Backlash brews over media’s focus on value of college

The Lookout ^ | June 17th | Liz Goodwin

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

A San Francisco State University instructor writes in Poynter today that the media is misrepresenting some basic features of the debate over the value of a college education. In reviewing recent coverage, Sarah Fidelibus argues that journalists are taking surveys out of context in making the case that a college education isn't worth young people's time and money anymore. The critique comes on the heels of a piece in the New Republic titled "Why the media is always wrong about the value of a college degree."

In the latter article, Education Sector's Kevin Carey mocks media stories that profile woeful Ivy League grads who haven't landed the prestigious jobs they'd hoped for right out of college. He points out that these stories have been running in newspapers for decades--while also noting that an Ivy League education has only become more coveted (and lucrative) over the same period. "They always feature an over-educated bartender, and they are always wrong," Carey writes about the stories.

While The Lookout, too, has noticed a rash of over-hyped headlines about the value of college (ahem, New York magazine), we think these critics are too quick to brush off scholars' concerns about the higher education industry. The often overheated tenor of debate on both ends of the higher-ed question may make it harder to carry out an honest accounting of an industry that already tends to shy away from transparency.

[LS]

Thanks. Very long and worth thinking about and I’m going to come back to it later when I can really digest it.

[BenKenobi]

Oh I believe you wholeheartedly. I know my classmates.

[RipSawyer]

Oh, no, I was hoping you were going to tell me that it isn’t that bad where you live.

[BenKenobi]

It’s bad all around.