We student journalists have all wondered at some point or another whether college is worth it or even necessary for our career. Taking a College of Communication class — for example, COM CO 101 — can often feel like busy work.
Journalism is a craft. You don’t become a journalist by sitting in a classroom, but rather by immersing yourself, hitting the streets and gaining field experience. At Boston University, the journalism major reflects this by requiring professional experience and reporting.
If you want to be a journalist, you have to just do it. In that sense, a degree isn’t necessary and can even be counterintuitive.
Anyone can become a journalist by writing for an outlet, throwing themselves into their work and improving over time. These skills — such as reporting and being objective — might be more efficiently honed with four years of on-the-ground experience rather than higher education.
But college provides more than just education. You go to college and pay the tuition for the very experiences that will develop your skills.
Having professors and classes that are established and well-connected means an opportunity to intern through the Boston State House Program, D.C. Journalism Program or with a distinguished faculty member.
Furthermore, college provides experiences on campus and outside the classroom as well, such as The Daily Free Press — hey, that’s us! — WTBU Radio, BUTV10, BU News Service, BU Department news publications and other campus publications.
College provides other resources as well: experienced faculty, references from those professors, networking opportunities and training on useful programs, tools or websites. At BU, there’s also professional clubs such as the Society of Professional Journalists.
And though sitting in a classroom may be boring, it comes in handy when learning about journalism through an academic lens or giving you the information to narrow your interests within the field.
Because of the current competitive job market and our society’s emphasis on higher education, going to college opens up many more doors.
In practice, securing an internship, apprenticeship or job as a young adult is difficult, even if you’re a college student majoring in communications. But most jobs nowadays require college degrees and most internships require college enrollment. If you don’t have the privilege of college, you’re set back even further amongst the stack of applicants.
Journalism in particular is an elitist, competitive field. If you can’t land a job or internship, there’s limited opportunities to develop necessary skills and experience.
It’s not a pretty truth.
Maybe journalists don’t need to go to college to be good at what they do, but to be successful and financially stable, it helps a lot to have that background.
On a broader scale, college also provides a space for interdisciplinary learning and social growth amongst your peers.
If you know you want to go into journalism and write about politics, for example, you could major in political science and write for campus publications. This way, you gain extensive background education and will be able to write from a knowledgeable perspective with the necessary experience and skills.
For this reason — though it’s a privileged decision — there should be a greater push for journalists to pursue different fields of study outside of the sometimes limiting nature of communications.
If you don’t know what you want to major in or end up not liking journalism, college is also a bubble that you can explore without much consequence and secure your interests. It’s a place where you can discover who you are as a person both in and outside of classes.
Plus, college serves as a forum for different perspectives and worldviews that will help open your mind and, as a journalist, see more sides to a story. It allows students to develop greater independence, social awareness, self-awareness and collaborative skills.
But it’s a really expensive trial run. Attending university is a major privilege, and it shouldn’t be treated as the norm. It shouldn’t be the case that talented journalists may be overlooked because they don’t have a college degree.
People don’t need a formal education to be smart, skilled or qualified. And blue collar and trade work are just as important as white collar work. Those who choose not to or are unable to go to college — for any reason — should not be shamed or punished by society for their choice.
Should journalists go to college? The answer is: maybe. It’s an individual choice, but there will unfortunately always be an advantage to higher education.
The question then becomes: Should it be systematically implied that every journalist needs to go to college? Should the profession put emphasis on a degree?
That answer is a resounding no.
Not like there’s any real journalism anymore.