04-15-2011, 08:02 AM
As they say in the Phillipines, sweatshops aside...
There is a powerful argument that those who want to go into journalism-- whatever that career will look like-- would best be served by getting economics, accounting or science educations. Any field that is resistant to layman\'s analysis or is opaque to non practitioners. The explosion of business reporting in the last two decades would be Exhibit A. The best business journalists are former practitioners or trained in the basics.
The other field is local political/governance reporting, where internships or simply being a maven who shows up and follows up can pry open secretive and quirky worlds. True, it would be best to be paid while acquiring the needed knowledge and skills, but if one is determined one can get there.
Finally, as usual garvin has written it concisely and true: what was great about being a reporter was exactly that: "the ability to sate your curiosity about how and why the world works" . Amen brother. The time I spent as a reporter just out of Stanford was some of the most fun I ever had. That, and being able to write something every day, some of which was artful expression that made me feel good about being a literate person. Everybody just forgets that fun part. By contrast, the world of blogging just seems more like a frantic, constant adrenalin jag. Brave new world...contained on an Android or IPhone.
There is a powerful argument that those who want to go into journalism-- whatever that career will look like-- would best be served by getting economics, accounting or science educations. Any field that is resistant to layman\'s analysis or is opaque to non practitioners. The explosion of business reporting in the last two decades would be Exhibit A. The best business journalists are former practitioners or trained in the basics.
The other field is local political/governance reporting, where internships or simply being a maven who shows up and follows up can pry open secretive and quirky worlds. True, it would be best to be paid while acquiring the needed knowledge and skills, but if one is determined one can get there.
Finally, as usual garvin has written it concisely and true: what was great about being a reporter was exactly that: "the ability to sate your curiosity about how and why the world works" . Amen brother. The time I spent as a reporter just out of Stanford was some of the most fun I ever had. That, and being able to write something every day, some of which was artful expression that made me feel good about being a literate person. Everybody just forgets that fun part. By contrast, the world of blogging just seems more like a frantic, constant adrenalin jag. Brave new world...contained on an Android or IPhone.