media - Should I come to Shanghai and work as a journalist?

Three, four times per month I get this question. I try not to encourage people too much. This is part of my answer today: "Since the end of the Cold War the news industry has increasingly changed into an extension of the entertainment industry with less and less room for serious reporting from places where war is not imminent. Numbers are not yet going down in China (unlike the rest of Asia and Africa), but having a booming economy does not automatically translate into jobs for journalists. Most reporters end up working for local papers and just met somebody who earner .7 Rmb per word: really rock bottom prices. Chinese media have not yet opened up - despite all rhetoric - and do not offer decent jobs for non-Chinese journalists... Initially we thought here in Shanghai that the combination of an economic crisis, 911 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq made thing tight for a limited time, but after roaming the world for a year looking for answers, I'm not that optimistic. But you can always sell cars here."