

Gladwell: "Aspiring journalists should stop going to journalism programs..." - robg
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1931100,00.html?xid=rss-arts

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skmurphy
By far the most interesting two paragraphs in the article for me were these:

"There's precious little experimentation in education. Instead there seems to
be a desire for greater regimentation, which I think is nonsense. I think we
need to try 100 different things. If I were Arne Duncan, I'd think of myself
as a venture capitalist, fund as many wacky and inventive ideas as I could,
and closely monitor them to see how they worked.

I've always been fascinated by the idea that in inner-city schools, the thing
they do best is sports. They do really, really well in sports. It's not
correct to say these schools are dysfunctional; they're highly functional in
certain areas. So I've always wondered about using the principles of sports in
the classroom. Go same sex; do everything in teams; have teams compete with
each other. I'd like to try that. I don't know whether it will work, but it's
certainly worth a shot, and we could learn something really useful."

~~~
brandnewlow
Having spent three summers as a counselor at a military sports camp, I would
imagine this approach would work really, really well.

If you can put them in a structure with incentives, accountability, clear
lines of authority, and very tangible goals, most young men will flourish.

~~~
abefortas
The teams thing might be an interesting idea.

But doesn't "structure with incentives, accountability, clear lines of
authority, and very tangible goals" pretty much describe a typical classroom,
and doesn't a typical classroom suck?

~~~
peregrine
If you by structure and incentives you mean do this work or you fail, and by
clear lines of authority you mean the teacher is right and if by very tangible
goals you mean telling the student that getting an A on this test will mean
you have the chance of getting a job after getting about 1000 more As on these
tests.

Then yes, but making school into a game where people work together(ie not just
alone) you drive accountability, incentives to work, and a very tangible
result when the team pulls it together.

~~~
brandnewlow
I worked there for three summers. During my first two summers for the most
part all the campers were on one level of authority, then they'd answer to the
assistant counselors who would answer to me. It was a very flat organization.

My third summer I created a structure where every 5 "first summer" campers
would report to 1 "second summer" camper and form a "squad." Every 3 squads
then reported to a "third summer" camper and formed a "platoon." The two
platoons formed a company and reported to the best third summer camper that
week, who reported to the counselors.

Then we pitted the squads against eachother in room inspections, sports,
percentage of members who had dates to the weekly dance, shower frequency, all
sorts of weird stuff. We collected a crapload of data on the squads and posted
it up publicly where they could all track it.

The winning squad each week got a big rock that I painted green. The
counselors and I sold it to the campers as an old camp award that had been
unfairly forgotten by previous counselors. The squad leader could keep it in
his room for the week after his squad won it.

Results:

1\. The kids worked a lot harder at the things we were grading them on.

2\. They spent a lot more time talking to each other and less time talking to
the counselors.

3\. They generally became more proficient at all of these tasks.

------
brandnewlow
I went to J-School for a graduate degree. I went because I had no contacts in
the industry and no experience either and because I wanted to meet people
handling the technology side of things. I got my money's worth and came out
with a host of interesting people I could reach out to with questions or for
advice.

For many who want go in thinking it will help their prospects as reporters,
however, they are disappointed. Several friends went right back into their old
newspaper jobs with just a $2-3k raise and a new title. Others spent 6 months
to a year writing for free or stringing until they could land a full-time job.
Many went into marketing and PR where there are real jobs that pay decently.

It's getting harder and harder to find work as a reporter. meanwhile these
schools keep churning out newly minted grads who think having a bunch of clips
will be enough. It's worrisome.

~~~
alexandros
This came up today on a journalism blog I follow.
[http://fleetstreetblues.blogspot.com/2009/10/triumph-of-
hope...](http://fleetstreetblues.blogspot.com/2009/10/triumph-of-hope-over-
experience.html)

~~~
brandnewlow
Those guys should interview the iCanHazCheeseburgers CEO. He's got to be one
of the best examples of a journalist who created his own success in a new
direction.

~~~
wmeredith
I hate to be a wet blanket, but the iCanHazCheeseburgers CEO won the lottery.
His LOL Cats blog's success was (self-admittedly) not "created" by him. He
doesn't even know why it's successful.

~~~
brandnewlow
I disagree with this.

How many journalists do you know who would look at a successful blog like
iCanHazCheeseburger and say: "I should raise some money from friends and
family, buy that blog, and then build a media empire out of similar blogs that
I buy up."

If he says he doesn't know why his blogs are successful, it'd because he knows
his former colleagues eat that stuff up during interviews and it makes for a
funny story.

While luck undoubtedly played a part in his success so far, he was thinking
about things entrepreneurially unlike most journalists who are just looking
for the next paycheck.

Also, the fact that traffic across his sites has grown since he bought them
shows he's a smart manager of his properties.

~~~
nir
It may be a successful blog, but it has nothing to do with journalism. It's
hardly a path you can recommend to someone who wants to make a living as a
journalist.

~~~
brandnewlow
That's the problem though. We have a very narrow definition of what a
journalist is, and that definition describes someone who does something that
doesn't contribute a whole lot of value more often than not.

------
scott_s
"...and go to some other kind of grad school."

The second half of that sentence is important. He's saying learn a subject
that most people don't know, and write about that. That's a different message
than the implications from just saying "Don't go to journalism programs."

~~~
robg
I agree, just that darn character limit. You got a way to combine the two
thoughts into 80 characters or less?

The difference between a lede (from a quote) and a shortened tweet, I guess.

~~~
scott_s
In this case, I think it changed the tenor the the statement completely. How
about:

Gladwell to aspiring journalists: Become an expert first, then write

~~~
omouse
It'd be nice if he did that himself...

~~~
unalone
He's a brilliant writer and a terrible journalist. I agree with you.

I can tolerate him, because he's not obnoxious about his writings (versus
somebody like Cory Doctorow, who has a similar ratio of popularity-to-
understanding), but at the same time a lot of what he says has got to be taken
with a grain of salt.

------
req2
Compare to engineers becoming marketers:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=890110>

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falsestprophet
Every journalist I have put this question to agrees. I, however, took the idea
a step further than not going to journalism school and decided against being a
journalist altogether.

I submit that is the best solution.

~~~
unalone
That works unless you really want to be a journalist.

