Colorado regents vote to close J-school

I learned none of those things, and didn't take a language after sophomore year of high school.

 

To be fair, although they're closing the school, they're still maintaining a "journalism-plus" option, according to the story. You can major/minor in journalism as long as you major in something else.

 

Most of the people I graduated with were out of journalism within three years.

 

Journalism is a field of work, it is not a field of thought or study. The comparisons to philosophy or history or English just don't fly.

 

This is incorrect.

Granted, study of journalism may not go as deep as study of philosophy or such.

But it is very much a field of study.

 

I've heard repeated many many times (although I've never seen an actual source citation) that more people in the United States graduate every single year with journalism degrees than there are print journalism jobs in the entire country.

In other words, the publishers of every single newspaper in the nation could fire their whole staffs tomorrow morning and replace them all with fresh-out-of college graduates.

Again I am not sure if this is actually true, but a hell of a lot of publishers act like it is.


Back to the original topic: Nobody intelligent or responsible would advise any young person to major in journalism these days, or even allow it if they had any way to stop it.

 

You study techniques to learn how to do the work. You don't study journalism for the sake of a deeper understanding of journalism. You study it to go out and do journalism. As a major, it's closer to vocational tech than it is to philosophy. (Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating that last point a bit).

 

I also got a degree with virtually no work in video.

Which is unfortunate, because my degree is in Telecommunication and Film.

 

This is why the responsible move is to close some of these schools.

Also, I doubt too many people are picking journalism because of the alleged wellspring of creative thought it provides. There are some plants inside buildings with more critical thinking ability than some working journalists.

The profession has failed to evolve. It does not require any real demonstration of skills, even as other professions are raising the bar. People are encouraged to work at several places for no pay so they can "look more attractive" to a prospective employer, of which there are fewer.

A good move on the schools' part would be to do something similar to what Colorado is doing. Keep some of the current courses but require people to complete a major or minor in something else. That way, we could keep the non-existent critical thinking development in place, and it could be paired with something more relevant.

 

That's probably true, but we shouldn't limit "journalism" to newspapers alone. A lot of my former classmates wouldn't anymore work for a newspaper than anything. They wanted cushy, high-paying PR jobs or doing technical writing or copywriting for an ad agency. That sort of stuff.

But, yes, there are many new grads who enter the field, find out what the real world is like, and move onto something else within 2-3 years. (I guess as a 20-year vet I am allowed to say that.) That's fine. Sometimes the best experience is, well, experience.

But I stand by my earlier statement that a university's decision to dismantle a program probably has more to do with its own bottom line than any relevance on the part of the students. Honestly, I've never heard an "advisor" tell a student "You are really wasting your time and talent here. You should go study such and such....."

 

Colorado named "Top Party SCHOOL!!!!!"

http://thebiglead.com/index.php/2011/04/17/university-of-colorado-is-playboys-top-party-school/

Coincidence?

Perhaps.

 

If you think someone is a potentially fantastic journalist, it would be unintelligent and irresponsible to advise that person not to pursue the field.

I get your point about not recommending the field on a "general" basis, but I'm sick of the attitude that journalism is nothing but a ticket to stress and famine.

Watch yourself before I pitch a Starman-style fit.