Brown Bag W. Doug McGill 5/26: The Mid-Career Journalist’s Dilemma

“At this point,” says Doug McGill, “I can’t NOT be a journalist, i.e. I’ll never be an ex-journalist.” But changes in the profession have a lot of mid-career journalists, including Doug, contemplating their futures and weighing their options. The former NY Times reporter and Bloomberg bureau chief will be our featured guest for our next Brown Bag Lunch With a Journalist, at the East Lake Public Library, 2727 E. Lake St., Minneapolis, at noon Wednesday, May 26. Doug says he hopes to participate in a conversation, rather than give a lecture, and he sent some questions to get the conversation going:

The Mid-Career Journalist’s Dilemma: Are we Leaving the Profession? Or is the Profession Leaving Us? And What to Do?

“Thousands of journalists today are leaving the profession, sometimes voluntarily but often not. The challenges are many — practical, spiritual, philosophical — and they can be acute.  How to deal not only with the loss of a job but also, perhaps, a personal identity? For journalists trained in objective news gathering, how to transition into a world that rewards opinionated and personality-based writing? How  can journalists in such a transition stay connected with the idealism that originally started them in the field?  Most of all, how can journalists continue to offer what society needs now more than ever — the clear, useful and courageous presentation of sense-making facts?”

The Twin Cities Media Alliance’s monthly Brown Bag Lunches are your chance for casual conversation with some of the Twin Cities’ most insightful journalists (and journalists from around the world) — about journalism, politics, or whatever is on your mind.

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