The journalism education debate

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A pretty heated exchange has broken out between Martin Hirst (who heads NZ’s largest J School) and Jim Tucker (head of the second largest).

Basically, they’re debating whether a university course or a polytech (a.k.a trades) course is a better approach to journalism education – here at Mindy McAdams blog and here at Pat Thornton’s.

Now yes I know Jim is my tutor, but i’m not here to take sides. I’m going to stay Swiss on their exchange, but it kind of shocked me to see our two J-education chiefs, normally diplomatic, succumb to petty squabbling and sarcasm.

I guess you could argue that I have already chosen to attend Whitireia, therefore showing that I prefer a polytech course to a degree.

Well, after trawling through all the threads and comments, it would seem to me that both of these systems can work, and it would do journalism good to have people from both types in the newsroom.

Of course the university educated students will have a much higher understanding of the theory side of the job, there’s no denying that. I’m sure that at the end of a four year stint in Uni they will be well equipped to deal with any newsroom. Probably earlier. I’m sure it will always be useful to have a person with an encyclopedic knowledge in particular relevant subjects in the newsroom. And good on them for having enough patience to learn it all.

Trade or polytech courses will allow more people from lower socio-economic backgrounds into journalism. Surely that’s a good thing if we want our news rooms to be more varied in the stories they can effectively cover. Uni costs a lot more, fact.

I am aware of a certain looking down the nose from uni students to polytech students, as if we aren’t quite as good. You know what I mean. A friend who goes to Vic asked me recently what I’m studying and I told them I was doing journalism. They asked if I was at Massey or Vic and when I told them I was at Whitireia, they said, “Oh. That’s a polytech right?”. It was their tone that gave away their disdain.

Some people seem to think these days that the only course of action if you are serious about your future job is to go to University. Polytech seems to be grouped into the trades sort of area – lower in many people’s eyes.

I find that sort of prejudice mildly amusing. I just smile and nod. We’ll see what happens.

Something I like about the polytech approach is the relatively short study time, which will release me early next year unto the unsuspecting job market. In four years from now, a common degree length, I will be long finished my course and will likely have three years work experience, something I believe employers value highly.

Now I can hear you thinking (yes i’m psychic), ‘But you won’t have the background knowledge and broad range of skills!’.

I think my answer to that would be in this day and age, if I need background information for a story, I research what I need, per case. Everything is on the net now, or I find a contact with specialised knowledge.

I may not know all about a specific topic, but I sure can find out about it quickly. Shortcut? Perhaps. I’m avoiding spending time learning what I may never need to use.

It kind of comes down to that old saying ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’ – so long as you have the fundamentals right, I reckon you might as well be out there building contacts.

As for the broad range of skills, I think we are getting a similar range as that of a university, and more time to put them into practice. Damned shorthand is starting to haunt my deepest dreams now.

What I want from my J School is the practical knowledge of how to do the basics, and in some cases the advanced. I’d like a reasonably small class, intermittent one on one tutoring is good, and most of all, plenty of experience producing stories for a variety of mediums. That’s about all. I’ll do the rest.

The rigid structure of university suits some people and others learn better in a less formal environment.

I didn’t particularly like school, I hated the whole ‘I’m the teacher, do as i say, think this way, don’t talk back’ type of thing which happens. There is a set curriculum and it will be learned. No discussion. And living with three students, I can see what uni would be like for me.

So that’s my opinion about it really. Leave a comment and let me know what you think, very interesting topic for me, hence my massive post. I hope it wasn’t too verbose. Concise analysis is not my thing.

Cheers

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Filed under Discussion, journalism

Tags: AUT, jim tucker, journalism, journalism education, journalism education debate, journalist, Martin Hirst, Mindy McAdams, Pat Thornton, polytech, university, whitireia