Staying positive about the power of change and the importance of journalism

Rod Chester
Jul 24, 2017 · 3 min read

My name is Rod Chester and I’m a journalist. It is the best thing ever.

For the past few weeks I have been doing one of those human resources courses where you start off scoffing and skeptical and end up shaking your head at all the many things you never knew.

My grandfather, who lived through the Depression, worked at the same place for more than 40 years and was proud of that. I have worked in the same building for more than 26 years, and I’m just as proud.

But, as the human resources experts have explained to me, the generation embarking on their careers now will not have that same loyalty to a place and a company because they will be driven by other forces just as compelling. They will join the gig economy, piecing together different jobs over several days to make a complete package.

They may spend four years or more studying at university for their career, but will work in four different careers throughout their lives and will have to retrain along the way.

When I was 15, I decided I wanted to be journalist. Now teenagers decide what they want to be until they want to be something else.

That’s not a bad thing. That is just the new thing.

Everything is different and for those of us who lose a job because of the changes of technology, here is another kick in the guts I have learnt in the past few weeks. It is now standard practice for large firms to process job applications with computer software that stamps yes or no based on its ability to detect key words in your resume. So after losing a job because of the wonders of technology you can be rejected for your next job because of the wonders of technology.

Again, that is not a bad thing but just the new thing.

Journalism as an industry is undergoing massive change, again technology is to blame. But it is better to say that journalism as we used to know it is transforming into something new and technology is the driving force. Change is neither negative or positive, but it is perception that makes it so.

Change is difficult to manage. Kodak invented the digital camera but went bankrupt because it was was too focused on making all those rolls of film so we could all have Kodak moments. Yet photography is now more popular than ever. I have a handful of photos from my childhood and now I take a handful of photos by breakfast. And the echoes of the film era lives on in those Instagram filters that mimic it.

To understand the size of the challenge the media industry faces, you only have to look at the fact that they commercial media players are united in a campaign about media reform. Media is an industry where fierce competition is at its heart, but this is a cause that has bought traditional rivals together as one.

The word journalism is used to cover many things, and in this era of the listicle that definition continues to spread. With the rise of fake news, and US President Donald Trump treating the fourth estate with contempt and ridicule rather than the respect that it deserves as one of the pillars of democracy, journalists and journalism have never been more important.

One of the key lessons of the HR course was that each of us, no matter what we do, need our own 30 second commercial to sell ourselves in this modern era, no matter if we’re lobbying for a job or chatting at a barbecue.

So, my commercial is at the start of this column but lets finish with something else.

Journalists come, and they go, but journalism will continue to be important because it is actually the best thing ever.

  • This was to be Rod Chester’s final column in The Courier-Mail after more than 25 years as a columnist. He was made redundant on Friday 21 July and is looking forward to whatever happens next.

Rod Chester

Written by

Marathon runner. Obsessed with iPhone photography. Lover of the inane. Technology journalist. Sometimes I do it all. rod.chester@bigpond.com

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