Is J School Moral?
With journalism jobs disappearing, should journalism schools still exist?
When I began my blog back in 2009, newspapers and magazines were endangered, journalism jobs were disappearing, and students were rethinking their futures. It was all enough for make me wonder whether keeping J Schools open was immoral. After all, how could we ethically take money from students, train them for the fading types of careers we older journalists had enjoyed, and send them out to flip burgers instead of produce news stories?
Now that my time in academia at the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is nearing its end, many things have gotten worse. Newspapers and magazines continue to die, journalism jobs continue to fade away (or get hacked away by vulture capitalists and others), and J School students are wise to think about alternative futures. So, is it moral for J Schools to stay open?
My answer then – and still – is yes. Why? Well, first, while lots of traditional journalism jobs are going away, alternative media outlets have been surging. Online outfits, often operating as nonprofits, have sprouted all over the country. Many of them cover things more narrowly than general-interest newspapers, focusing on state legislatures, for instance. Some for-profit ventures, with broader missions, have emerged, too.
There has been so much growth that I led a special-topics course about it in the spring of 2022. I had many leaders of such programs speak to my students. They hailed from new outfits such as The Texas Tribune, The Colorado Sun, Nebraska Examiner, Flatwater Free Press, The Oaklandside, Boulder Reporting Lab and older ones taking innovative paths, such as Chicago Public Media. Sure, such outfits will provide fewer jobs than the once-robust newsrooms veteran faculty members were used to, but as fewer students seek traditional reporting jobs, the smaller numbers are tolerable.
Second, J School is not just about job training for reporters. Most students in most such schools nowadays major in PR and advertising, where opportunity abounds. And, within journalism, the skills students acquire would serve them well in whatever field they go into. These vital skills include researching, analyzing, seeing different viewpoints, and writing clearly. And critical thinking – in such short supply throughout society – is at the base of what journalism faculty teach.
J School remains great preparation for some particular professions, too. Many of my students over the years went into law, for instance (some did so after stints in journalism and some went directly to law school). The skills they developed in our classes were essential for them. Similarly, some of my business journalism students went into accounting and related fields, and I believe their writing skills were enhanced by training they got from us, along with the skills they learned in business classes.
Think about the parallel with another endangered academic species – the English major, my own focus as an undergraduate. I studied the works of Eighteenth and 20th Century writers, in particular – works that seemed to have no practical value, at least in terms of occupations. And yet, the tightly written prose and verses of Swift, Pope and Johnson taught me how to write with economy. Certainly, the work of Hemingway – who got his professional start as a reporter -- was inspirational and worth trying to emulate.
For a time, I considered grad school in English, even gaining admission to a fine program. But the paucity of academic jobs on the horizon in the field back then (in the 1970s), helped me to choose a graduate J School instead. Much as my heart may have been in literature, the public prints were my destiny. Even so, that training in the most impractical area of English proved helpful – enriching me both personally and professionally.
Moreover, J Schools usually require students to take many courses outside of the field. The way I described this to prospective students was that journalism classes can teach you how to say something well, but other academic areas help give you something to say. Along with Journalism 101, students should take classes in such areas as law, business and economics. Indeed, the most intellectually adventurous might want to double-major in English.
So, do J Schools have reason to endure? Is it moral to train students in journalism? I believe so. The faculty must keep close tabs on the rapid changes in the field and make sure students are equipped with the skills they will need. But the core skills remain essential, whether the students wind up covering news, toiling in the courts, running businesses or doing anything else where good writing and clear thinking are vital.