The writer of the text is Patrick Thornton, and the blogger is King Faufman. . In this piece he argues about the validity of attending a journalism school. He points out the realities of attending a journalism school with the anticipation of working for the large established reputable media houses. If you fortunate after the completion of journalism degree you might land yourself in one of the large media publications and if you do he proclaims, “Don’t count in it. Not for a second” The questions that Thornton desires for us to ponder are the following.
Do you need a graduate degree in journalism in order to be a great journalist? And, more importantly, will getting a graduate degree in journalism really help you land that first journalism job? Are the top ranked schools if truth be told such as Columbia University still top ranked to date? These he instigates are all the questions you need to ask yourself if you're trying to decide whether or not to go to journalism school.
Before I proceed, I just want to clarify that Thornton does not discredit Columbia University as a journalism school, in facts he mentions that a great deal of the best journalists have come out of the Columbia University program. The point he undertakes it seems is that even though the latter is factual it is outdated.
The point that Thornton is conveying is that, “Journalism is going through a massive transformation right now and unfortunately most journalism schools are not preparing students for those transformations”. The massive transformation involves the new technologies such as working on the web. If one desires to be a among the great journalists to mention but a few, David Cohn, Jay Rosen, Clay Shirky etc, it is paramount for one to be fervent about working on the web. This does not only apply to aspiring journalists but to professors as well. They need to familiarize themselves with social media and web sites, not so much as to know how to write but how to report.
As it turns out there are very few media jobs that require you to have a graduate degree in journalism. In general, there are very few media jobs that require any kind of graduate degree. Unlike medicine, law or even teaching, media job rarely require an advanced degree, just certain skill sets. So why go to journalism school?
Friday, August 28, 2009
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Great blog!! In fact I'd venture to ask, why go to any school for that matter? It almost seems as if studying doesn't guarantee the graduate anything anymore because the potential employer may not themselves be a graduate and wouldn't appreciate the effort put into attaining whatever qualification. The government is such an employer, filled with illiterates who can politick and that qualifies them to take up prominent positions, what a shame! Does anyone reasonably expect such officials to appreciate a graduate? Forget it! Back to the issue at hand, if anyone wants to be journalist I have simple advice, be young (below 35 years) have a great voice and look good and voila! You'll become a journalist. Forget school...
ReplyDeleteFine! Found all the assignments - Thanks!
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