Does journalism have too many rich kids?

[Alma]

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?

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

SJ.com does not.

 

[MTM]

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.

 

[PaperDoll]

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?

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

 

[Spartan Squad]

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 **** and upward mobility is nonexistent.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

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?

 

[User 150927]

But Alma is concerned

 

[Alma]

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?

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

 

[hondo]

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.

 

[Alma]

But Alma is concerned

Heaven forbid on a journalism board we talk about it.

 

[poindexter]

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.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

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

 

[Alma]

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

I suspect this might be true, but I’m not sure that works against the point. It may work for it.

there are tons of millionaires who grew poor as hell in sports and entertainment. You know why? Because the tops of those industries tend to be merit-based and wildly profitable. So it’s
Worth putting in the work.

journalism doesn’t generally pay well enough, so maybe it isn’t worth it for poor kids to put in the work to get there.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

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

Anybody who thinks there isn’t class diversity in journalism is showing they are idiots and need to get out of their own bubble.

 

[Neutral Corner]

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.

More like probably tertiary, MAYBE secondary. Maybe.

 

[User 150927]

Heaven forbid on a journalism board we talk about it.

Lol. Ok. The truth is America has too many rich kids in too many positions of power without regard to what the playing field is. Whether it's industry or journalism or government. We hand our power and our money down to our children. does that specifically resonate in journalism? No. The soldiers of journalism are still the people who go to J-schools and for the most part don't make much money. It's obviously way different when you're talking about the elite journalism outlets, But that isn't actually the question you asked. Do I think Tom in East b****** covering sports and Jennifer in West b****** covering the board of education are elite and causing a problem in journalism? No.

 

[Alma]

Anybody who thinks there isn’t class diversity in journalism is showing they are idiots and need to get out of their own bubble.

Local journalism is shriveling up tho. It is. Sadly. Heartbreakingly.

How class diverse are the major media outlets on the coasts?

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Has this dude ever covered a school board meeting for a 25k circ while making below-food stamp level salary?

 

[Azrael]

Local journalism is shriveling up tho. It is. Sadly. Heartbreakingly.

Separate problem.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Bingo on his broad brush characterization, the way @Spartan Squad said.

First off, the study he pointed to, didn't look at (or try to measure) if employees of the two papers they looked at grew up "rich." He made that characterization. Whether it's true or not, who knows.

What the study did do was look at the employees of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, and found that 54 and 52 percent of the staff writers respectively went to one of the 29 colleges that had the highest median combined SAT Math and Critical Reading scores.

So essentially, you are talking about the two most prestigious daily news publications in the country, each with millions of readers. ... and it's somehow surprising (or a criticism of some sort) that arguably the two best publications in the country draw a lot of their reporters and writers from top colleges?

The horror.