I spent a good chunk of last Friday at the University of Arizona School of Journalism’s fall-semester internship fair.
I originally signed up for eight 20-minute interview slots on the Tucson Weekly‘s behalf. However, Lisa Button, the school’s fabulous internship coordinator, emailed me a couple of weeks before the fair to let me know that all eight of those slots were full, and that the waitlist was getting rather long.
I agreed to add four more slots. With the addition of two walk-ins, I wound up doing brief interviews with 14 students over about four hours.
Some observations:
• The future of journalism is bright, at least as far as the newbies are concerned. This was an impressive, talented, motivated group.
• The future of journalism is female. Over the years, an increasing female skew has hit the UA Journalism School, as well as other j-schools around the country. Of the 14 kids I talked to, 12 are female. All four of our current interns are women, too.
• The future of journalism is multi-talented. Journalists these days can’t just focus on writing or taking pictures. They have to be able to do both. And do video. And be Internet-savvy. And be proficient in other media, too.
• I have no idea where all of these kids are going to get jobs. A third of all newspaper jobs vanished between 2000 and 2010, and even more have gone away since 2010.
I am honored that so many young, bright students are interested in the Weekly. (I am also cognizant of the fact that there aren’t a whole lot of media orgs left for kids interested in newspapers.) And I am proud to show off the work of former photo intern Joie Horwitz in this week’s cover package, on haunted Tucson locales. Enjoy.
This article appears in Oct 25-31, 2012.
In your discussion with budding journalists, does the notion of media bias come up? It would be refreshing to find that the recent graduates in journalism are aware that their biases can never be avoided. I found it fascinating some years ago when a major prof at UA Journalism school acknowledged that very fact. A part of the appeal of the Weekly is its obvious bias (viz. Barber’s Guest Comments) toward the left. The danger – and perhaps the demise – of newspapers began when they asserted they were fair and balanced. We are better served by openly biased writers than by those who assert fair treatment to ‘both sides.’ The New York Times and Washington Post, as well as the AZ Star, look silly when they pretend to be fair. Don’t give us ‘All the News that’s Fit to Print’. Just give us your side of the story as you see it and be open about it.
To comment on your last paragraph, they are all going to end up in PR where they will quickly discover that claiming a degree in journalism will make them the most envied and hated PR person by journalists who still work as journalists. If it’s any consolation, real PR people like me will become extinct.
So what were McSally’s Guest Comments last week, more of the obvious left bias? The Weekly actually gave both sides a forum and let its readers see that. More than you can say for many media outlets these days.