My Students Are Awesome
March 8, 2012Now that I teach at the Institut Européen de Journalisme in Marseille, I am faced with a quandary when discussing the future of my students. On one hand, this is a time of great doomsaying, especially for print journalism. One need only glance at the following graph to grasp the cynicism:
However, there is also reason for exuberant optimism. New technology – from affordable Internet sites to cheap digital video to accessible podcasting platforms – means students now have media creation and distribution tools at their disposal that were once the exclusive domain of large companies. With a little verve and a lot of hard work, a student can make a name for themselves today in a way simply wasn’t imaginable when I was in journalism school two decades ago.
Just look at these sites created by my students as either online magazines or as a showcase for their work:
Le Big 5 was created by a group of second-year students during the two week winter vacation, if you can believe it. It makes me wonder what my cohort of J-school friends – Colin Freeze, Dave Ebner, Mike Mainville, Mark MacKinnon, Drew Edwards, et alia – would have done if we had this technology at our disposal. (Perhaps sullied our reputations to the point that we’d never have gotten our feet inside the door of a major newspaper?)
Ultimately, this is what I tell my students: if they’re looking to become a ‘journaliste fonctionnaire’ – that is, get a salaried position with benefits right out of J-school – then their prospects are dim indeed. But, if they view this profession as a creative endeavour and are willing to sacrifice financial security and leisure time, they can control their own destiny and make a profound and meaningful impact.
The truth is, I am envious of my students because this is an exhilarating time for a young person to enter the field. But, I admit, as a 40-year-old man with two children, this modern journalism world makes me shudder because under no circumstances would I be willing to make the family sacrifices required to forge a name for myself in today’s media market.
———————
← A glorious life Quantifying Goodness →
