First day of class: A journalism teacher's lecture

Welcome.

I have been thinking a lot about this day. It’s not anxiety. It’s eagerness. I hope you are eager, too.

Your first lesson is to leave anxiety behind. Be eager. Be excited. Be hungry. Don’t hold back. If you try new things, you will fly, even if at first you flop. You will be stretched in this class, but you will not break. You need that stretching to grow. And you must grow.

I am also eager about new ways of doing journalism.

I love that journalism challenges us to always change. Who wants to do things the way they were done 50 years ago? Or 15? Or five? Not me.

We do not have much time together. You will probably spend more hours in your first week on the job than we will spend in this classroom. That first week will also teach you more than I can.

So, my focus is not on your first job but on helping you get ready for all the jobs that will come after it. And they won’t all fit a narrow definition of journalism.

What is journalism? It is not newspapers or TV or radio or the web or social media. Those are tools used to do journalism, but they are not journalism.

Journalism is discovering and telling stories that describe our time and the news and issues in the lives of people.

Journalism is asking all kinds of people all kinds of questions. It is listening. It is weighing answers and verifying them because people interpret the world through different lenses. Once you think you have the story, you need to tell it clearly and powerfully. Journalism requires accuracy, independence and integrity so that people can trust it. Good journalism moves people, and it can move the world.

Writing is at the root of journalism, which is best done with both words and images. Some incredibly smart people can’t write. But you can. It should become your super power. Beyond the interviewing, the analysis and the writing, there are new ways every day for gathering and disseminating the news. Think about them: video, Instagram, Twitter, drones, big data, virtual reality and we’ll start hearing about a new one before the semester ends, just you watch.

So, the first lesson is to eagerly grab hold of journalism, knowing that even though it is always changing shape, it has a solid core you can count on.

The second lesson is to do what you love.

We have all seen lists and surveys that tell us what we should do with our lives. They rank order majors and jobs and careers. Journalism hasn’t been at the top of many lists lately. But it is at the top of mine.

I don’t pay attention to lists telling me where I should go to college, what I should major in, where I should live, what I should wear or drive or read or listen to or watch. I don’t care where people say I should work, play, vacation, marry, raise children, live, die or be buried. The people who make those lists do not know the first thing about me. They couldn’t care less. If they did, they would have asked. I try to follow my bliss, contribute and make a difference. I choose journalism because I love it.

To be great at what you do, you have to do something you love. If you choose something you do not love, it is hard to be great or to be happy. If you do what you love, you will do it well, and it will lead you to all kinds of interesting possibilities. Believe that. It is happening every day.

And that is the second lesson: Do what you love and love what you do.

And here is the third lesson:

I worked for a publisher named Neal Shine. It seemed that everyone loved that man. Each year at Michigan State University, we have an ethics program in Neal’s memory. I promise you, Neal loved what he did and that made him a great journalist.

A colleague at the Detroit Free Press was asked to work closely with Neal. After a few weeks she told me she had gotten to know him better. “I always knew Neal was a great man,” she said. “But now I have learned that he is a good man.”

And that is the third lesson. While it is nice to be great at doing something we love, even more important than being great is being good people with integrity, compassion and enthusiasm for using our gifts to serve others.

 Joe Grimm is visiting editor in residence in the Michigan State University School of Journalism. Classes start Sept. 2. This semester, he teaches reporting, editing and a class called Bias Busters that will publish "100 Questions and Answers About African Americans," the 10th in a series of guides to greater cultural competence.