Anyone with the passion to write can start a WordPress or Substack and call themselves a journalist, but there’s more to a career in journalism than just writing and reporting.
And while it is possible to develop yourself as a self-made journalist by skipping the academic track, a journalism degree provides technical skills, networking opportunities, and real-world perspectives from working professionals, among other benefits.
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Beyond a foot in the door (though that’s definitely a key benefit of a degree), a formal education is the most efficient way to learn what you’ll need to succeed in the field.
Let’s take a look at 6 reasons J-school is the way to go.
1. The basics
These include grammar, headline-writing, story structure, how to handle breaking news and embargoes, crafting a great lede, writing in the inverted pyramid, etc.
Not sure what those terms mean? Anyone with a journalism degree does, as it’s one of the first things that you learn in J-school.
“I was definitely in for a rude awakening when I started,” says Anne Urda, an assistant managing editor at Law360 with a master’s in journalism from NYU.
“I thought, ‘Hey, I’m a decent writer, I can do this,’ but it really does require a different set of skills and an actual education in the importance of a good lede, asking the right questions of your sources, etc. While you can pick that up along the way in a job, it’s very difficult to find the right mentor or someone who is going to take the time to school you in those fundamentals when you are up against real-world deadlines.”
Furthermore, many school professors have worked on copy desks themselves, so they can show you how to self-edit or copy-edit the work of others using AP or Chicago style.
Though blogs tend to care less about these things than magazines and newspapers, your ego will be bruised the first time a commenter points out that you don’t know the correct use of its and it’s.
2. Interviewing
Part of the blame for the lack of quality content online is that many writers today just don’t know how to approach interviews or get to the bottom of a story.
College courses will teach you which questions get the best kinds of answers, how to frame them so you get the quotes you need, and even the order in which to ask them (hint: save anything that will make your subject get up and leave for the end).
Learning the basics before you get hired will save you time in the long run and give you a chance to fail your way up while the stakes are relatively low.
3. Technical skills
Many managers are looking to hire experienced reporters who won’t require much on-the-job training. Enter J-school, where you’ll learn how to use the equipment and programs needed in print, magazine, online, and broadcast journalism, like Adobe InDesign or Illustrator, common CMS systems, Web design, or basic HTML.
You might also have the opportunity to take photography classes.
And how many times have you heard a podcast with muffled audio or watched a YouTube video with horrible video? If you want a lasting career in broadcast or multimedia journalism, presentation counts.
A college education will give you access to working studios where you can use high-quality video and editing equipment to create a professional reel to use in your job search.
It also has the bonus of demonstrating to the news director at your dream station that you have experience with the very technology they use.
4. Media law and ethics
When I was at Forbes, the in-house legal counsel gave new staff a crash course in media law and the magazine’s policies on accepting gifts, libel, slander, etc.
But throughout the course of my career, I have never received as in-depth an education on those subjects as I did in journalism school.
Knowing the basic definitions of slander, libel and defamation will help you to avoid issues in your own reporting and writing and stay out of trouble. You’ll be able to make informed decisions about when a publicist is overreacting or when to alert the lawyers.
You’ll also learn the importance of honesty in your reporting, which will hopefully help you to make smart choices unlike the reporters involved in plagiarism and source fabrication scandals.
5. A network of working journalists and editors
This benefit just can’t be underestimated. Relationships are everything in this biz, and your classmates today will be your first media contacts tomorrow.
When you first graduate, you all may have entry-level positions or internships, but in about 10 years, your friends will be in charge of hiring decisions or have close relationships with people who do. In 20 years, you’ll be running the show.
“I made friends with other journalism majors, and those connections have been invaluable in my career,” agrees Lauren Streib, senior editor at Huge.
“I also gained an enormous amount of perspective from having access to the institutional knowledge of my journalism professors, who were mainly retired newspapermen and women. Could I have learned these skills on the job? Certainly. But I was prepared for my first job in a way I would never have been without the connections. In a way, I feel like it put me ahead of the curve.”
6. Confidence to apply for and get great jobs
Applying and interviewing for jobs at major publications, websites or networks can be intimidating, but many journalists say they felt better knowing they had the strength of their education behind them when walking into an interview.
And, sometimes, that degree was what got them in the door in the first place.
“I know I got a good education, but I think the degree’s strongest asset is the name recognition,” reveals Meredith Lepore, daily morning writer for InStyle.
She has a master’s degree in journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. “That’s not why I got it, but it gets me in the door. I think my degree helped me get jobs at Fox and MSNBC, although I really had no TV experience.”
So, do you need a journalism degree to work in the biz? Of course not. But, whether you spend one year as a reporter or 20, your education is never wasted.
“I think people underestimate how difficult journalism is,” former New York Times reporter and veteran journalist Lola Ogunnaike said in a Mediabistro interview.
“It’s not just sitting at your computer and spouting off your opinions about Beyonce’s dress at the Met Gala. There is a structure to it, and I feel like that is sorely lacking in a lot of what’s being passed off as journalism today.”
