Comments on: Does the ROI on a degree in journalism affect choice of career?

By: TomF

TomF — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:45:05 +0000

There’s nothing new here, sad to say. Thirty years ago, when journalism was “healthy,”: entry-level jobs still paid slave wages owing to simple supply-and-demand forces. I left an Ivy League school in 1981 toting a barrel of student loan debt and went straight to work as an on-air reporter ahchor in the 93rd ADI — not a huge market, but far from a tiny one — for the princely sum of $10,400 a year. I owed Uncle Sam more than that. Most of my peers went to Wall Street or law school; some soon made my annual salary each week. When I walked downtown on Saturday night people recognized me from TV and said hello, which was nice, but I could not afford to follow them into a restaurant to buy dinner. I went home and lived on tuna and generic mac-and-cheese at 19 cents per box… that is, when I wasn’t working my 70-hour week. Bottom line, choosing a journalism career has ALWAYS been a conscious choice to keep prosperity at bay, at least in the early years. You do it because it’s important and fun, not because of some cold-eyed ROI analysis. The fact that the profession / industry is imploding today doesn’t change a thing.

Second point: In a long broadcast TV news career I saw people who’d been expensively processed through J-school, and people who hadn’t, and I couldn’t tell the difference. I would gently argue that three years in the 93rd market covering arraignments, interviewing city council candidates, figuring out how utility rate hikes go through and how to explain them, etc., etc. is better career prep than paying huge sums of (borrowed) cash to sit in a classroom and hear these things subscribed to you.

I think the real queation is not, “What’s the ROI of a journalism career?” It’s always been tepid. The real question is, “How do you defend the ROI of journalism school when I can go plant a flag in West Weirdston, Indiana, get paid a little instead of spending a lot, and learn my craft in a real-world practicum?”

By: N. Zero

N. Zero — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:22:25 +0000

Why go to school for journalism when the public doesn’t seem interested in real news and instead rewards those who pander to the lowest common denominator? It seems that to be a journalistic success all you need to do is rehash the corporate media take on events or or break “news” about a drunk celebrity involved with shenanigans.

Britney’s lack of underwear will make headlines while serious journalists reporting big news from the streets will be overlooked.

http://www.buzzflash.net/story.php?id=1038501 <– Perhaps the most underreported story of the year.

By: jeff watson

jeff watson — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 03:17:22 +0000

Journalists have it easy. The ROI on a classics degree(what my son is studying) from a top school is about 31 years. This figure is derived from calculating from the net and figuring in reasonable living expenses etc.

By: Dr. Slammy

Dr. Slammy — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:26:11 +0000

Bleak? No doubt. Overdrawn? I don’t know. You don’t say a thing that contradicts what I hear from young journalists.

As you say, if the debt gets paid off, it’s probably not by J work. If you ring up the debt and slog through a career as a journalist, unless you’re damned lucky you’ll probably NEVER pay it off.

But at least you’ll have the satisfaction that attends a life in “public service” and the goodwill of your fellow citizens. That ought to keep you warm on those cold nights sleeping under a bridge, huh?

By: Brian Angliss

Brian Angliss — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:34:31 +0000

Journalism suffers from the same problem as teaching – it’s under-appreciated, so it’s dramatically underpaid. I have to wonder how many journalists can only make it because their SO covers far more than 50% of the bills, or because they have to work two jobs. That’s what I see the most with teachers – summer jobs as an income supplement and/or they’re married/living with someone who makes WAY more than they do.