This led to an interesting comment by journalism student Michael Broomhead.
So, should J-schools be teaching modules on how to survive as a freelancer? On creatively exploring revenue streams and business models?
I believe they should and in fact think it is becoming vastly more important for both individual students and the industry as a whole.
It is of course being discussed: See here and here amongst others
Mark Journo? Feeling upbeat? Let me kill that :-) http://bit.ly/rAC8.via Twitter -
Isn't it about time that UCLan and other journalism schools around the country let potential students know that they've not got a hope in hell's chance of getting a job in journalism when they're three years older and nine grand in debt?
*[interestingly the Yahoo News service neither links to its sources nor to subjects mentioned in the text which gets me thinking of these tweets:
http://twitter.com/kevglobal/status/1036389279
Great Points mark.
I think there has to be a distinction between understand business in the sense of going freelance and understanding the business in terms of the MSM industry. There is room for both but I think the latter is an increasingly academic/historic effort and anything above that is the responsibility of the organisations to orientate their employees properly. The former is much more valueable as we see the media landscape shifting from big orgs to individual journos.
To Lauren I would say, I think you are getting some of the key skills. Learning digital skills and core journalism stuff is a valuable freelance skill as they are core to the job whether you are doing it for yourself or someone else. But of course I would say that wouldn't I :)
Posted by: andy | December 04, 2008 at 13:18
I think UCLan places far oo much emphasis on the regional and national newspaper industry. The benefits of freelancing have been mentioned just once over the past three years. So I agree with the argument that new modules be created to teach students how to enter freelance journalism and how to hone their skills to make money!
Also, I can't help but think that some of the course's academic modules be replaced so there is more time to teach students how to produce high quality digital journalism. After all, editors are desperate for graduates who can use digital techniques to enhance storytelling. Quite frankly, writing endless essays saying that the industry's in a mess is a waste of time. After all, everyone knows it's struggling.
Posted by: Michael Broomhead | December 04, 2008 at 13:01
I totally agree.
I'm in my 2nd year at UClan doing Journlaism and I know that when I graduate it's going to be trying to look for a needle in a haystack for a job.
I would love to go freelancing but am a little scared as I haven't been taught any key skills.
Posted by: Lauren Oldland | December 04, 2008 at 09:56