Every profession has something to teach to people, and not only career-wise. When you work in a certain area, meet people, get to know them from a different angle, it kinda gives you some new knowledge and perspective of things, people and life.

I’ve been working in the sphere of mass media for more than two years now, and throughout this time I also got to learn a lot not only as a journalist but also as a person, if that makes sense. I’ve had lots of old beliefs that changed in the course of time. So, I thought it may be interesting to share the 5 main things I learned from working in this sphere. Maybe it will help someone to see and understand things from a new aspect.

1. Being more tolerant and seeing the good in people. There’s a common prejudice that pretty much all celebrities are rude, prideful and stupid. Gotta confess, I also partly thought that way, especially about all these young bloggers, tiktokers and artists. I saw them as merely “public people” who had a bad reputation for me. For my work I have to watch many long interviews of people I used to dislike. Surprisingly I slowly started to see that they’re actually not that bad. They’re funny, smart, wise, they’re charismatic and vulnurable. They’re alive human beings who also have good sides, have difficulties and problems in life, experience all emotions like everyone else. Just because they have to put the mask of a happy and confident person in order to be seem cool, doesn’t make them less of a human. It helped me not to put labels on people whom I’ve never met just because of their public image.

2. Not believing everything I see, cause sadly not every specialist follows the journalism ethics and writes the truth. Often writers or reporters prefer to tell the lie simply because it will bring them more views, hence more fame and money. That’s why I’ve become very skeptical to every kind of information, looking at it with a 50/50 attitude – it can either be true or false. Which brings us to the next point.

3. Always, always, always checking everything I see online. Whenever I see some shocking news, like a celebrity died, or there’s a comet coming close to Earth or anything else, I always check to see whether it’s true or not. More importantly, I make sure to see who’s saying or confirming that information, because often news consist of guesses and subjective speculations. For example, an actress deletes a couple of her photos with her husband, or publishes a video with a sad song, and people instantly assume that they broke up and spread those gossips everywhere. So, whenever you see any kind of information don’t take it as truth, always make sure to read other articles about it to get another perspective on the topic.

4. Realizing how fake everything is. Well, not everything, of course, that’s just an exaggeration. But I truly realized how well celebrities fake their perfect lives. I mean I always kinda knew about it, but realized it from a deeper level. For example, you see an ideal family, who live in a big and luxurious house, have many cars and happy children. They always travel together, post all the cute photos and videos, write long posts dedicated to their partners, and people get jealous because their lives or relationships look nothing like what they see online. And then, a month later, you read about their divorce. And you find out, how the husband, for instance, was cheating on his wife for years, was physically or mentally abusing her and the kids, and she was unhappy all this time. Yet all her posts claim the opposite. In this case, there are two possible answers: either this person was lying before to imitate a great life, or she’s lying now in order to hype on her divorce, get views, followers, and again, more money. So, whenever you see such celebrities and influencers, don’t blindly believe both in their perfect images and their accusations, because you never actually see and know the whole true story.

5. Understanding the power of words. You know how the same words can have the same denotations and absolutely different connotations. Remember, journalists know all about it and they’re using this technique to manipulate people. On one hand, you can’t say that they’re lying or deceiving people, because their articles only have the true information. But on the other hand, they’re masterfully use such words, that may seem insignificant or not apparent, but strongly affect the readers. Reporters can make us hate or love a person or a situation by simply adding a few “appropriate” adjectives to their description. People read those articles and believe that they made up their minds about someone or something themselves, that they came to their own conclusion, while in reality they don’t even realize that they’re often being manipulated and gaslighted to think what the writers want them to think. For example, if we take the same example with divorce from above, one journalist can write how unhappy the wife is because she loved her husband, while the other can prove the opposite that it’s actually the wife’s fault, not the husband’s, by omitting one part of the story.

I think it’s important to know all these things about this sphere, because we’re all active users and consumers of mass media. Now, I’m want to clarify, that not every single person in this field or in internet is manipulative, fake and bad, or that everyone’s providing false information. Luckily, there are many decent journalists and news pages that value the truth and honesty the most. However you must be aware of those who simply want to make more money on gossips and clickbaits. That’s why the most important lesson here is to always check the information you receive, never blindly believing it even if it’s said by a famous person.