Perception of journalism usually zooms in on how primetime TV news anchors present dramatic events of the day, conveyed by spirited correspondents wedged at the world's flashpoints.
News anchors command the biggest viewership in a single broadcast, thus the biggest attention, recognition and sway power.
However, journalism is not as one dimensional as that: behind every anchor is a battalion of news editors, reporters, researchers, graphics artists and camera crew that collectively cobble together the news.
The same goes for their print brethren: while the reading public distinguishes star investigative reporters or crack columnists, they are made to look good by the talents of a huge but vital editorial pool.
Journalism's primary qualifications are not academic, but very human: unrelenting passion for the job, reinforced by tenacity, temperament, an analytical mind and the ability to think on your feet while being in war zones, threatened by mobs or pinned under extraordinary deadline pressure.
The true-blue journalist starts young, sometimes as young as 18, but they grow old overnight.
World weary journalists in newspapers, magazines, radio and TV news are overwhelmed by — but coming to terms with — the worldwide web and social media that have bent or broken their beloved profession.
This is aggravated by traditional hazards: sad closures of print media organisations unable to compete, murdered by death squads and imperilled by cynical defamation action and sedition laws.
Long before that, because of its pervasive influence to shape public opinion and voters, the profession was forcibly subjugated by governments, corporations and special interests that subvert and cheapen the news and information. A. J. Liebling's sardonically prescient 1960 truism is still applicable: "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one."
Older, retired journalists endured these killers of the free press for decades, but the young ones entering the profession now are not as resilient, seeing journalism as an itinerant gig while scouring for alternative prospects.
It takes a lifetime to accrue writing, editing and analytical skills through steadfast reading and understanding, but the attrition worsens under constant global technological disruptions and advent of artificial intelligence.
When Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor implored media organisations to revise salaries and incentives to attract more young people into journalism, he hit a rusty nail on the head.
Hajiji was impeccable in articulating that young individuals opting for a career in journalism are limited by unappealing salary packages.
Nevertheless, money is a minor challenge in the whole conundrum, once illuminated by a sagely news editor who chimed that insurance agents probably make more in a week peddling premiums than journalists earn in a year.
Journalists don't enter the profession thinking of fat salary packages, although, admittedly, certain veteran journalists amassed fabulous wealth after becoming editor-in-chief or owners of media organisations.
Cub reporters might aver reader enlightenment, education and entertainment as key missions other than that maiden byline or frontpage exclusive. Noble quests, but the intrepid ones envisioning beyond salary packages will endeavour to have an expense account too.