新聞記者做唔長？

2013-3-28 17:48:53

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圖：Allyson Bird's Facebook

一篇記者與新聞業「分手」的剖白，在互聯網上瘋傳，從美國傳到台灣、再到香港。撰文的是一位28歲的前報章文字記者Allyson Bird，她在文章裏詳細解釋自己離開新聞行業的原因：她指自己離開新聞不是因為自己不愛，而是太愛了，很清楚這份熱忱最終會毀了自己。
文中形容，Bird離開新聞業主要有兩個原因：首先是工作量和壓力與日俱增，薪水卻越來越少。Bird28歲離職時，薪酬比22歲入行時還要少。

There was never such a thing as an eight-hour workday at newspapers, but overtime became the stuff of legend. You knew better than to demand fair compensation. If any agency that a newspaper covered had refused to pay employees for their time, the front-page headlines wouldn’t cease. But when it came to watching out for themselves, the watchdogs kept their heads down.
Newspapers always have been liberal places where people work hard for little pay, because they believe in the job. They always could empathize with the poor. But pay continues to dwindle to the point that I wonder what kind of person, today, enrolls in journalism school?
（在報社工作從不會八小時就下班，OT是常事，但沒有會蠢到要求補水。若是其他公司剝削員工，報紙一定會以頭版招呼；但若說到報社自己，報章往往不發一 言。報社向來是個自由的地方，人們相信新聞的價值，願意為微薄的薪水賣命；他們能夠站在弱勢的一邊。但報酬越來越低，低到一個地步，我懷疑今時今日還會有 誰願意讀新聞學。）

另一方面，對新聞滿懷熱誠的Bird也對現時新聞求快不求準、只搶眼球不問深度的作風感到無奈。

Everyone works so hard for so long and for such little compensation. The results are dangerous.
We saw it with the Supreme Court health care ruling, as our national news leaders reported the decision incorrectly. We saw it with the Newtown massacre, when initial reports named the suspect’s brother as the shooter. Major news outlets are no better than bloggers if they adopt a policy of getting it out first and correcting it later.
Maybe that’s what people – editors and readers – put at a premium now. Maybe a newsroom full of fresh-from-the-dorm reporters who stay at their desks, rehashing press releases and working on Storify instead of actual stories, is what will keep newspapers relevant.
（記者長時間拼搏，卻沒有合理的補償；這是會出問題的。我們看到，有大報把法院的判決報道錯了、有記者錯把犯人的兄弟報道成兇手。若報章只專注速度，不介 意事後才改錯，那報章跟網上博客就沒有分別。也許今時今日的編輯及讀者更喜歡這些：一堆安坐在編採室內改寫官方新聞稿的記者、只關注社交網站但不報道真實 故事的記者……也許這樣的報章才會被重視。）

People like to say that print media didn’t adapt to online demand, but that’s only part of it. The corporate folks who manage newspapers tried to comply with the whims of a thankless audience with a microscopic attention span. And newspaper staffers tried to comply with the demands of a thankless establishment that often didn’t even read their work. Everyone lost.
（人們以為報業息微是因為它們跟不上網絡的變化，但這只是其中一個原因。現時的報社管理層只知道照顧當你老馮、對新聞興趣缺缺的讀者；記者只能迎合當你老馮、稿都不多看一眼的編輯。各方皆輸。）

Bird形容，自己最愛做、最想做的就是記者，身邊的同事也形容她「天生食呢行飯」，但她仍選擇離開。現時她供職於南加州一間醫學院的籌款部門。