So it's come to this. You can no longer get a bachelors degree in journalism at the school U.S. News and World Report ranked the 76th best public university in the Midwest. Here at The Pitch offices, I've already started prying the precious metals out of the computers and the copper wiring from the walls. I'll start on the liquor cabinet next. The dream is dead.
The university announced this week that the undergraduate journalism degree will be phased out along with nine other majors that have each failed to produce at least 10 graduates in each of the last three years. Also on the chopping block: geography, speech communication, liberal studies, earth science, agricultural technology, industrial technology, French, and tourism, and something called general recreation.
I learned a long time ago that I could best serve society by getting high and writing about demons, Nazis, bikers, and tits. And for a while that was fine. Nowadays no one wants to cash a check for getting drunk at rock shows then showing up whenever they want the next day to write about Natalie Portman's vagina. That paid for my house. But I guess in this go-go world of instant gratification and social networking that job just sounds too hard for most people in their early twenties. Maybe I'm just an old-fashioned romantic.
Could someone warn all of the students who are coming to town next weekend for the National Journalism Education Association Convention? I'd do it myself, but it hurts too much. If you need me, I'll be at a lonely bus stop somewhere, making queef jokes about the school board for food.
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You presume a lot Nina. My last year in college was 2007. I'm in my 20s.
It's not dead, you just have to work a little harder.
I think your reaction to the news at Central Missouri accurately illustrates the point that an older generation of journalists who have no idea what they've done or where it's going have thrown their hands up and said, "It's dead!" as opposed to seeing this as an opportunity. Of course no journalism majors are produced at a place that has no context for serving students in the rapidly changing world of new media.
The point is further reinforced by your comment that it's the "goddamn American dream". In case you haven't spoken with anyone in their 20's recently, (I'll assume you haven't since you failed to contact them even for this article) that dream is dead.
I suggest you look into some of the innovative prospects recent journalism graduates have developed instead of just knocking their future based on your presumptions of what they're thinking and your own squalid education. I'd be surprised if the old model of j-school served you in today's world ... have you noticed all the change? Also how do you compare your education (probably at least a decade ago to journalism education today?
Thank you for backing me up anonymous. That's exactly my point. Having gone through college and learned almost no marketable skills I have a gig where I've been able to support myself, become a homeowner, and have a ticket to get involved in whatever weird shit I want to get involved in. All without having to become a traditionally responsible adult in any way. That's not just fucking awesome, it's the goddamn American Dream.
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