The risk is greater than the reward: the story of journalism graduates who bow out
Written by Elma Adisya | Read in Indonesian
When some of her friends were struggling to choose their major in university, Anna*, was determined to study journalism at a private university in Tangerang in 2014. Like most freshmen majoring in journalism, Anna wanted to work as a journalist because she hoped to travel for free and build her networks.
In 2017, she had the opportunity to serve her internship at a leading economics media company in Jakarta. Only then she realised that being a reporter is really hard, especially when she experienced the non-existent working hours, or almost 24/7.
"Maybe because I was still idealistic like most students, I enjoyed the hardships that I went through. But, in the end, I decided to give up because for me it wasn't worth it," Anna told TFR.
*not her real name
A cure to expectations for journalism students
Many journalism graduates from various Indonesian universities seek to work in their dream media company. However, the expectations during their university days are far from the real situation, prompting some of them to leave the industry. To tackle this issue, Ignatius Haryanto, a lecturer in Communication Science at Multimedia Nusantara University (UMN) said that the study programme itself continues to update the curriculum so that it can adapt to the real situation.
“Besides, during class, I always tell my students to keep updated with developments around them, and we always discuss it in class. That way, they will be ready for real situations,” Ignatius, who is familiarly known as Pak Ighar, told TFR.
From his teaching experience since the year UMN was founded until now, Pak Ighar said that there is indeed a downward trend in journalism specialisation. This trend started in 2016 and continues to decline even more during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The exact reason behind the decline is still unknown. There were 170 students in 2017, and the figure rose slightly to 190 people in 2018. It dropped to 150 people in 2019 and there were only 80 people in 2020," he added.
Not everyone gets the same
Meeting new people, making business trips to other cities and student idealism were Anna’s reasons to walk the path to be a real reporter. However, there are other realities that are never discussed in class, one of which is harassment and misogynistic and sexist attitudes in newsrooms that female reporters receive.
"At one point, I just realised that this profession is not safe for women, especially since I work in the economics media company which is dominated by male reporters," she said.
Anna felt that on several occasions, as a reporter - especially a woman reporter -, her senior male colleagues often "used" her as a shield when they were in a hurry to find male sources. Her editor told her to contact a male source who was relatively unapproachable.
"Honestly, at that time I was afraid, because the source was an old man. Things like this don't just happen once or twice," she added.
One of the most memorable incidents during her time as a reporter was when he covered the controversial Alexis bar case in 2017. At that time, none of her colleagues, including the seniors, could interview Alexis' side and Anna was once again used as a shield by her superiors because their contact was a man.
“At that time, we had been trying to contact Alexis to get an interview for a week but we failed. Then my boss told me to call them. I got the interview opportunity. So I covered Alexis alone, where the place was dimly lit and uncomfortable. It was scary, I swear."
However, instead of getting a professional appreciation, her colleagues instead appreciated Anna in a scornful and semi-condescending tone.
"'Wow, Anna could get the interview, what method were you using to lobby them'. They were thinking about inappropriate things. Even though they didn't say it directly, the tone was in that direction." Anna complained.
When Anna told her story, she realised that she had also been harassed at work by her boss.
“Back then, I didn't realise that it was abuse. There was one time when one of my bosses invited me to dinner, at midnight. I felt very uncomfortable and a little scared too," she added.
The risk is bigger than the appreciation
It is just one of the many stories that prompted many individuals, including Anna, to quit the profession. It was not only the irregular working hours and high risk of harassment; during the eight months she worked as a new reporter, Anna felt that the work she produced obtained very little appreciation from her superiors.
"Well, we were fresh graduates. Instead of pointing out where we made mistakes or giving positive input, we were just shouted at. How can we not have a mental breakdance."
A similar story came from Melan*, 27, a journalism graduate who finally gave up and left her media company. Unlike Anna who worked in a well-known major media company, Melan tried her luck at a media start-up that focuses on fashion in South Jakarta. At first, Melan felt that the environment and issues raised by the media made her comfortable and things were not too complicated. The problem was that the salary at media start-ups was pitifully low.
*not her real name
“At that time, in 2017, I was still a very fresh graduate. The environment was really good, but the only thing I couldn't stand was that I was only paid Rp700,000. I only lasted 6-7 months there," said Melan.
Not only monetary compensation, the appreciation for the work she made was also very minimal. Her boss didn't even believe in her work.
"I was really disappointed when my work was not appreciated. It was not just in this particular media. When I did an internship in another media company, I experienced the same thing, even worse. Those experiences convinced me that this is not the profession that I want, "said Melan.
The lack of appreciation and low salary are actually no longer an open secret, especially among journalism students. On several occasions, phrases like “if you want to be a journalist, don't expect to be rich, this is your soul's calling” were used by lecturers as anecdotes to open their session.
Every year, the welfare aspect is always emphasised by the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI). In 2018, AJI Indonesia set the salary for junior journalists at Rp7,963,949. A survey conducted by AJI in 2018 found that most media companies pay their journalists around Rp4 million. Some media companies pay fresh graduate journalists below the Jakarta Provincial Minimum Wage (UMP) of Rp3.5 million with working hours of more than 8 hours and no overtime pay.
The situation got worse when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. Layoffs and unpaid salaries hit many journalists in various areas over the past two years. Last year, AJI again conducted a survey of more than 100 respondents, and as many as 93.8% of them said that they had not received a decent salary, even below the minimum wage for DKI Jakarta or Rp4,416,186.
Those who stayed
Although there are many journalism graduates who gave up their dream of becoming a journalist, there are also some who stay in the profession. One of them is Johanes Hutabarat, 28, or familiarly called Jobar. He persisted amidst the challenges he faced during his five years working as a journalist. Since his university days, he has toughened his resolve to enter the field of journalism and aspired to advance his career as an in-depth reporter.
"I worked at Kumparan in 2017. At that time, things were far from what I imagined. I wanted to resign but I didn't have the heart to, and I was not a risk taker," said Jo.
In 2018, a golden opportunity came and he joined Kumparan’s in-depth team. From 2018 to 2020, he learned a lot of new things that he didn't get before as a regular daily journalist.
"There, I was learning to write interesting articles, conducting in-depth interviews, exploring better angles – the point was that I learned a lot," he added.
However, it all ended when he became one of the staff members affected by the wave of layoffs caused by the pandemic. This made him think whether he wanted to continue or not. He thought that even though he left, he did not know where to go. In addition, he has no one under his responsibility, so he wanted to remain in the industry.
"I understand that everyone has different conditions, and many of my friends are of the sandwich generation. This is what makes them unable to continue."
Luckily, many of his friends gave him a way to continue his profession. From 2020 to late 2021, Jo did a lot of freelance writing for several foreign and local media companies while working part-time at hakasasi.id.
"My condition allows me to survive in the media, and thank God, I was always given a path, and now I’m working at Tirto."
