Jenny Bathurst: "Why I found the new documentary Harry and Meghan a little tricky to watch"

I suppose that the final year of a university degree provokes different attitudes and emotions in everyone. Many are devastated to be nearly waving goodbye to the best years of their lives, some are ready to leave despite enjoying their university experience and others are counting down the minutes until they press the final ‘Submit’ button and they can move on from revision and assignments. I must admit to being a mixture of the final two. I met some of my best friends during my time at university and made some wonderful memories, but due to all three years being disrupted by global illness and then personal illness it has been a rather rocky ride. A lot of the happy memories are rather overshadowed by the tears and stress of trying to keep up a standard of work whilst either the world or my little world felt completely turned on its head.

But the one constant throughout this experience has of course been the modules and study points. I study Journalism, which, rather naively, I didn’t really believe to have much of a stigma. Perhaps I should make up an extravagant story about how my whole life I had yearned to report on the world’s biggest stories, but this just isn’t true. In actuality, I was at a complete loss for what subject to apply for at university and realised that my skill set seemed to fit rather nicely with that of journalism. And then the passion quickly followed.

I say I didn’t realise the stigma, because I suppose something in me categorised journalists as the goodies and the baddies. The baddies were the ones racing down the street after flustered celebs, and the goodies were the office workers who would sit quietly at their desks and write about current affairs and what shade of lipstick was preferred this season.

But this isn’t true. Journalists come in all shapes, sizes and attitudes. And that’s why I found the new documentary Harry and Meghan a little tricky to watch at times. Not because of any disparaging feelings I have towards the couple, but because I felt guilty to be a trainee journalist. I have never and would never harass anyone in pursuit of a photo or story (hopefully the NCTJ will read that and boost my Media Law grade) and so it can be rather disheartening to be put under the same title as those who are engaging in such tormenting behaviour.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not insinuating that I feel discriminated against or that I’m going to form a protest, but it’s rather uncomfortable to be entering an industry with a reputation that is growing more and more negative. Almost makes me wish the world would acknowledge that there is such thing as the goodies and the baddies, but life isn’t that black and white really, is it?