Good question Dave. Let me give it a historical twist. Journalism is a field looking back on 50 years or so of accredited bachelor's degree programs.
These days most of the journalists working in the field have bachelor's degrees in journalism, from accredited programs, whether practice-oriented gritty public affairs idealistic programs, or programs that assess existing conditions from the mass comm perspective. Many still debate whether this degree is the best preparation to be a journalist. They enter a field that eats its young, pays poorly, and bears little resemblance to the journalistic ideals they studied. They generally get hired away by PR about the time they start families, unless they're the real Kool-Aid drinkers. Folks in the highest profile journalism jobs all went to the same prep schools and got liberal arts degrees in the Ivy Leagues, and fell into the incestuous network that runs publishing in the US. They didn't need nor generally pursued journalism degrees, unless it was a master's at Columbia. They generally don't tell you that, when you are attending one of those State U utilitarian journalism programs. That's kind of what made Tim Russert such an anomaly. Journalism originally was a self-taught blue collar profession, the cigar-chomping, hard-drinking, ambulance-chasing, macho type of WeeGee and yellow journalism, the muckrakers, and all that. I just lost a colleague this past week whose liver paid the price of living that original journalism life. People grew old in this field tho, or could, if they had the livers for it. They weren't all laid off before they turned 50 or had too much experience and made corporate management nervous by the questions they asked. Which type of preparation served that profession best? It's a great opportunity, to think of the best ways to shape a new profession, as it is beginning to set standards, to decide which fork in the road to go down. I find myself wishing journalism had taken a different fork. Chris On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 10:54 PM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Is this all (both threads) really just a question of "this point in > history"? > Would I hire an Industrial Designer who doesn't have a degree in ID? > > Isn't the expectation if hiring a junior graphic designer that they > have a degree in visual design? > > I have always found it interesting that in the UX world we tend to > focus on the masters level with very little done at the Bachelor's > level. My question to SVA & CMU & KU is why are there no bachelor of > IxD programs next to you MA programs? > > I totally respect the masters I've met who have no formal education. > But I don't see that path as strategicly viable for the total > advancement of the discipline or the profession. > > I do think that one can achieve greatness in practice without going > to school. What education teaches you though which I believe no one > spoke about is how to think & how to teach. education lastly gives > you wings to inderstand the impractical. Learning failure as part if > a process & expressions just for you. > > Imagine IxD practice 50 years from now. Will anyone practicing IxD > not have at least a bachelors in IxD? > > - dave > > > > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > Posted from ixda.org (via iPhone) > http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=30391 > > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
