Hundreds of new journalism graduates are either out looking for jobs right now or soon will be following December graduation ceremonies. At least as many experienced journalists are also out pounding the pavement for work in the wake of layoffs across the country.
NPR’s Alex Cohen sat down to talk with with Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Journalism, Neil Henry, about what the future may hold for the journalism profession and journalism education.
The most controversial element of the interview involves Henry’s assertion that more journalists will need to be entrepreneurs. He suggests they won’t work for traditional media companies, rather they will be in business for themselves. Unfortunately, when Cohen tried to press him on whether this would result in “journalism for hire,” Henry really avoided answering the question. However, he did say UC Berkeley’s j-school is working with the business school to develop courses that might help journalists make money outside the corporate journalism structure.
Still, it’s worth thinking about. Obviously, there are some journalists who have gone out on their own to produce news content and profit from it, while seeming to uphold journalistic standards, but there aren’t many. And several who have done it eventually seem to operate on much the same old economic model as journalism always has (i.e. Huffington Post with its Blackberry ads and outside investors).
So, how feasible is Henry’s idea? Can journalism survive and thrive without the infrastructure created by big media companies? Or will it have to?
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Thanks for the comment – I think you’re absolutely right.
Just listened to the NPR report. Regardless of what area of journalism an individual might specialize in–whether it be print or broadcast–he or she must be versatile in as many areas as possible. That includes the Internet. What’s clear is that when the economy eventually does recover, journalism as most of us know it will be different than it is now. In other words, it’ll take more than just looking good on paper, or even in front of a camera for that matter. It’ll be interesting to see how things will turn out in the months to come.