Graduated from Department of Journalism

Incredibly, if we get halfway there in 2024, it will be the fourth anniversary of my graduation from journalism school. Graduation is normal, but if you focus on your major, it seems to be a different kind of pain. What's more, our profession not only ceases to exist, but has almost become a target of public criticism.

On the occasion of the New Year, I saw a post on Weibo that taught everyone how to "effectively report" and denounced the "cheating" in the publishing industry. But it's not the kind of "cheap work" we think of. The banner held high by the poster is: The author "seriously belittles Chinese civilization and belittles Chairman Mao." Therefore, below this post, in addition to reporting publishers, there are also professors from various journalism schools. Some of the reporting materials come from published books, and some are personal remarks published in the circle of friends, as well as class speeches.

I can't help but feel chills running down my spine when I think about all the journalism school classrooms filled with people like this.

I'm not saying that this profession is so lofty and pure that it should stick to something. But everyone should have a consensus that the reason why the School of Journalism was established is not just as Wilbur Schramm said: "The students that the School of Journalism wants to train will be the most suitable in the entire university to understand and talk about them." A student of the world we live in."

But then again, perhaps because of this, "whistleblowing" first started in journalism schools. After all, this is also an understanding of the world in which we live.

We will lament those little-shown consciences and the overwhelming indifference, as if there is a clear line between them. But in fact, it means whether you are willing to get close to a person and understand him. I don't think that our generation is born stupid or born "pink boys", but that any generation's brains will be completely destroyed under the current twenty years of compulsory education. It depends on how you rebuild and whether you have a chance to rebuild. Obviously, if these twenty years were extended to a lifetime and penetrated all-pervasively, then everyone would be thoroughly soaked.

What about the journalism school? It has the keenest ideals, and those ideals will be keenly destroyed, turned around, and become the kind of weapon it originally hated most.

I don't want to say another good word, I don't want to talk about those ideals and how they have fallen. But I still want to talk about the fate of those people involved in it. Every ordinary person I have ever known who graduated from journalism school and what kind of life they are living today.

This isn't a shocking topic, and most of it is probably what you'd expect, but it's just missing some real details and a ghostly witness like me. Today, I tell them all. But please forgive me, these real people can only become classmates ABCD. They don't want to be carved, and they must be afraid of the sharp tip of the pen.

I'll start with myself. In June 2020, I graduated from journalism school and went to work in media operations and event planning in a small company with about 20 people. Before that, I was an intern at a performance company, and I planned to officially work as a copywriter and planner after graduation. However, at the end of 2019, it was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and all the business that had originally been based on making money from real estate activities was cut off. When all performances and activities were suspended, the company fired all interns to protect itself. The only news-related job I had was when I was about to graduate, I found an NGO and wrote a news bulletin for them. But before I could graduate and leave, this NGO announced its closure "due to force majeure".

By 2021, the small company I worked for was also on the verge of collapse. Most of the original advertisers belonged to educational and training institutions. At that time, when the policy was severely tightened, there were very few customers left, and this business could not continue. When most of my colleagues and I resigned, we were actually considered unemployed. At the end of 2023, because I needed to get some information stamped by my boss, I heard from my boss that the company had been canceled shortly after I left.

Later, I worked in media operations related to culture and tourism, and Party A officially became the government. Chatting with a former colleague, she left the last company with me. She said that she was also engaged in cultural tourism and promoted the government. It seems that different paths lead to the same destination, and it seems that there is only one way.

During the same period, one of my college roommates was admitted to a certain school as a teacher after graduation and was working as a primary school teacher. One works as a publicity outlet for a state-owned enterprise. He works overtime until early morning every day, and still responds to messages from leaders at two or three o'clock. There are almost no weekends. The last time I had dinner with her, she didn't take a few bites before she picked up her phone and started working. She told me that they are currently implementing the "120 Days of Work" corporate plan, and she has not rested for a long time. Another roommate went back to her hometown to take the staff examination. Before graduation, she told us that she wanted to do media promotion at the Public Security Bureau in her hometown. In addition to having some free time, she found the news from the Public Security Bureau very interesting. But then there was no news.

From other students who are still posting on WeChat Moments, almost all of them are doing government propaganda in their hometowns. The previous generation of journalists might have worked as reporters or news anchors on local TV stations. Now there is a new department called the "Integrated Media Center." After passing the exam, one's job is to operate the government's all-media platform. It’s similar to my work in cultural tourism, but my salary will be owed in advance and my whereabouts are still unknown.

There are also people who work in real estate after graduation, because it was still a popular and easy-to-find job at that time. The classmate's parents bought him a house locally, and he had to bear the mortgage before he graduated, so he simply joined the industry. At that time, the development of the real estate industry was still considerable, and the initial salary was much better than that of students in other industries. But the collapse is also the fastest. My first job was shut down due to the decline of the real estate industry, which caused the company to lose important business.

At that time, there were very few people who actually worked as journalists. Almost half continue their education or obtain a second degree. They give up journalism and communication studies and turn to film studies, anthropology, sociology, law... Anyway, there is always one who can escape, but it seems that there is no escape at all.

My good friend enrolled in the law department, hoping to engage in legal news reporting in the future. But before graduation, I realized that I had fallen into two of the most painful and unsolvable whirlpools in China. She later went to work at a law firm and has been working for half a year. At the end of the year, all employees' bonuses were reduced, and they announced that salary cuts would begin in 2024. An alumnus of the law department whom I met in school works in a law firm and cannot even protect his legal rights as a worker. I no longer dare to ask him how to protect the parties in the cases he is responsible for.

Some students also went to work in magazines, but from my observation, they were still working in online media. She asked me for a manuscript, but I had no qualifications and could only do the hardest job as a reporter. I had to collect information from thousands of places, but the final manuscript was not necessarily required. The value orientation has already been planned, and the medicine must be taken according to the prescription. As a result, I had no choice but to give up.

As a screenwriter and a director, we met again on social media, and it seemed that we were facing the same problem again. How come I ended up back at the starting point after finding escape routes through other diving majors? There is a common shadow above us.

The one who originally wanted to go to Myanmar to be a reporter didn't make it, so he continued to work in news, and he was still the same one after going to different parties. And because there was no formal establishment, he was cut off easily. He had no choice but to resign and fled back to his hometown in embarrassment. Those who worked in commercials made some money in the first year, but were fired for any reason in the second year.

The most stable ones are those who have been admitted to various business editors and civil servants. Anyway, they can work in the media anywhere. Those who keep silent are preparing for the public examination. Anyway, they will have the opportunity before the age of thirty-two. If we count from the year of graduation, these three or four years of stagnation will end at the age of thirty-two. If they are lucky, this curse will end. If they are not lucky - no, they will not be allowed to have this option in the future. , can’t even think about it.

But how can there be so much luck? At the age of thirty-two, will it collapse and self-destruct, or will it sadly enter another stage of life, and the many years wasted in vain slip through the fingers easily.

It's gone now, nothing left. This is the most vulgar and pale story. A collection of fragments cannot even put together a complete face. Everyone continues to move forward like this, how did I salvage it, how can it sink now, or float briefly, and continue to float.