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Anonymous
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Posts: 1914
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Friday June 27, 2003 11:32 AM
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<< To the weeklies person: I'm glad that helped. It's hard to find out about things like that unless you ask, but it's hard to know to ask stuff like that, too. I empathize. >>
At my weekly only a few of us have college degrees. Some thought working at the weekly would help them get into a daily, but after I shared this information those grads felt they probably should have worked harder to get that first job at a daily. I guess I should have figured this out when all of our interns leave for other papers when they finish school. All I know is we work hard, are underpaid and all hope to move on to a better gig.
I know there are some here who will laugh at this, or express contempt, but our publication does provide a service that the dailies don't that's why we're here. Most of us cover several beats and are responsible for the news, features, sports and photograhs in all of them. You can't say we aren't well-rounded in our experience.
But we consist mainly of reporter-wanna-bes who came from other fields - factory work, telemarketing, low-level office workers, right out of high school, women whose children are finally in school and this is their re-entry into the job market, and those going to college part-time. All that was required as a "writing test" which was nothing really, just to see if you could put a sentence together. Some of us have improved over the years in our writing and reporting, others stayed about the same - bad - because the training they thought they would get never materialized.
Not to mention the editors who are usually thrust into their positions because of the frequent turnover are just "one of us" and the editing is not very well done.
But the community loves us and supports us, so in the long run that's what matters I suppose.
Are all weeklies like this? Does anyone ever get "out"?
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Anonymous
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Posts: 1914
Joined: Sep 2001
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Tuesday July 01, 2003 10:15 AM
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There are two kinds of weeklies -- the local papers that are usually free, and the national publications, both newspapers and magazines (i.e. Newsweek), which one "graduates" to after slaving away in dailies. Very different animals in both quality and content.
For the folks at small, local weeklies who want to go into dailies, I suggest you start freelancing at these dailies or, if you can, take internships at these papers. I have a friend who went from a small, local weekly to a fairly small - under 60,000 circulation- paper just a couple of months ago. She is very happy she made the change. But I think she had to look really hard to get this job.
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Anonymous
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Posts: 1914
Joined: Sep 2001
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Monday July 21, 2003 3:43 PM
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Hi there,
As a senior on the verge of graduating with a BA in Communications (Political Economy) and History, I've been toying with the idea of applying to J-school this fall. The catch here is that I'm Canadian, and all the usual issues of whether to apply to 'brand-name' schools etc. is magnified by the infalted costs (bc of the exchange.) Which makes student debt a bigger factor.
While i'm still not convinced that j-school is right or wrong for me - i think the answer to this type of question is impossible to apply to all people from all places and life contexts - I do want to know if any of you out there have any first-hand knowledge on how grants and financial aid packages are awarded.
Also, i've been scouring the Net for a listing of the best J-schools (graduate level) in the U.S., and have come up with nothing worthwhile.
Finally, if any of you posters out there know of Canadian success stories (real-life, not Peter Jennings type examples), or have Canadian-educated staffers on board, please provide some much-needed insight and encouragement to this poor, confused, and uncertain undergrad.
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Anonymous
Anonymous User
Posts: 1914
Joined: Sep 2001
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Saturday November 22, 2003 3:44 AM
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Hello All,
I'm Zoy
I graduated from J school three years ago and my goal is to enter News Management. I wanted to work the Assignment Desk but eveyone said I didn have enough experience. While in school, I had a 1 year broadcast internship.
My work was not that bad. My packages were pretty good. My Professor took points off becasue of grammatical errors in my writing. The actual "writing to pictures" and editing, I always recieved good feedback on (especially on my choice of sound-bites). I know that I have never been a very good writer. But, in the past two-years, I have been reading more and working on my writing. It's been hard to dedicating more time to it becasue of my job.
When I started school, I was a math major. One day I decided to take a Journalism class and fell in love with the concept of telling a "visual story". Sometimes, i wish I would have stayed a math major. 
At first, I was going to take advantage of my opportunity to get a business degree from my job. But, I can look at a news packages or read a advertising article and visually know what would make it stand out better..
So What did I do? I moved to a different city and state to get a graduate degree in English or Video Production. I don't think that I will get a job now because of the school. All I want to do is excel with my writing.
I don't regret the decision I made to move. But I'm questioning what angle I should go... marketing, visual production or news. What do I want to do? I want to work the assignment desk. I feel I have put TOO much time into this TO GIVE UP. I'm in debt now, a little more won't kill me......How do you know when enough is enough?
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Anonymous
Anonymous User
Posts: 1914
Joined: Sep 2001
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Saturday December 27, 2003 1:45 AM
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Here's my dilemma...
I'm currently a freshman at CU-Boulder, and I've found this discussion very interesting. I have a byline at the local independent paper, which covers campus events and Boulder happenings. The journalism school, is well-regarded, and I do very well in school. After finishing up my first semester, I've come to realization that I am not challenged, and I believe that I want to become a journalist - and the prestige factor, the "brand-name" thing that our J-school does not have, is nagging. My mom is in favor of transferring, and while I love CU for what it is, I sit here wondering if somewhere else is where I need to be.
I would like to get some idea of my shot at getting into a journalism program like Columbia, or Medill, etc., and if I'm making a mistake by falling for the brand-name cereal, as opposed to buying the bagged generic kind I already have at home...
Your advice is appreciated.
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Anonymous
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Posts: 1914
Joined: Sep 2001
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Saturday July 10, 2004 12:13 AM
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Please everyone, stop commenting on the "Medill" user. Especially since we have suspicions it is someone random on the Internet. (i.e.: comment above is most likely from the same person)
But I digress...my real point:
I am considering j-school. Hell, what am I talking about. I am going to j-school. I have wanted to all through college, and now, as I approach my senior year, I have starting to deeply research it. Reading Northwestern's website tonight filled me with a fire to be involved, to participate in the graduate school route and not only report the news but to discuss it in a forum where we can understand the journalistic machine that drives us to do this reporting.
However, I have been very worried that I will be wasting my time with a journalism masters. It eats at me. (Thank you, WashPost, for your comments. They were very intelligent and I took notes.) Tonight, as I reached the end of the latest posts, however, something occurred to me. Someone mentioned that if you were trying to make a good decision on whether or not to buy into the name brand j-school or not, and, to expand on that, the idea of grad school at all, you should look around you. What is everyone else doing?
I think, though, it is important to not only look at the current journalists out there, to see what they are doing, but to examine your own peers. I am about to graduate - class of 2005 - and I can tell from looking at some of the above posts that many people ARE choosing j-school grad degrees. What I need to ask myself, and maybe anyone coming upon this post needs to ask themselves is - where is this degree going to get me 20 years from now? I think that journalism is a constanting shifting machine - just look at the last 30 years. People who started as cub reporters without degrees are a fading generation. Perhaps grad school is the way the tide is turning?
I cannot answer that question for anyone else, although tonight I have answered it for myself. But think about that when you wonder what a journalism degree can do for you. And put passion and enthusiam (not money) first when you think of where you want to be in 20 years. That is what I will do.
Lizabethsc
I have an interesting idea to throw out to everyone.
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Anonymous
Anonymous User
Posts: 1914
Joined: Sep 2001
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Friday November 05, 2004 9:27 PM
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I'm a senior at St. Louis University, double majoring in communication and psychology. I'm also the news editor of our student-run paper. My grades are near perfect--but it seems SLU's comm degree is--er--feckless. My GRE scores were decent, I suppose. I got a 600 and a 650, on verbal and quantatative, respectively, and a six on the writing.
I've been pouring over Medill pamphlets for some time now.
I've decided on grad school, provided that I'm accepted into one of the best. The program must be essentially practical, not theoretical, which is why Northwestern is appealing to me.
But, can I get in with very average GRE scores and a SLU undergrad degree?
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Anonymous
Anonymous User
Posts: 1914
Joined: Sep 2001
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Friday December 24, 2004 9:55 PM
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Although I have no response to your previous question, I have a question of my own I'm hoping you can answer. I am a junior in high school, and have been thinking about college a lot lately. I am very into location...I really want to go on the west coast, but I might end up going out east if things work out that way. I've heard that Northwestern is a very good school, but is there any chance that UCLA, USC, Pepperdine University, UC-San Diego, San Diego State University, NYU or Columbia are good journalism schools? I want to get into broadcast journalism and am hoping to go to a school that will get me a "foot in" and have some internships I can do during college.
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