Go back?

I used to work at a paper that was a 17K daily, we had a guy who had a masters in journalism (from Northwestern) and that was his SECOND job. The first was at a 5k weekly in Iowa

 

Sorry to thread-jack, but to teach journalism, you need a master's? Not just a teaching credential?

 

A master's degree is not a guarantee of "more opportunities." And especially not in a newsroom. I've been told, to my face, by my editors, that my master's degree in journalism meant nothing.

 

I'm not that big of a fan of a masters degree in journalism, but it may provide some benefit.

1.It's a masters degree, a line on a resume some folks find very desirable regardless of what it's in.

2. While the newspaper industry is evolving under these clouds of gloom and doom, I still believe journalism is still going to be around for a very long time. Which means someone has to teach it. You can't get a decent college teaching gig without the masters.

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As a professor or as a lecturer?

 

Nothing's a "guarantee."

But until you have editors who say "we would have given you more if you didn't have a master's degree," your argument doesn't wash. Because you could have opportunities elsewhere that others couldn't.

The only time I would tell an aspiring journalist that a master's in journalism is a waste is if the person already had a bachelor's in journalism. In that case, get a master's in something else.

 

Really? Please tell me where they are, because I would like to have one of those opportunities. My master's degree has not gotten me any further in my career. If anything, it hampered my career progress because I took time out to return to school.

I understand that it would be a different situation if I worked in a college environment, but outside of that there has been almost no benefit to this point. And I'm still paying student loans.

 

The most important three words in that post are "to this point."

The game isn't over yet.

 

huh?

i'm one of the sports writers-turned-lawyers that sportschick referred to in her post.

there's no more math in my job than there was when i was a sports writer. if you can handle the basic math of sports writing (computing ERA, winning percentage, scoring averages, etc.) you can handle the extent of the math involved in litigation.

 

I'm telling you, if you consider it, Columbia or bust. Maybe -- and this is an enormous maybe - Berkeley or NYU. Even Medill's cachet seems to be restricted to its UG program more or less.

 

OK, threadjack -- I'm likely going to go back to school in the fall of '09, and I'm going to be getting my master's in journalism. I want to teach at the college level. Without me getting into too many of my situation's specifics, is this a good move? Any journalists-turned-teachers out there in SJ land? I'm now accepting PMs as well...

Thanks.

 

I am going into teaching. In California, from what I have learned, teaching anything at the college level is challenging. The world of academia is about as desperate for out of journalists as newspapers. The people I know who teach at the college level work at three or four community colleges, teaching part-time, and hoping a full-time position opens up someday. If you want to teach math or science, your chances of finding a full-time position are better. Teaching English or journalism can be a strain. Plus, you do need a master's degree to teach at the college level and some sort of classroom experience. It's why I am heading back to elementary school once I get my credential. More oppoortunities, closer to home, same schedule as my kids. Just seems to make more sense.