I enjoy listening to the The Cynical Libertarian Society Podcast (do not get deterred by his Obama/Commie/Nazi/Hillary morphed emblems. He is not a nazi or communist, he is merely mocking Obama and Clinton.). But his latest podcast, wherein he excoriates one Chryss Cada (starting at the 36:30 mark), is a must listen 50 minute long rant.
And for multiple reasons.
First, though the article is dated, it highlights the delusional and entitled attitude among liberal arts and social science majors, specifically those who go onto become professors. Ms. Cada's complete failure to understand basic economics, yet lie to herself about how important "journalism" is (despite what the labor market has told her for 30 years), is one I'm sure is prevalent among college professors who never worked a real job outside of academia.
Second, it shows how bad professors have it in academia since the market is FLOODED with journalism majors, sociology majors, and other assorted millions of "masters" graduates, whose services are so lacking in demand, the only thing they can do is teach. This makes liberal arts professors a dime a dozen as their only option to is apply for teaching positions. The schools know this and are fully taking advantage of these sheep they just sold over-priced "advanced degrees" sheepskins to (my favorite is how she makes $20,000 a year and has to pay $500 a year for parking. You just can't make it up).
Third, I was originally incented to write a piece about this, delving into the delusional world of academia, but the Cynical Libertarian did an AMAZING job, not just ranting, but hitting every major and minor point, and analyzing the economics of the adjunct professor world. I cannot emphasize enough how you should listen to his (albeit crass) take down and analysis.
Finally, though Ms. Cada's aim was to validate, champion, and cheerlead the merits and value of journalism, journalism majors, journalism professors, and the journalism industry in general, she unknowingly stabs the profession in the back, plugs two .45 caliber bullets in the back of its head, douses in in gasoline, lights it, and then sacrifices herself into the pyre. Unless you are a truly delusional millennial, who thinks you're going to be "special" and the laws of economics don't apply to you, you cannot help but conclude from this article/rant to JUST NOT MAJOR IN JOURNALISM.
And here is where I hope there is some lemonade to be made out of these looney professorial lemons.
Ms. Cada's experience should serve as a warning to every young (or old) aspiring journalist or journalism major out there. Journalism is not only dead, but because of the internet, you needn't go to college for it. You simply get yourself a blog, write religiously and honestly, podcast on the side, and soon you will have just as successful a career as any "journalism professor." You don't need to blow $50,000 on a worthless journalism degree, you simply invest $50,000 on a worthwhile degree and pursue journalism in your free time. And finally, if you haven't noticed with all the fake news (on both sides), not to mention the complete and total 100% leftist bias of journalism professors, the entire industry cannot even be called "journalism." It's merely click-bait, yellow journalism, sensationalism. There really is no "journalism" industry to employ honest aspiring journalists anymore, so you might as well strike out on your own.
So do yourself a favor if you're considering majoring in journalism or becoming one or (heaven help you) teaching it.
Don't!
Choose a different degree instead that will make you not regret wasting 4 years and $75,000 in tuition.
8 comments:
I'll raise you one better. From 2012 so way dated, but it's amazing how these people are so incompetent at life, that an article written to highlight their plight just makes them look even more stupid: http://www.chronicle.com/article/From-Graduate-School-to/131795/
I could probably write 10k words simply eviscerating the first woman featured.
Wow! Getting paid $20k per year to teach journalism in college? There are high school drop outs who are getting paid more than that to flip burgers at McDonald's who are paid more than this young lady.
It's not an ''algorithm'' it's a blacklist (and you're probably on it too).
All anyone has to do is to check your local community college job postings. The public sector to loves cheap labor.
Crass and hilarious.
Someone with a technical background could probably do better than a general journalism major by blogging and podcasting in areas that use their insight.
Damn what a rant. Never been a Journo but note what is lacking in papers these days -- police blotter and city beats. Its mundane stuff which is why the big dailies have dropped it. But both are the avenues that citizens found out what is really happening in their environment.
I have a feeling that this blog post was partially inspired by my conversation with Clarey a couple weeks ago on Twitter.
Adjunct professors are the Academic equivalent to outsourcing. As the comments to the article point out, the University can hire two tenure track professors at $60K each, or three adjuncts at $40K each. In the former case, they can offer 8 classes/sections; in the latter, 12 classes/sections.
As to Ms. Chada's observation that Subway asst. managers make the same pay: yes, they do. The barrier to becoming a Subway asst. mgr is lower than becoming an adjunct but the number of available positions is higher. Subway is competing with many others for those people. Additionally, a Subway asst mgr has many, many measurable outputs; their bonus is tied to labor productivity and material waste, for example. An adjunct is measured on getting along with colleagues and student satisfaction surveys.
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