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Award for just doing your job awesome?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by butch, May 1, 2007.

  1. butch

    butch Member

    Let's say you're a good writer. Let's say you're a good reporter. Let's say the most important part of your job is making deadline on night-game coverage 5 days a week. Let's say you never miss deadline. Let's say your copy is always clean, ready to go as soon as it's filed. Let's say everyone on the desk doesn't have to worry about you.
    Let's say you never have written a sob-happy award-winning article.
    Let's say you've seen co-workers - who aren't clean, who aren't on time, who are problematic in the newsroom and who rely on editors to all but rewrite their copy - catch the breaks, win the awards.
    What's your motivation?
     
  2. PHINJ

    PHINJ Active Member

    If you have to ask this question then you should find a new line of work.
     
  3. wasafan

    wasafan New Member

    Ummmmm, a paycheck?
     
  4. txsportsscribe

    txsportsscribe Active Member

    how about pride in during your freakin job. i like winning awards but that's not what motivates me.


    i do it for the money.
     
  5. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    Why do you want to win an award that is given out for shoddy work?

    Take pride in your own work, that's the only thing that will lead you anywhere.
     
  6. Taylee

    Taylee Member

    What breaks do they catch? Some tear-jerking stories seem to come out of nowhere, but most are the ones you have to dig for. Talk to coaches, talk to players, and if covering preps, sit among the parents and hear what they have to stay. When I covered NCAA Div. II men's basketball, I usually sat among the parents and students. The insight was amazing.
    You say you're a good reporter, then cultivate your sources. That's what a good reporter does.
    Don't dismiss someone else's desire to get stories by saying they catch all the breaks. That's the easy way out, and it's just plain lazy. The stories are out there, do what they do. Go get them.
     
  7. I'm with him.
     
  8. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    But you're a pro's pro. An extraordinary pro. The kind of pro who reminds us all of a day when true professionalism wasn't cheapened by the elitist culture of awardism that pervades life in the 21st Century; a time that was utterly without pretension. A simpler time, really. You are nothing short of a man, a true American hero, not afraid to exact a small piece of revenge when warranted. A vengeful man, full of vengeance, without a hint of mercy.

    Sorry, couldn't resist.
     
  9. Utterly without remorse.
    No wonder he wrote 500-page books. When you start this stuff, you can't stop. Inexorable, they say, like a great river pouring itself into a soundless sea.
    No, wait.
    That's Melville.
    Sorry.
     
  10. kingcreole

    kingcreole Active Member

    I remember early in my career, I was distraught about not winning much in the awards area. Just some honorable mentions. Meanwhile, the ASE, a lazy homer who did nothing beyond what he absolutely had to do, always raked in awards.

    My SE took me out to lunch and we talked about that. He said, "I'd give you a much higher recommendation than him. I'd take 10 of you over two of him."

    And don't put too much stock into awards. Two people could read the same piece. One of them may think it's Pulitzer material. The other may think it's crap.
     
  11. Bob Slydell

    Bob Slydell Active Member

    The money? Really? The money is most depressing part of this job.
     
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