COLUMN: A peek over the shoulder

During volunteer week, I couldn’t help but think of the first time I stepped foot in a real newsroom.

I used to volunteer at The Richmond Review half a day a week to help teach teenagers how to write news. In return, I could hang around real journalists, who’d volunteer their time by letting me look over their shoulders and ask about the craft. I didn’t know it then, but this gig was probably the closest you could get to learning journalism the old-fashioned way. 

No need to put yourself in mountains of debt – the only price tag for advice was a demonstrated interest in the craft. 

Pretty much the opposite model of today, where students must pay thousands for journalism school internships, which sometimes aren’t even guaranteed.

There’s no question in my mind without the opportunity at The Review, I would’ve never had any success in this field. 

Now to be clear, I later ended up going to journalism school. Unfortunately, the nature of the world today is that a degree is necessary for every job – I even saw Langara start a certification for dog walking. It’s $604, by the way. 

But that experience at The Review made me realize, once upon a time, knowledge was given based on students’ potential, as opposed to their ability to pay. 

While it wasn’t perfect, the old way of getting into journalism was by far more egalitarian. However, it required some measure of volunteerism, which is in short supply in an industry wracked by financial uncertainty.

Now, this job is increasingly available only to those who have the money. And it reflects in the coverage. It doesn’t surprise me that as newsrooms have become increasingly accessible only to the privileged – and it’s dumb luck I happen to be in that category – coverage has changed. For instance, the labour reporter has become something of an endangered species, though I notice many bigger papers still have an entire section devoted to business. This may be a smarter move profit-wise, but ultimately, society as a whole suffers when issues affecting entire classes of the population receive less attention.

When used the right way, volunteerism isn’t just free labour – it’s the unlocking of human potential. And when we think of unlocking this potential, we often think only of dramatic examples, like starting fancy leadership foundations. But sometimes all you need to do is let someone look over your shoulder and ask questions.