How to Study Journalism
I subscribe to Rolling Stone, and I enjoy Matt Taibbi’s political writing. But he ain’t no Hunter Thompson. And, really, reading his work is a guilty pleasure meant to stroke my liberal self. My academic self is right properly aghast.
Here’s an interesting moment from a Q & A interview with Taibbi in Campus Progress:
You wrote a column in the New York Press a few years back referring to journalism as “shoveling coal for Satan.” I believe you also said that journalism as a career was worse than being a worker in a tampon factory. Should any sane young person consider a career in journalism?
If you have no real knowledge or skill set and you’re lazy and full of shit but you want to make a decent wage, then journalism’s not a bad career option. The great thing about it is that you don’t need to know anything. I mean this whole notion of journalism school—I can’t believe people actually go to journalism school. You can learn the entire thing in like three days. My advice is instead of going to journalism school, go to school for something concrete like medicine or some kind of science or something and then use the knowledge you get in that field as a wedge to get yourself into journalism.
What journalism really needs is more people who are reporting who actually know something. Instead of having a bunch of liberal arts grads who’ve read Siddhartha 50 times writing about health care, it would be really nice if some of the people who are writing about health care were doctors.
I could quibble, but I won’t because, for the most part, I agree with Taibbi (understanding that the man never makes a point without beating the living shit out of it–a problem of kairos).
Here’s how I’d change this outburst from an exercise in hyperbole to something like useful advice:
Journalism is not rocket science. It is a craft and one that any reasonably smart person can learn–even on their own. I’m not at all sure journalism school is a good idea (i.e. a comprehensive 2-year program that’s part of a 4-year degree) unless it includes course work that addresses–specifically for journalists–the legitimate issue Taibbi raises about understanding more than the craft. Journalism does need “more people who are reporting who actually know something.” Or, as good, we need people who are reporting who know they don’t know and are comfortable doing what it take to know.
Coming to know something about stuff other than the craft of journalism and attending “journalism school” (or a non-comprehensive program such as the one at Missouri State University) are not mutually exclusive. But I think we can see in the profession the results of too many j-grads who know very little about much of anything other than the craft upon graduation. And, as I have discussed before, the profession encourages journalists to become arrogant about knowing more than they actually do.
Now I teach journalism. I teach the craft. But I am an academic, and that means a big part of what I do must include teaching about journalism, i.e. encouraging students to think critically about journalism as a human behavior and a cultural practice.
