Jeff Jarvis is amused that USC (think Pac10, not SEC) is now offering a minor in video game design.
I dunno. This isn’t any worse than offering degrees in Women’s Studies.
Or, for that matter, Journalism. If college is going to be a trade school, might as well make it a lucrative trade.
bryan: PoliSci is essentially a purely academic subject, which is the traditional function of university education.
Wait, I was confused. I was going off the headline for the post: “What are you going to do with a degree in that?”
And while you might disagree with a journalism degree, I think media studies can lay a claim to a place in the pantheon of “purely academic” subjects.
bryan,
Sorry–I was going for irony. That’s pretty much the standard question for liberal studies majors.
I suppose it depends how media studies is taught. My limited experience (judging from students in intro polisci classes who were majoring in broadcast journalism and the like) was that they were VoTech. Perhaps it’s not that way in more prestigious departments.
yeah, it’s really a weird cross. You’ve got people who do all of their research in social scientific studies and then teach classes in newswriting and advertising. I’m sure there are different breakdowns at the larger schools, too. That’s why I specified “media studies” and not “mass comm” or some such.
A columnists at The Daily Telegraph (London) said a degree in the classics was more useful for landinging a job at a major newspaper than a j-degree, because with a classics degree you’re bringing something new to the table to draw upon, not just the same ol’ j-school tricks of the trade everybody else already knows.
I think being a journalist is the same as being a blogger- to get ahead you need to be offering something nobody else has. The ubiquitous j-degree… nobody cares.
Hugh,
I hear the same canard every so often from columnists, most of whom don’t do any hiring at the papers they work for. In actuality, a person with a classics degree who can’t write short paragraphs, understand AP style and know a good quote from a hole in the ground doesn’t do anyone a bit of good.
Most major papers are going to hire people with plenty of experience, including internships and college newspaper experience. that goes for whatever degree they have.
As for the person with a classics background bringing something new to the table, I’m not sure what it would be, the ability to quote Bronte at length?
Seriously, AEJMC-accredited schools already require heavy investments in liberal arts courses from journalism majors. Whether the students do anything with that information is another question, and one that isn’t unique to journalism students.
As for “nobody cares,” well, I’d suggest doing a study of newsrooms and finding out just how many of those folks come from j-school backgrounds. Also PR and advertising folks.
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