Monday, August 17, 2009

University as career factory?

I read an interesting post the other day on Howard Bernstein's excellent blog, Medium Close Up. I agree with some of his points but I think he's fallen into a bit of a logic trap. Like many people, he believes that if one studies something in university, they should and must go on to a career in that area.

The concept isn't completely without merit. After all, very few people would study veterinary medicine if they didn't want to go on to a career as a vet. The number of available spots in vet. med. faculties is extremely small, and graduates of a vet. med. program tend to find good, stable employment. Bully for them.

I don't think, though,that you can use the same argument for those who study journalism. Bernstein writes: "If we opened more places in the schools – and we do seem to do this all the time – we would fill them instantly. But does anyone tell these kids there are no jobs for them? I have never seen it. Worse, the schools continue to accept these students knowing there are no jobs. It is morally wrong."

With respect, it's not morally wrong, and the argument is specious. If one were to accept Bernstein's viewpoint uncritically, it would be "morally wrong" for universities to accept students in any number of fields of study. How many history majors end up as professional historians? What proportion of math majors end up making a living doing math? What about anthropology? religious studies? comparative literature? Surely Bernstein can't be arguing that these fields of study aren't worthy, or that enrolment in these areas should be severely restricted.

Even the (Canadian) college system, which is much more geared toward career preparation than knowledge for knowledge's sake, has come to the realization that sometimes - just sometimes - people study something because they're interested in it. The line of demarcation between colleges and universities is dissolving as (some) universities are developing more of a market focus, and (some) colleges are increasing the breadth of their course offerings to allow students to enjoy the intellectual challenges of learning, rather than just stuffing knowledge into their brains with the goal of hopefully building a meaningful career.

Another thing that's developed over the past number of years is that the entire concept of "career" has changed. I'm now in my third career - maybe even my fourth, depending on how you count 'em. Each was a perfectly valid career path, and each career has helped lay the foundation for the succeeding ones. Many of my friends and colleagues have had similar experiences.

Coming back to the journalism-specific issue that Bernstein raises in his blog post, I'm a proponent of the j-school-as-a-professional-program model. In other words, I think that by requiring a person to develop their critical thinking skills - and a little real-world knowledge - before they enter a journalism program, one is likely to come out with a better "product". As an old boss of mine used to say, it's easier to take someone with some life experience and teach him what he needs to become a successful journalist than it is to take someone fresh out of j-school and teach him how to be a real person. In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out that I'm probably partial to that point of view since that was the rationale he used when he hired me as a reporter.

There. I'm glad I got that off my chest. As always, your mileage may vary.

2 comments:

Milan Davidović said...

These are Bernstein's claims:
- Students choose j-school to get j-jobs.
- J-schools inflate the prospects of getting j-jobs upon graduation.

Yes?

If I've got that right, then it seems that all we need to do is settle on:
- valid methods of investigating these claims
- what we would accept as sufficient to support or deny the claims

and then investigate to see whether j-schools are guilty as charged.

And because I've set it out so simply here, I've most likely missed something. What might that be?

Voltaire2006 said...

I don't think you've missed anything. I might challenge the two premises a bit, though.

First off, I'm not convinced that students necessarily choose j-school to get j-jobs. In the case of graduate or after-degree programs, it's probably closer to the truth, but for undergraduate or diploma programs I expect that at least some students go into the program to investigate whether they're interested in journalism as a career, or just because it's what they've been most interested in to that point. I didn't start studying French literature because I wanted to be a professional... er... literate person; I did it because that was what I did best at tht time. I like to think things have turned out more or less okay since then.

Do J-schools inflate the prospects of getting j-jobs upon graduation? Perhaps, but I'd add that it may depend upon how you define a "j-job". Does being a PR person count? Does going into the marketing/advertising biz count? Does being a radio or TV host (as opposed to a pounding-the-pavement-style reporter) count?

We have gluts or shortages of students in any given domain all the time. J-schools and J-school programs fall in and out of favour. I have a hunch that journalism as a discrete program may disappear in the fullness of time, to be replaced by... I don't know what exactly, but most or all of the skills/competencies/aptitudes we look for in a good solid journo exist in plenty of other programs.

Once again, your mileage may vary.