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Does journalism have too many rich kids?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Alma, Oct 13, 2020.

  1. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member



    A robust discussion began with this tweet.

    Later, Fang clarified a little:



    At any rate, is this true? Does the industry squeeze out working class folks - who don’t go to certain schools or have the money to afford living on the coasts on journalism wages - in favor of folks who go to said certain schools and come from money?
     
  2. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    SJ.com does not.
     
  3. MTM

    MTM Well-Known Member

    Working at small and mid size papers in inland Southern California, I found the majority of my co-workers came from middle class families and most went to state schools, mostly Fullerton and Long Beach. Even 30 years ago when reporters would come from out of state, they were not from wealthy families. The couple people we got from prestige schools, and who seemed to come from monied families, had ties to SoCal and didn't stay long with us.
     
  4. PaperDoll

    PaperDoll Well-Known Member

    Any industry which offers mainly unpaid internships tends to self select those who can afford to work for free.
     
  5. Spartan Squad

    Spartan Squad Well-Known Member

    This is hogwash. You know immediately when he claims "many." What defines "many?" You don't need to go to certain schools unless you are gunning for an upper echelon job, like in every industry. One of the best sports journos I know (and I mean personally know, not know of) went to San Jose State. He started at a couple of smaller local papers before landing with BANG to cover college football as well as the East Bay pro teams. He eventually landed with the Athletic.

    The only time I worked with someone from an elite school was for a conference where they recruited local J-School kids to work on their conference paper. There was a kid from Stanford and he couldn't hold a candle to those of us from SJSU and Cal State Hayward (now East Bay).

    This industry pushes out people because newsrooms are shrinking, the pay is shit and upward mobility is nonexistent.
     
    HanSenSE, maumann and Mngwa like this.
  6. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    Gosh, does Goldman Sachs have too many people who grew up rich working there? Do white shoe law firms have too many rich kids as attorneys? Does ESPN have too many Syracuse grads?
     
  7. Mngwa

    Mngwa Well-Known Member

    But Alma is concerned
     
    2muchcoffeeman likes this.
  8. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    If these are the first two whataboutisms you want to make, I’m not sure that bodes well for the class diversity of journalism
     
  9. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    The highest-paid reporter at the NYT or Post makes a fraction of what some rich kid coming out of Harvard law school who latches onto a K Street firm in DC or the Apple. There are Wolf of Wall Street types who pay their nannies what Jake Tapper probably gets.
     
  10. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    Heaven forbid on a journalism board we talk about it.
     
    Liut likes this.
  11. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    Now do hedge funds and private equity. Because I fear they are obsessed with making gobs of money, yet have crumbling public schools, unsafe streets, rampant poverty as secondary concerns. MAYBE even tertiary concerns.
     
  12. 3_Octave_Fart

    3_Octave_Fart Well-Known Member

    I went to schools with rich kids my whole life. I knew one kid who became a journalist.
     
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