants. I just felt I needed to verbally make my peace about why I am currently not sure what I want to turn my journalism degree into, but I am sure what I don't want to do with it. 

On a side note, I'm totally looking into how I can write for Cracked.com now. Now I just need to make an epic list. http://www.cracked.com/write-for-cracked/