Once upon a time before the internet, the technical practice of journalism involved skills that a formal journalism school taught best. That still didn’t stop Ida B. Wells, Bob Woodward, or Hunter S. Thompson from revolutionizing the industry without attending any formal journalism program.
The pattern has held largely true today, with investigative journalists like Ronan Farrow and John Carreyrou and broadcast stars like Jake Tapper and Megyn Kelly all graduating from college in domains other than journalism.
Journalism is not worth studying in a four-year college degree. And if recent events on college campuses across the country have proven, journalism programs are no longer equipped to teach actual journalism anyway.
Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism has educated 38 Pulitzer Prize laureates, yet the university’s student newspaper is now apologizing for doing, well, journalism. In a mea culpa regarding their coverage of campus protests against former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Daily Northwestern laments:
We also wanted to explain our choice to remove the name of a protester initially quoted in our article on the protest. Any information The Daily provides about the protest can be used against the participating students — while some universities grant amnesty to student protesters, Northwestern does not. We did not want to play a role in any disciplinary action that could be taken by the University. Some students have also faced threats for being sources in articles published by other outlets. When the source in our article requested their name be removed, we chose to respect the student’s concerns for their privacy and safety. We also wanted to explain our choice to remove the name of a protester initially quoted in our article on the protest. Any information The Daily provides about the protest can be used against the participating students — while some universities grant amnesty to student protesters, Northwestern does not. We did not want to play a role in any disciplinary action that could be taken by the University. Some students have also faced threats for being sources in articles published by other outlets. When the source in our article requested their name be removed, we chose to respect the student’s concerns for their privacy and safety.
To recap, journalists at one of the supposed top journalism schools in the country apologized for taking photos at a public event and using a public directory to contact potential sources.
“Going forward, we are working on setting guidelines for source outreach, social media and covering marginalized groups,” the editorial staff wrote. “We will also work to balance the need for information and the potential harm our news coverage may cause.”
So here we have journalists apologizing for taking photographs of a public event in a public place, and for contacting people to interview through a school directory that is intended for … looking people up to contact them.
Perhaps, when the story is written about why all the journalism schools closed, we will blame students who did things like this. But justice requires us to blame the educators who let them develop such a mindset. These children view themselves as handmaidens to social activists. They have not been taught to think of themselves as real journalists, even in the most fundamental sense of fact-gathering.
Journalism school has always been a dodgy value proposition. The skill-set is more that of a trade than a field of study. It requires no special professional training or license, and yet not a single journalism school graduate is ready for employment without practice in the field. If you are willing to shell out a quarter-million dollars to attend some form of higher education, you’re much better even in journalism terms if you work or intern for a news organization but specialize in a different field — finance or law or political science — rather than simply gaining a journalism degree.
What’s more, editors just aren’t that impressed by the fact that you spent the equivalent of three Porsche Carreras on their designer degree. Most of them would just as soon hire a competent high school graduate with some experience in an actual newsroom. So the best advice to anyone considering a journalism major is, “Don’t do it.”
This sad story at Northwestern illustrates how corrupt the elite journalism schools themselves have become. But the case against journalism school doesn’t rely on this. It’s been evident for decades.
