#23 forays into freelance journalism (July Series #7)
July 2020. A few observations from work this month.
Dear friends, welcome to part 7 of the July letters. If you’re new here, I’m Flory Leow, and this newsletter is usually sent on a monthly basis. This month, you’ll receive them twice a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays. Read the archives here; if my writing brightens up your day or makes you think, you should share this indiscriminately with lots of people.
Who doesn’t like a catloaf honestly
This time last year, if you had asked me whether I would consider journalism, I would have said no. I have never considered myself a journalist, though I realised recently that some people thought I was one. I dabbled a little with the occasional magazine piece as and when assignments found their way to me over the years, but never seriously considered entering the field. It makes no financial sense as a full-time career. The sheer amount of graft freelance journalists go through simply to file stories, the constant pitching, the low article rates, trying to get through the door of publications––I thought I had decided early on that this was not how I wanted to pay the bills.
Of course, 2020 is not what any of us thought it would be, so starting with this article for the Japan Times on food tourism, I have suddenly found myself flung into the deep end of what can only be considered freelance journalism.
In truth, I love good journalism. I especially love reading things like immersive longform narratives, interesting and thoughtful analyses, essays blending personal experience with in-depth reporting––the type of pieces I share every newsletter in the Long Reads section below. It is the sort of work I secretly dreamed of doing one day, but didn’t see how it would ever be a financially sustainable way of making a living. Frankly, I still don’t think it is, and it is with a mixture of dismay and delight that I find myself enjoying learning how to report. But in lieu of my usual inbound tourism work, there are worse ways than journalism to keep the lights on for now.
In retrospect, it might have been a good thing that I didn’t pursue journalism until now. At this moment, everyone in the Japan travel industry seems to have a lot more time to chat. (Surprise, surprise.) It’s easy to set up a Skype call at reasonably short notice. For now, I’m enjoying the process of figuring this out as I go along, doing a bit of what I think of as “tourism journalism”––covering stories in and around the Japan travel industry.
A few things I have noticed so far:
1. Interviewing is hard.
I say this not just as someone who is totally new to the game––I have a lot to learn––but as someone fairly introverted. I’ve never liked crowds and large group gatherings wear me out very quickly. In theory, this is not a problem with one-on-one interviews, but suddenly speaking to 5 new people in a day when I usually talk to just one is… novel, to say the least.
In a sense, being a tour guide has been good preparation for interviewing. Part of the work is taking an interest in your guests: who are they, why did they choose to visit Japan, what are their likes and dislikes, what makes them tick, what will they respond to? I find that applying that same attentiveness to my interviewees is, so far, working out. It’s not quite the same as being “in the field” and observing them up close, but what can you do in the age of COVID-19?
2. Language abilities help tremendously.
It’s so obvious it doesn’t bear repeating, but being able to conduct interviews in both English and Japanese feels like the bare minimum for nuanced, meaningful reporting. It’s only been a few interviews but so far, each and every time, Japanese interviewees would instantly relax and warm up when we switched to Japanese. You hear anecdotes that might just never come through in English. I think frequently of Clarissa Wei’s interview with David Tran, and her observation that “people’s stories sometimes need their native tongue to carry them.”
Bilingual reporters are fantastic value for money and should be paid more. Journalists working in more than one language have double, triple the workload of someone reporting in a single language/culture. Today I conducted 4 interviews in both English and Japanese over phone and Skype while simultaneously transcribing them. I didn’t have to hire a transcriber, translator, or interpreter for the Japanese interviews. Imagine someone with only conversational levels of Japanese: it would have taken them so much longer than someone who is bilingual to interview, and then translate the interview.
3. Nobody does this solely for the money.
Freelance journalism is not tenable as a sole source of income. It should be, but just isn’t. The value of hourly labour almost never stacks up against what publications are willing to pay for content. It is why the industry has lost swathes of talented writers to better paying jobs like technical writing, copywriting, and UX writing. (I did more copywriting prior to all this.) Many who can survive solely as journalists these days can do so because they might have a financial cushion, other jobs, or supportive partners who earn more. None of these are things to be ashamed of; while it shouldn’t be true, it’s pretty much the only way most people can stay sane and do good work in the field. For every Jia Tolentino or Anna Wiener, there are hundreds of journalists who juggle multiple jobs just to get by. I have a lot of respect for people who continue with journalism purely out of love for the story.
(By the way: this is why newsletters are so exciting for people who write, because it provides a way for writers potentially make a living off their craft by building a base of paying subscribers. So! If you like what I’m doing, please consider a paid subscription or one-time donation.)
Currently, I’m pursuing a few stories around rural Japan and enjoying the process, though my brain is scattered and scrambled trying to keep up with all the sources. Past me couldn’t have imagined I would be trying out journalism; then again, few of us could have envisioned 2020 turning out quite like this. This was the year I thought I was leaving Japan for grad school or something along those lines, but I’m finding myself here in Tokyo instead, talking to people doing wonderful work in their respective communities all over Japan. I’m peculiarly glad for it. As they say here, まだやり残していることはある––there’s still things I have left to do here.
LONG READS, GOOD THINGS
Transnationally Asian (CJR)
Fossil Combing (VQR)
Ambient Intimacy (Jasdev.me)
Negotiating Safe Socializing Has a Lot in Common With Negotiating Safe Sex (KQED)
The Modern Trap of Turning Hobbies into Hustles (Man Repeller)
In Digestion with Ruby Tandoh (In Digestion)
Riding Out (Elsewhere)
MUSIC FOR WHEN YOU’RE AWAKE AT 2AM
Su Lee – I’ll Just Dance: 200% relatable. Especially the awkward dancing.
Loved reading your insights on journalism, and all the links you've posted, also the cat loaf 😻