Not Just a Desk Job

Many people may categorize journalists as nerdy, book smart, people that sit behind their desks, typing or writing away. People fail to realize how impactful this job is on the writer. It is an emotional, time-consuming, and sometimes dangerous occupation. Journalists from the Intelligencer came to speak to current Journalism students at Pennridge and in my opinion, the best part of the assembly was hearing the speaker’s personal experiences and stories. Shane Fitzgerald was brought to tears, Phil Gianficaro was held at gunpoint, and Ashley Williams has moved homes too many times to count. All for the job and the love of writing. The speakers opened my eyes to the secret world of a journalist.

Shane Fitzgerald, the state editor for the Gannett and Executive Editor of the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer, spoke about a very emotional time in his career. Fitzgerald experienced the Columbine shootings first hand on April 20, 1999. At the time, he was working in Colorado as a sports reporter. His work included writings about Columbine High School sports. On the day of the shooting, photojournalists came to Fitzgerald for help in finding a safe place they could take pictures. The photojournalist captured many inspirational images of the commotion and distress that the students, parents, teachers, and staff felt that day. There was one particular photo that was very moving. It almost did not run in the paper at all. While telling this part of the story, you could see Fitzgerald’s pain this moment caused. The picture displayed one of the victims that had been; shot lying face down on the sidewalk. The paper got permission from the student’s father to publish the photo. The father of that student stated, “you have to run the photo; the world needs to see what happened to my son.” While repeating this line to us, Fitzgerald was emotional. This story provides a perfect example of how emotional a passionate journalist can get about their work.

The second speaker was Phil Gianficaro, a sports writer, columnist, and former baseball coach. Phil had a passion for listening to others’ stories and found just the occupation to fulfill this passion. He stated, “It is powerful to listen to someone else’s stories,” and I 100 percent agree. Gianficaro’s stories fascinated me. I could listen to them all day. There was one specific story that caught my attention. At one point in his career, Gianficaro had to attempt to interview the brother of a man who had killed 13 people. After knocking on the brother’s door, Gianficaro found himself caught at gunpoint. He explained, “The man opened the door, rifle in hand, and said, ‘get off my porch.’ So I got off the porch.”

The last speaker was younger than the others and displayed an excellent understanding of gen-z. Ashley Williams, a senior reporter covering culture and community news for the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer, has moved countless times to follow her passion for writing. She was raised in Florida, moved as far as England, and somehow ended up writing in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. In her part of the presentation, she gave a lot of advice that would be good in journalism and life as a whole. One big piece of advice I learned from her is to “Get as much experience as you can so you have a good background.” In the journalism world, this meant going out into the community to get a sense of what is essential to writing a better story. In life, it means taking opportunities, even if it’s not exactly what you want to be doing. For example, Williams was in broadcast journalism, it wasn’t the exact career she wanted, but it gave her another thing to put on her resume and build knowledge that she can now use in the job she’s always wanted.

There was a common theme in Fitzgerald’s, Gianficaro’s, and William’s speeches. Each journalist possessed the drive and passion you need to succeed as a journalist. Journalism is not an easy career, despite what many may think. It is a time-consuming, life-risking occupation, with new opportunities around every corner.