Joan Didion

Joan Didion (www.penusa.org)

The work of journalism really interests me because of how you can gather and assess new things and then write it on your blog. I needed to find someone who does this as a career, and I think I discovered the perfect role model in Joan Didion. Her dedication to the career caught my attention. According to the Joan Didion Documentary, "Her writing is fierce and exposed, Joan herself is an incredibly private person." Her novels, movies, and plays are said to be powerful and phenomenal. I was so amazed by all of her achievements. So many factors in Didion's life are worth researching. I am so excited to learn more and share with you her life, success, and accomplishments.

Journalists develop written content. They write novels, movie scripts, magazines, etc. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, "Jobs related to journalism are copywriter, critic, and director / producer editor. You need a bachelor's degree to become a more lasting and experienced journalist. The salary range was about $55,940 per year and $26.89 per hour in 2012." But, journalism has been changing because of the advanced variations to digital technology. According to Community Organizers 2.0, "In an attempt to take advantage of this trend, both The Washington Post and the Guardian (among others) have developed Facebook "social reader" apps." As said, social media is huge part of journalism today.

Martin Scorsese and Joan Didion (hyperallergic.com)

Didion claims that she was writing things down at the age of five, but she also remembers that she never really had the idea of becoming a writer until she got published. According to Wikipedia, "She read everything she could get her hands on after learning how to read and even needed written permission from her mother to borrow adult books, biographies especially, from the library at a young age. She won first place in an essay contest sponsored by Vogue, which got her a job at the magazine." In 1956, she graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Bachelor of Arts in English. In her senior of college. While she was working at Vogue, she wrote her first actual novel, Run, River, which was published in 1963, but it wasn't really popular. A famous essay she wrote was The White Album, which was published in 1979. The series of essays was nominated for the National Book Award for General Nonfiction. Now, Joan Didion discards conventional journalism. She prefers to build a more personal approach to essays. She wants to produce a style that is her own. But, because she believes that the media tells us how to live, Joan has now become an observer of journalists themselves.

Joan Didion and Vanessa Redgrave (www.theguardian.com)

Joan Didion taught us about the amusement of keeping a notebook. She taught us the mixed feelings that you can have when moving away from a city you love. She is known to be an absolutely breathtaking writer because of her ability to write about pain in a tragically, but outspoken style. According to Huff Post Books, "Didion also taught us that it's important to reflect upon your past, but also to not get mired down in memories. In the book, Blue Nights, a book addressing the death of her daughter, Didion mentions clinging to mementos or totems, in the hopes that they'll elicit perfect memories of the people they belonged to. This, she concludes, isn't a healthy means of coping, as memory can be a fickle friend." Joan wrote an essay called, On Self Respect, published in 1968. In this essay, she is saying that self-respect is a quality that we are losing, but Didion also states that it can be learned. Joan Didion is recognized for showing us many assets about life through her work.

Joan Didion (nymag.com)

There are so many personal goals I will be setting to get to journalism. In high school, taking classes like, AP English classes, a little bit of advanced history classes, and some clubs or extracurricular classes, like, the school newspaper, that will help me go on the path of journalism. University of Southern California and University of California-Irvine are probably schools in California that offer excellent writing/journalism programs. While at college, I will complete an internship, learn to be an ace researcher, sharpen my editing and computer skills, and last, but not least, work on the school newspaper. Joan Didion worked on the school newspaper at college, and that got her working at Vogue. Didion's fulfillments encouraged me to go on the route of journalism. She is an outstanding role model for this career. Joan has had basically a lifetime of experience in this field. I will accept every opportunity I get to lead me onto a career of journalism.