Orla Doherty, a news broadcasting assistant with RTÉ discussed life in the newsroom with transition year students this week, describing the “always on” culture of modern media and urging students to grab opportunities when they come up.
Doherty, speaking to transition years as part of a journalism access week being run by The University Times and the Trinity Access Programme (TAP), didn’t sugarcoat journalism’s hard realities, but pointed out to students the opportunities that are available to them.
A former student of TAP-linked school Coláiste Bríde, Doherty advised students that jobs in the media won’t fall into their laps – “you have to be like: ‘I’m going to grab this by the balls and I’m going to take it’”, she said. Doherty herself has applied for an astonishing 87 jobs in the last year, she added.
In keeping with the themes of previous talks – where journalists Peter McGuire and Sinéad Farrell had urged students to start writing now – Doherty reminded people that they need to be adaptable and show initiative to make it in a modern newsroom. “You could be doing the crappy work one day and in the newsroom doing autoques the next”, she said.
And when it comes to news, she said, the demands of modern reporting are constant. “You get used to always having to be on”, Doherty told students, adding that “I love my job”.
Doherty, who is gay, said newsrooms are becoming more diverse and accepting spaces, but admitted there aren’t enough journalists from different ethnic backgrounds. When she joined RTÉ, she said, “I don’t think I told many people”, but the culture has begun to shift.
For Doherty, telling people about her sexuality made things a lot easier. She said newsrooms are starting to change – a welcome development, she added.
This piece was written by secondary students taking part in The University Times’s journalism access programme.
