Posted on 06/03/2006 12:21:57 PM PDT by rhema
From a commencement address I delivered last week:
I want to congratulate you all upon your graduation from the University of Maryland College of Journalism, and wish you luck as you prepare to embark on exciting careers in telemarketing or large-appliance repair.
My point is, this is a challenging time for journalists.
And because you are word people, you understand that "challenging time" is a euphemism often used to describe disasters of epic proportions. For example, Richard Pryor was facing a "challenging time" when he ran down the street half-naked and on fire.
What are your challenges, specifically? Let us begin with, quote unquote, getting a job. Good jobs in journalism have become scarce as newspapers shrink and die, broadcast media fragment to smaller niche audiences and the public appears more and more willing to receive its "news" online from nincompoops ranting in their underpants.
But, it's not like there is no hope. There are still high-prestige, well-paying positions in journalism. Unfortunately, they are filled by tired old coots who aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Me, for example. It'll take a hydraulic winch to pry me loose from this gig.
Two decades ago, I worked with your dean, Tom Kunkel, at the Miami Herald. Back then, the Herald was a newspaper the thickness of the Singapore telephone directory. Today, when carriers fling the Herald onto suburban driveways, it settles to the pavement gently, like a sycamore leaf in the breeze. When Tom and I worked there, the Herald was the flagship of the Knight Ridder newspaper chain, which no longer exists, having recently been purchased by the McClatchy chain, which sold some of the papers to the MediaNews chain, which sold some of the papers to the Kmart chain, which is using them as packing material for Scooby-Doo sippy cups.
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
When he pointed to art major, I told him there's no money in it. When he pointed to computer science, I told him there's money in it. I think he got the message.
...then you showed him where Bangalore is on the map.
LOL!
There's an engineer on another thread who says his engineering friends are all either going into the food business or becoming truckers. So, maybe I should just send my kids to Tech School. ;-)
...or teach them to compete. The top five or ten percent in any field (including art) will always work. The rest get to complain about India and China.
It seems engineering, like computer science, is one of those fields swamped with talented people, but they're being under-bid by H1Bs.
But, I concede it's true that anything, even Journalism, can be a marketable major. It depends on what you do with your degree.
I know many former art majors making giant money in product packaging, graphic design, fashion, auction houses, art restoration, etc.
The trick -- which really isn't a trick at all -- is that you have to be good. The guys who just want one of those 9 to 5 jobs that don't require any kind of unique or exceptional skill are pretty much doomed.
I thought this was satire, but I think it is not.
Actually, I'm letting my kids major in whatever because I've made it clear to them, if I am to give them an allowance in college, then they're going to get a graduate level degree, preferably an M.B.A or a doctorate level in something non-academic, though I'd tolerate a J.D
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