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More than a Rolling Stone Article
J-schools take a beating (or do they) and a grad of marketing and PR
testifies.
Enjoy,
P
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 1997 15:38:54 -0600
From: Suzanne Lainson <slainson@sportstrust.com>
In the latest issue of Rolling Stone (the college issue) there's an article
called "The Bad News About Journalism Schools" by James Ledbetter.
I thought I'd mention it to this list because journalism education comes up
periodically.
I found the article interesting both for the points it made and the rather
muddy thinking that went with it.
The author said that (1) journalism schools are cranking out far more
graduates than the industry can absorb, (2) many of the top journalists in
the country are not journalism school graduates, and (3) that integrated
marketing programs are taking over.
On the one hand he points out that there aren't enough jobs for journalism
majors and on the other he bemoans the fact that many schools are primarily
marketing/PR programs.
I might throw out my own perspective since I was in the first IMC class at
the University of Colorado, which had the second IMC program in the
country--started a year after Northwestern's.
I only attended a mass comm school because it offered a marketing program.
My intention was to get a marketing degree, but the University of Colorado
had discontinued its masters of science in marketing without mentioning
that in the catalog it sent me. And I didn't want an MBA since I already
had an undergraduate degree in business and economics (I didn't want to
cover the same topics twice) and I wasn't planning on a career in middle
management.
Plus I had a rather negative view of journalism schools. When I was
freelancing full-time, I met with a number of national magazine editors in
New York and never once was I asked about my education. And certainly I got
the feeling they viewed traditional journalism grads with some disdain. In
other words, if you want to write, you write. You learn writing by reading
and writing, not by taking courses. Elements of Style is worth a college
degree to me.
So what I wanted was a marketing degree. And actually, we did get more
marketing than the MBA-marketing majors. We took all the business marketing
courses plus all the marcom marketing courses.
My fellow graduates for the most part went after the same jobs as marketing
MBAs--and got them.
Anyway, you all might like to take a look at the article. I wouldn't run
out and buy the issue just for this, but it was interesting since I had
attended such a program a few years ago.
Suzanne
_____________________________________
Suzanne Lainson
SportsTrust
Marketing: Integrated/Sports and Event/Online
P.O. Box 2071 Boulder, CO 80306
303 473-9884
slainson@sportstrust.com
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