Here's one perspective on why journalism training is a bad idea:
I like to joke that I'm "unqualified" to do my job. But I think it was precisely that total lack of journalism training that gave me an edge. I never worked the cops-and-courts beat. I don't know how to write an inverted pyramid story or even really what that is. I do know how to write for different platforms, be scrappy and break news. I've had zero important alum connections and never got an internship at a big daily. And, in hindsight, that's probably the greatest stroke of luck I could have had.
Journalism schools are like foot-binding. They force you into a style that a bunch of dinosaurs all agreed was acceptable a zillion years ago. So in an age of blogging, you have no voice. In fact, if I were in J-school now, I'd have my knuckles rapped for using the rhetorical "you" in those last two sentences. (source)
Perhaps. The author, tech journalist Sarah Lacy, did get a liberal arts degree. I like to think a liberal arts education prepares you reasonably well for almost any career - it gives you solid critical-thinking skills and a diverse academic background, which are arguably the things a journalist needs most. Lacy's anecdotal success is not exactly an argument that no formal journalism training is needed. But it does make you wonder why there is an uptick in people enrolling in journalism school right now, when so many media outlets are collapsing.
One more thing: according to Lacy,
When I ask aspiring journalists where they want to be in ten or twenty years, not a single one says The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. They want to have a famous blog. Some already do.
Wow. If blogging really is the career capstone for most aspiring journalists, something really has changed. (Any bets on when blogging will become the career capstone for scientists?)
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That's really interesting. A couple of months ago, I was begging a friend not to go to journalism school.
Did they go?
I'm pretty sure I successfully talked them out of it!
A lot of conventions we despise, e.g., "we report you decide", "what someone said prompted by me is news, not the news itself", "he said she said" journalism, "gotcha" journalism, "false equivalency/balance", etc. are actually taught in j-schools as the Way to do things. These days, some journos stick to it, filly believing this is the right way, and get mad when it is pointed out to them they are wrong. Other journos, one laid-off and doing it online on their own, feel the wonders of freedom to finally be honest, straightforward, searching for the correct information without needing to balance it with the opinion of some quack, being open about their backgrounds and potential biases with their audience, and allowing their personalities to shine true. In other words, they become "bloggers" and suddenly earn respect of their audience. See Joe Klein for an example of a guy who everyone despised in MSM and his initial clumsy arrival online, who is now respected once he learned the way of the Web.
The goal for journalists used to be to get their own byline in a major rag. Well known bloggers generally now have more influence and bigger audiences than most print journalists could hope for. It is not surprising that aspiring journalists now see blogging as a worthwhile goal.
Bora, although I see where you are coming from (especially in recent weeks, which have had me disgusted with the mainstream media) you make some pretty broad generalizations. And Kevin, while influence is indeed a big draw, I don't think most of us want to be demagogues, or judge our success by audience size. Within the blogosphere, the behaviors necessary to grow a large and vocal audience are pretty clear. Most of us simply have different visions for our blogs. And I think both bloggers and traditional journalists have a diversity of motivations, goals, and voices.
I'd be most interested to know if these aspiring journalists want to be bloggers because of the perceived freedom from editorial control, because of the community, because it's "new" media, or what. . .
Sounds like this student?
I carefully put the word "bloggers" in quotation marks, i.e., to point out it was used in the narrow meaning that MSM journalists use when referring to blogs, i.e., the silly LOLcats blogs instead of serious journalistic blogs like TPM, or various online outlets that are now replacing the shut-down local newspapers.
I think they also understand (journos that embark on blogging) that they can get a wider reach on their own, nurturing their own brand instead of tying it to a corporate brand.
Any bets on when blogging will become the career capstone for scientists?
Kidding, right? I would like to think that policy (applying science) or research would still be capstones.
Science is very different from journalism. Even science journalism is different from the rest of journalism. I don't think blogging is ever going to be an essential (tho it may become a useful and valued, for those who do it) part of being a scientist.
Yes, Mike, I was kidding. ;) BTW I know lots of people who think policy is far from a capstone, unfortunately.
WUT!?!?!? But ScienzWebzOnLineBlogz ELEVENTEENPOINTINFINITY!!!!111!!11!!!11!!
When a former employer tried to get me hired by the departmental public relations department because he thought they needed writers with a science background (because it was a vet school), they opted instead to hire a journalism graduate. Whether or not the new person has a grasp on the science they are writing about, I don't know. I ended up unemployed as a result, and perhaps a little disgruntled. I still see the mindset -- that only those trained as journalists can actually write -- pretty entrenched.
Yup, CPP - at this point the web has been SCIENCED!!!!1!1!!!!!1111!
I agree Judy, for PR writing they should have had a writer with at least some science background. You have a right to be disgruntled when people don't look at your actual skills, but instead at your degree.
Sarah may be taking a fairly narrow view of journalism and journalism school. My degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri wasn't binding -- it was freeing. Journalism teaches you how to communicate. Radio journalism teaches you how to communicate quickly. It's a perfect stepping stone for a blogger.
And, speaking as a daily blogger, if blogs are the new Holy Grail for journalists, we're all in BIG trouble.
"Any bets on when blogging will become the career capstone for scientists?"
I thought it already was!?
Crap, I had no idea I had reached the pinnacle of success! Thanks for letting me know!!! ;)