Rob Fishman has an excellent post today called Initiating a Culture of Compensation. Fishman is a journalist student and he’s breaking down why journalism is important, and that journalists shouldn’t be expected to do it for free.
Fifteen years ago, journalism schools themselves were thought to be malignant (see “J School Ate My Brain” by Michael Lewis in a 1993 edition of the New Republic). Today, the tumor has metastasized and infected the entire profession. Any way you look at it — left or right, fair or balanced, in the Blogosphere or on the Op-ed pages — the consensus is clear: journalism as we know it is not long for this world.
Figuring that they can’t write themselves out of this dilemma, journalists have dropped the pen and polished the crystal ball. They come to us daily — I’m a student at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, the butt of Mr. Lewis’ long-form joke — with their predictions and prognostications, as if some sliver of hope might redeem our moribund futures. And for those of you who skipped out on the $40,000 bill (i.e. full tuition at Columbia), the pain can be — and has been — suffered vicariously all across the media, new and old.
Go read the whole thing, then read it again. He’s telling you things that ARE working.
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