Do Broadcast Journalism. Seriously.
By Stephanie Pollard
For those bright-eyed first years who see themselves popping in and out of college with Journalism diplomas in two years without doing much work, I’m here to tell you it is a dirty, dirty lie. What’s even more untrue is those same bright-eyed students who believe the job opportunities will come rolling in once they’ve completed second year. If you only knew….actually, you would know if you took third year Journalism.
Being in third year myself and going through all kinds of hell (the program has a hell-round-trip-special) and back, and hearing how few second-year students plan to try and scratch the working surface of media houses with the two-year diploma is, frankly, quite frightening. Please don’t misunderstand. I don’t need added competition but I’m not comfortable with people willingly putting themselves in bad positions because they’re ‘tired of school.’
Next year it is highly uncertain whether or not you’ll be working for a newspaper (if you took third year, you wouldn’t have pigeon-holed yourself into just being qualified for newspaper). Not only because more newspapers are jumping online but because they’re asking their interns/future employees be versed in skills that have nothing to do with journalism. The curriculum will barely (if at all) prepare you for the chaotic order the media follows everyday.
Think about it. Do you honestly believe you’ll have two days off every other week, a week to hand in three stories and maybe half a day of work time you do need to come in? Will your source e-mail you the information you need because you forgot to ask them an important question that day? And who do you know will be OK with you not getting your work done because you went out last night? That doesn’t sound realistic for any workplace; and the media is the most unreasonable workplace. Before you decide to jump ship after second year, and you still have time to make a decision, ask yourself this: If the Toronto Star were to call you with a job tomorrow could you work there and survive? With the skills that you have from two years at Durham College, as opposed to three, compared to the thousands of Journalism graduates from Ryerson, Centennial, Humber, Fanshawe, Loyalist, etc. do you really, I mean really, stand a chance?
Damn right this article is preachy and, yes, the third year is everything you heard about it to be (and worse) but successful people work hard, sleep little and eat last. Do yourself and your tuition payments a favour, and take third year journalism. Seriously.
P.S. Just to show you what you can do when you take third year, here’s an example on YouTube!
Hey Stephanie. You certainly raised some good points in your article. I’m currently a second-year Journalism student and it has been my intention all along to take the third year.
I completely agree that the two-year diploma barely prepares students for the real world. However, it’s time to examine two contributing factors in all this: the lack of concern over quality work as evidenced by the marking system, and the curriculum itself. We students handed over thousands of dollars to Durham College with the hopes of becoming journalists prepared to work in the real world. Little did we know that in second year, all of our stories would generally receive the same mark (points as they call it…don’t even get my started on the points system) regardless of the quality. In other words, they’re placing a higher value on quantity than quality. Is quality just not as important anymore? For all we know, we could be handing in a poorly written story but would still receive the usual 15 points for a routine story.
Durham College’s Journalism curriculum falls far short of that of other institutions such as Humber and Ryerson. For instance, Humber has four semesters that include both print and broadcast classes; then in the final year, you either specialize in print or broadcast. Also, Journalism internships at Humber, indeed at most schools, are four months. At Durham, the internship is a month and a half which hardly sounds like enough time to gain true experience. I’ve been in contact with notable media personalities who have told me which Journalism schools are recognized most by employers, never once have I heard Durham mentioned.
For the past several months I have regretted my decision to attend Durham College, but now that I’m this far, it just wouldn’t make sense to go somewhere else and start all over again. All I can hope for is that I get more out of the third year than I did with the second year.