It’s late August and, among other things, that means back-to-school—including here at the Columbia Graduae School of Journalism, where the latest crop of journalism students showed up last week. And there’ are a lot of them. Applications were up 38 percent for the class of 2010. That, despite widespread layoffs in the journalism industry — and Columbia wasn’t alone in seeing this trend. At the University of Maryland’s journalism school, applications increased 25 percent; at Stanford, they jumped 20 percent; at NYU they were up 6 percent.
Meanwhile, magazines are folding left and right, and newsrooms are cutting their staff to the bone. The Pew Research Center estimates 5,000 newspaper jobs were lost in 2008; Paper Cuts, an online layoff tracker, estimates more than 13,000 newspaper journalists were laid off or bought out of their jobs so far this year.
So we’re curious. If you’re in journalism school this year—why? If you’re a recent graduate, would you do it all over again? And if you’re far removed from journalism school, or never went at all, what skills would you recommend today’s journalism students make sure they learn before graduation? How to wear out some serious shoe leather? How to become a Flash wizard? How to bartend?
As someone who studied to be a journalist on the way to taking a job as a partisan, here are my simple rules (Note: I have been a partisan for both parties):
1) It is NOT the Journalists role to influence; the role is to inform. The public is smarter then you think.
2) To wade into political debates, know the five W's of both parties beliefs and their internal fights. Lack of knowledge shows and causes people not to trust you or your paper or magazine's words (i.e. Seattle Post-Intellegencer).
3) Acknowledge that people involved in Politics and policy are doing it because they belive in their views. Knock someone's beliefs at your peril.
4) Play fair. If one party does wrong, call them on it. If another party is in power and they do the same wrong thing, call them on it too. In the Era of Obama, many reporters are losing their jobs because of this.
5) The people did not elect YOU to represent them. It is the job of the Fourth estate to keep power, by either party, in check. Joining in the piling on (of either party) is unseemly for a reporter -- that is the job of the partisan.
Now if only there were fewer partisans who masqueraded themselves as reporters, we might actually have a healthy Fourth estate. Instead, every reporter (especially of the Coastal Times' and the NYC based media) still wants to be a hagiogropher of any Democratic Administration.
#1 Posted by JSF, CJR on Tue 25 Aug 2009 at 02:43 PM
I’m not in J-school now, but I was (at Northwestern’s Medill) in the early 70s. In the years since, I’ve taught high school (including journalism, and served as advisor to the school paper), written for magazines, ghost-written a book, and worked for more than 30 years as a “pollster” and interpreter of social research. What stitches it all together, apart from campus-based experiences attributable to the era in which I was a student and reporter, is the centrality of asking good questions, knowing the difference between good ones and lousy ones, and having the persistence to pursue answers. That habit, along with knowing how to organize thoughts and write clearly. That particular package of things: the persistence of well-framed questions pursued doggedly, and the ability to write and edit with an eye for lucidity, if it could be instilled, or only burnished, in J-school, would bring me back there again, job market notwithstanding. I was going to add “typing fast,” or “editing tape with a razor,” but I don’t want to sound like any more of a throwback than I already do. This is not a knock on other disciplines (I majored in several), but many graduates of fine academic programs at fine universities cannot write their way into an interview or out of a paper bag.
Most, but certainly not all, of my journalism friends from that era are not directly in the field any longer, if they entered the mainstream channels at all. They are lawyers, entrepreneurs, teachers. Many of them got journalism in their blood in high school, as I did (including submitting our papers to Columbia’s CSPA for judging), and most of them lost the calling before they were out of their 20s. They lost the calling, but not the call. Out here in the non J-school world, I can still tell when I’ve received a letter (snail or electronic) from one of my journalism posse. It has structure, gets where it’s going and makes sense along the way. That will never be a bad thing, will it?
So…does J-school make sense today? It might add an extra year to hide out from the recession and the continuing collapse of some of the classical business models of newsgathering and dissemination, and provide time to figure out what to do next.
#2 Posted by Larry, CJR on Tue 25 Aug 2009 at 05:04 PM
I earned my J degree in 2000 from a state school. If I could do it all over again, I would not have studied journalism in college. I would have earned a degree in a more useful and versatile area that would enable me to earn a living wage. Even before I left the field two years ago I saw a massive disconnect between the reality of the market and the illusion of what is being taught in colleges and universities.
The thought of plunking down the huge expense for a grad degree at Columbia in journalism is just ridiculous.
#3 Posted by JAQ, CJR on Thu 27 Aug 2009 at 01:17 PM
I concur wholeheartedly with JAQ, only I graduated in 2006. To me, the idea that someone would cough up all that money to get a grad degree at Columbia is mind-boggling.
In fact, I don't know how Columbia itself can continue to exist. It's like opening a Dairy Queen that charges people $60,000 per sundae. Sure, it makes you feel good temporarily, but what are the other tangible benefits?
And where do these people find all this money to pour into that hole?
My advice to these kids? Study science instead. The sciences are noble fields, and you'll earn enough to make a better life and raise a family.
#4 Posted by Hardrada, CJR on Thu 27 Aug 2009 at 04:17 PM
I transferred from a small, private school to the University of Missouri (Mizzou) to study journalism. Given the ongoing changes in the industry, combined with an economic downturn, I hope journalism school will better prepare me for a job. Yes, I could study political science, international relations or the like and write for a newspaper ... three decades ago.
Now, it benefits me to study the media as it shifts and turns through this economic mess. Without J school, I don't think I'd learn how to report well and use new media to do it. I believe that solid local, in-depth and investigative reporting is what will keep journalism alive. Somehow, we have to figure out how to use these microblogs and by-the-second updates to execute such reporting.
#5 Posted by Christian, CJR on Thu 27 Aug 2009 at 11:01 PM
I would do it all over again the same way. I finished at Indiana University in 1978. The fundamentals I learned there still apply. Good writing still wins out. One of my favorite classes was the basis 101, history of journalism, the only class taught by the stuffy J-School dean. He brung it. He is long dead now. But the influence he had on one son of a steelworker lives on. Incidentally, when hiring for various newspapers I did not consider a J-school degree any mre important than any other school degree or real-life experience.
#6 Posted by Mikey, CJR on Fri 28 Aug 2009 at 11:47 PM
I never went to J-school, but wanted to and almost did. Instead I studied law and incurred a lot of debt to do so. I would still want to be a journalist, but the debt load continues to hinder the effort. I would say the only rule is avoid or minimize the debt load. Actually, I would say no education is worth more debt than you can earn the first 3 months into your new career. Even at that level, it will take years to pay off.
#7 Posted by David, CJR on Mon 31 Aug 2009 at 11:36 PM
I graduated this year from a J-school outside the United States. In J-school, you learn the basics of the job - rules, principles, etc, that would take many years and mistakes to learn. Although I am young and have little experience in the field, I feel confident because I have the knowledge and the skills and I can make decisions by myself.
I have always wanted to be a journalist and never thought of trading journalism for anything else in college. To be a journalist is a lifestyle. You either are, or you are not. The crisis has no say here.
#8 Posted by Aneliya, CJR on Tue 1 Sep 2009 at 07:43 AM
I didn't go to journalism school. I honestly can't imagine why anyone would.
I earned a degree in English from a state college in Pennsylvania in 2001. I thank my professors (and the editors for whom I worked as an intern) for steering me away from J-school and into real-world experience. When it came time for my first job interview, the editor who hired me told me that my two internships (both at local daily newspapers) and three-year stint at the school's newspaper were enough to propel me head-and-shoulders above the other candidate they'd interviewed. After my editor left the newspaper, she told me the candidate I'd beaten for the position had nothing to his name but a shiny diploma from UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Journalism. I'll grant you that UNC's J-School is top-notch, but I think editors want reporters with real-world experience - not reporters with pieces of paper saying they're qualified to get real-world experience.
#9 Posted by Kristen, CJR on Tue 1 Sep 2009 at 01:32 PM
I have never entered a journalism program, but found an ability to write well and the want to share interesting things in print sufficient to get a start at an English language newspaper in Barcelona. Now I'm blogging for Big Think (it's like an intellectual YouTube). Earlier this year we interviewed a senior editor at Harper's Magazine about the future of journalism (school). You can watch the interview here:
http://bigthink.com/orionjones/journalism-school-the-20000-press-pass.#10 Posted by Orion Jones, CJR on Wed 2 Sep 2009 at 06:12 PM
Sorry,
here's the interview
#11 Posted by Orion Jones, CJR on Wed 2 Sep 2009 at 06:21 PM
I graduated from a J-Graduate School in NYC in 2008. I made lots of great friends and ended up getting a job on a book. But friends aren't enough to justify the cost. And now, I have been unemployed, and unemployable, even with the book experience, for almost three months. I blame the market, not the J-School. But there is merit to the idea that studying anything else besides journalism would have been more worth my time, even if I still wanted to go into journalism. There is a certain undue reverence of journalism itself that existed at my J-School and I expect exists at all of them. Because wages are so low in journalism, even in NYC where the money flows in other job sectors like water from a tap, professors have to imbue a cultlike thinking. The Great Journalism. The noblest of all the professions. All you have to do is work like a slave for ten years. But that's why it's so much fun, right? Pay your dues, take your licks! No, the business of journalism needs to pay a living wage to its entry level participants. One job in particular I came across, for which I was well-qualified, pays $21,000 yearly. In one of the wealthiest metropolitan areas in the world, 21K is not gonna cut it. I'd hate to lose the friends I made, but if I had known then what I know now, I would not have gone to J-School. C'est la vie. So it goes.
#12 Posted by Jack, CJR on Fri 4 Sep 2009 at 08:16 AM
Here I am, between classes--J-school grad classes--reading this article. I have a BA in journalism, too, which I applied to the real world and became a magazine editor for three years. A layoff later, I decided to wait out this ugly economy by hiding in higher education. So while others struggle to find jobs, taking low-paying freelance gigs, I'm sticking with my passion for this industry, getting more skilled and taking that trip to Europe I've always wanted. Oh yeah, and I already know how to bartend.
#13 Posted by Nicole, CJR on Fri 4 Sep 2009 at 04:31 PM
As a former teacher in a J-School, i believe a "journalism" major is silly. Journalism, at BEST, should be regarded as a 'minor,' with instruction to aspiring journos in how to write about what their academic Major subjects prepare them in.
But J-Schools have for long years not limited themselves to merely teaching "journalism." They are mainly, these days, the homes to propaganda shops of various kinds: advertizing, public relations, media production, etc.
It is time to stop pretending J-School is about journalism at all. It's not. It's about producing the next generations of mis- and dis-information specialists, and should be housed in Business schools, where such skills are more in tune with the curriculum and are better appreciated.
Oh, and I confess: I taught Rod Dreher, so I know where of I speak...
#14 Posted by Woody, CJR on Wed 9 Sep 2009 at 10:56 AM
I majored in Journalism as an undergraduate at Cal in 1966. They closed the undergrad major down that year, a victim of academic internecine struggle -- not, I have always assumed, just because I attended. When I went to find work I discovered that I was a 3-strike loser: educated; from a academic-bent school rather than an experience-based school; and a girl. However, I did just fine, thank you. I am on my fourth or fifth career. What journalism allowed me to do was to learn to ask good questions, listen to the answers, assemble coherent thoughts and get them onto a page. The power of who, what, when, why, where, and how got me through learning how to program computers as well as the techniques that led to writing books about technology for the non-technical audience. The major also allowed me to take advantage of the marvelous things I could learn at a major university: Italian literature; linguistics, psychology, anthropology, and lots of political science. And it all counted. Fabulous experience. I am so grateful. I hope the profs have forgiven me for the obligatory drug experience article. I think we all had to write one.
It's hard to know where the profession will go but the skills can be used to do most anything and I didn't even have to go to law school. Clearly our experiences can not be universal but I surely benefited and I hope others do, too.
#15 Posted by glee, CJR on Wed 9 Sep 2009 at 08:17 PM
I didn't major in journalism, wasn't even interested in journalism until about my junior year of college. Instead, I majored in English and minored in sociology, helped start a literary magazine, and interned at a bimonthly hunting and conservation magazine. After I got interested in journalism, I tried to slant towards it, taking nonfiction creative writing classes, sending out some query letters for freelance jobs, etc. I graduated last May (09) and, though I sent out some applications for entry-level reporting jobs, I've wound up back in school, working on a Master of Arts in English and writing and taking photos for my university's newspaper.
I think that journalism might be a good second major, if for no other reason than to satisfy some of the paper-pushers hiring new reporters today. But I would never advise someone to major in journalism without something else on their plate as well (like history, economics, political science, etc.). I've known too many journalism majors for that.
#16 Posted by drm, CJR on Thu 10 Sep 2009 at 04:15 PM
I grew up in the newspaper business. In those days, the reporters did research and wrote the truth, regardless where their research took them. Today's "journalists" are coming out of "journalism school" fully indoctrinated by their Leftist Vietnam draft-dodging 60's professors to MANIPULATE. Newspapers have abandoned the duty they have to provide the truth, choosing instead to become propagandists for the Left, automatically alienating 50% of their customers. And Newspaper editors and publishers wonder why. TRY PROVIDING THE NEWS INSTEAD OF MANAGING IT.
#17 Posted by rty, CJR on Tue 15 Sep 2009 at 11:57 AM