This hardly aids journos of my generation and the Millennials. Our bosses, most of them Baby Boomers, sold us a bill of goods that said we needed more and more college degrees to be “real” journalists, even though many of them didn’t have Master’s degrees when they entered the field. This isn’t exactly what Shafer is saying in his recent Slate column, but it got me thinking.
To me, this touches on something Laurie at Punk Rock HR wrote about recently regarding MBAs in the work world in general, and what Jimmy Breslin has long said about the reporting world in particular — why the hell do you need a Master’s to be a journalist, or for that matter, a degree from a Journalism school when you should be learning about history, literature and the like in school (with a healthy re-up of grammar lessons, but I’m hardly one to call the kettle black on that one), and learning the how-to’s of journalism as a cub reporter under the tutelage of a seasoned veteran? It’s real-life experience that matters, and that makes good writing.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Journo-malizm
The Icepick on the suckiness that is modern journalism.
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3 comments:
When I was in j-school many, many moons ago, I thought about getting a master's degree -- I was told it was redundant. Who needed another degree when the best way to learn about journalism was to DO IT? None of my teachers at university had more than a bachelor's degree -- they didn't need one.
The change in this industry will revolutionize the way we see reporting, objectivity and reliability in the written word -- but it will explode the myth of the "educated" reporter and rebound in enormous creativity and resourcefulness.
Seems to me a good background in history would be incredibly important.
But please don't overlook grammar. Spellcheck is not the end-all/be-all.
A sincere thank you to you, Wek, bec. you seem to do quite well at proper usage of vacabulary -- and, of course, those beautifully crafted "colorful" phrases you are soooooo good at!!
Naomi- jesus christ, good gawd do we need some "creativity and resourcefulness". When I read any # of papers it seems to be the same writers for the last 20 years. No lie, sometimes I feel like I picked up a paper from 1995. Out with the ole!
K- thanks for "appreciating" my phrasey-ology. As you can tell I type before thinking.
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