Media- Industry or Profession? Both?

Being a journalism student, we often sit in classes and read about media ethics and responsibility and other such ‘heavy duty’ words. And well for most of us these set the general precedent of entering the field of media and journalism. We come here with certain “aadarsh” and hard head- strong ideas…. like to bring out the truth and help the society and its people. But well often we see the direction in which this field is heading to especially since the advent of the ideas like- 24 hour news channels, breaking news and sting operations, etc. at 1st these brought a very positive energy and light into the field. However, slowly and steadily, the positivism started to ward off and this became a mere game of TRPs, viwership and advertisements. Sensationalisation and yellow journalism became the new set of rules here to achieve success. In our classes, we often have guest faculty who are eminent personalities from the media industry coming in and talking to us about the ‘on the job’ scene and media as a profession as well as an industry. We often get into the discussion of what is ‘ethical’ and what content is considered as for public good and welfare, etc. Even amongst ourselves when we get into a discussion on the same issue. We get stuck on one point- if we are working in an organisation and we are asked by our editor to cover a story that we know is a mere mean of sensationalism and only for TRPs then what will we do. Will we be ready to get sacked and easily replaced for refusing on a bout of consciousness or go ahead and do what is asked because the editor asks us to do so?
I do not know about others but an honest confession that I would like to make here is that I would go ahead and cover the story. A bout of consciousness will not get me very far in this “media industry.” Here I am quite replenishable until and unless I niche a position or status for myself that is hard to be fulfilled or replaced. With a media institute at every nook and corner of the country and fresh batch of students passing out almost every month, it will not be difficult for any media organization to fill up a vacancy in less than a fraction of seconds (literally).What should I follow the profession or the industry? I guess following the profession in the industry is a case for lucky few only. The only thing that is left in this field are people who are trying to make industries out this profession.