Habits journalists need to address to revive the profession’s glory

For quite some time, I have heard complaints from some members of the public regarding how journalists today, particularly the younger breed, handle themselves.

Some have approached me directly sharing these concerns, while I have also heard others complain in the corridors of event venues. Though I know others are aware, personally, this has been eating me up. So today, allow me get the cat out of the bag. It may sting some people the wrong way, and I apologise in advance, but we need to work on ourselves.

So, what are the complaints about? First, the dress code. I have heard people complain about how some journalists show up for assignments shabbily dressed in unironed clothes, sandals, unpolished shoes, and unkempt hair especially those with sponge curls hairstyles who don’t make any efforts to keep it neat or clean.

One time I was attending an event at a hotel in Kampala, and during time for introductions, a journalist wearing a very rough dried shirt stood up to introduce himself. Two ladies seated next to me mumbled and said, “Journalists of nowadays are not serious. See how shabbily and unkempt he is, but who invites such journalists to these events!

Oh! How I felt embarrassed. As a journalist, how you show up in public spaces you are invited to, matters. If you show up late, badly dressed like you don’t care, it reflects badly on you as a person, but also on our noble profession.

In this era where personal branding is key, as a journalist, dressing professionally projects a sense of seriousness, dedication to your work, and you are taken seriously by the audience, who in turn want to associate and work with you, because everyone wants to work with people who take their work and themselves seriously.

And guess what, being smart doesn’t have to be very expensive or mean wearing suits from Monday to Sunday. 

You can buy your simple shirts, dresses, t-shirts, jeans, skirts and still look smart and well-groomed. You can keep it simple, yet smart. Smartness is not only meant for news anchors, but every journalist.

For ladies, if high heels work for you, perfect, after all, they enhance your physical look.

However, if you are the type that doesn’t feel comfortable in high-heels, it is very okay. You can wear flat-closed shoes, having in mind that real journalism involves a lot of fieldwork, and high-heels may not be convenient all the time, but avoid wearing sandals to events.

The second complaint is about late coming. A few journalists who I sometimes think are masqueraders hop from one event to another looking for news and transport refund, and appear at some events at the end. Without having much information of what was discussed during these meetings, they right away jump into conducting interviews, and one wonders what exactly are they asking the interviewee, no wonder the quality of some news pieces is wanting.

Lastly is about food etiquette. This is embarrassing, but I will say it nonetheless. I’m not an etiquette coach, but where I grew up from, or at least where most of us grew up from, we were taught to only serve food we can finish.

But I have seen some journalists who during events fill their tea cups and plates to the brim, and as they go to sit, soup is pouring all over the place. This is improper and I have heard other attendees complain that some journalists eat like they have never eaten before, or eat like ‘villagers’. Oh no! Its a few doing such kinds of things, but making the entire profession look bad. 

I thought I was the only one bothered by this kind of behaviour until recently I was with a group of other health journalists and this topic came up. In our discussion, we asked ourselves, why young journalists today don’t mind about their dress code. They dress anyhow! 

We also asked ourselves, are lawyers taught how to dress smartly at all times during law school? Or they respect their profession well enough to dress up appropriately?

Why don’t today’s young journalists have journalism at heart?! Is it that they lack role models? Should newsrooms train journalists how to dress professionally or should it be done at higher institutions of learning?

Either way, as a profession, we need to revive the respect for journalism, and things like how we show up at events, how we conduct ourselves shows how much we respect our profession and ourselves. Journalists, we must respect ourselves. Journalism is a noble profession, let us hold it in high regard, irrespective of the challenges within.

Vivian Agaba, freelance health/science journalist and Foreign Policy Analysis Scholar