Are journalism schools necessary?
Rachel Grant certainly hopes so. The Little Rock native has a new Ph.D. in journalism, and starting in August, she’ll be teaching a new generation of journalists as an assistant professor at Xavier University in New Orleans.
We checked in with her just after the Columbia Journalism Review questioned the relevance of expensive journalism degree programs. After all, news jobs are scarcer in an industry under siege, beset by falling ad revenue and a Washington administration that promotes a constant “fake news” narrative.
“Both J-school and on-the-job training are important, because journalists have to be held to a higher standard,” said Grant, who got her bachelor’s at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and finished her Ph.D. at the University of Missouri in May.
“We’re taught to write with understanding about complex issues, but we also need real people speaking,” said Grant, whose academic focus was coverage of social movements and issues like disability, sexual assault, racism and gender. “I think we can teach credibility without reinforcing stereotypes.”
Grant, whose background includes jobs at the Pine Bluff Commercial and Arkansas Business Publishing Group, said reporters must recapture the human element in storytelling. “Going into the community is what we’ve lost,” she said. “Telling the people’s story has been lost to a world of commentators, experts and spokespersons. We need to be talking to real people. In our classes, we teach where to find good statistics, good expert sources, but we urgently need real voices of experience.”
A quick survey of recent Arkansas J-school graduates found that they think journalism school was worth their time and money, offering key skills in a depressed job market. They were more skeptical of expensive graduate degrees.
“I appreciate everything I learned during my time at the University of Central Arkansas,” said Chandler Watkins, a reporter/multimedia journalist at KPLC, the NBC affiliate in Lake Charles, Louisiana. UCA campus station News 6 “helped my ability to be comfortable on camera, my interview skills,” and shaped her into a better journalist, she said. “The professors also taught me the importance of ethics.”
Another UCA graduate, Meagan Johnson, agreed. But if she had a do-over, she’d swap her broadcast and print emphasis for a focus on broadcast and online news. Johnson, 23, recently finished an internship at KATV in Little Rock and will join KFSM in Fayetteville this month as a multimedia journalist.
“I know of a few people who became journalists out of high school, but it is much harder to get a job in news without a college degree,” Johnson said. “Companies really look for that degree.” She also commanded a starting salary — $29,000 a year — that’s better than most entry-level TV news salaries, she said.
Grant, the new professor, says deep journalism study delves into difficult subjects like covering mass shootings, suicide and crime. Sensitivity in suicide reporting has improved, she said, citing coverage of the recent deaths of designer Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, the chef, writer and TV personality. Reports generally played down the manner of the suicides and included information about warning signs, expert advice and hotline numbers.
Grant is less certain about omitting killers’ names and motives in mass violence coverage. “The idea is to withhold the names to decrease possible harm,” she said. But where does a reporter draw the line? If school shooters’ names are left out, should killers at concerts or malls be identified? With credibility at issue in an era of “false flag” and “crisis actor” allegations, should outlets really omit the crucial “who” from the four Ws?
These aren’t easy questions, Grant concedes. “It is always good to highlight the victims,” she said. “We don’t want to encourage copycat killers, but we do have to understand perspectives of the story.” She recalled a case in Pine Bluff about a teenage girl killed when her sister’s friend’s gun went off. Grant talked to the victim’s relatives, giving them a chance “to tell that person’s story. You just have to let those people speak.”
She noted that news consumers trust their local news sources while dismissing the nebulous “media” as a whole, just as voters detest Congress but keep re-electing their own representatives. “Real local reporting you know you can trust because you have connections with the people and the places being reported on,” Grant said. “We can build on that.”
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