Mission possible or impossible: My quest to be the next Nick Kristof

In News Reporting lecture this week we watched a film on Nicholas Kristof called Reporter.

How is it that this man literally lives my dream? He graduates from college then lives like a vagabond for several years, traveling the world, learning. Then he becomes a columnist for the New York Times sharing his stories with America.

Of course I’m far from being any Nick Kristof, but it is my belief that by understanding the language, culture, and perceptions of people in other countries one can make great success as a journalist. On top of this, I don’t know a single person who’s in the Journalism School who does not want to make a difference. I am no exception. While this may sound harsh, if it weren’t for this need to do some good for the world, I would have chosen a different occupation to pursue. Journalism is difficult. It takes self-motivation (that this past semester I have been furiously struggling at) and it takes gumption. But I believe in journalism. I believe that while I cannot change the world, I can at least try to change a few people. I can at least show someone the light by giving a voice to the voiceless.

So when the narrator at the very start of the film on Tuesday said, “He’s here with a single objective: to make you care about what’s just over the hill,” I nearly cried. I could feel the lump in my throat struggling to find its way out as I pressed it down with a hard swallow. I do not think that we can fully understand the course of our own lives unless we can understand the lives of others. And the first step to compassion and comprehension is education and information.

This semester I have hit many self-imposed road blocks. I suppose I lost faith; faith in myself, faith in the system, faith in the occupation I was pursuing. I became selfish. If I’m not interested, how was I supposed to make it interesting for others?? But faith is a living roller coaster, and you cannot stay at the bottom of the tracks for very long before you start going up again.

However, with the way journalism is going these days, is there room for all the Kristof-wanna-bees? Well obviously there will never be room for all of us, since the act of journalism can best be defined as competitive. But for the actual good Kristof-wanna-bees, those that are truly good at what they do, I would say Kristof’s comments at the end of the film apply. The business of journalism does not make enough money to send all the journalists they want overseas to report on issues that America should know about. It just does not have the resources for all the voiceless to be heard. So as a young woman of a generation that was taught to dream big since anything is possible when you put your mind to it, is my pursuit all in vain?