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Why study journalism?
If you really want to be a journalist, you may already have heard statements like these:
Successful journalists don’t have degrees in journalism: they study serious academic subjects like History; Politics; Law or English Literature.
Media Studies is no preparation for a career in journalism.
The first statement used to be true but it is now badly out of date. The second is entirely accurate and likely to remain so. The Centre for Journalism does not teach media studies, and it never will.
The Centre was created by editors and journalists with decades of experience at the top of the news industry. Together we have employed and trained hundreds of journalists. We do not have to guess what skills make a great reporter.
That is why we have created unique degrees that combine intense academic study of traditional academic disciplines including History; Law; Politics; and English Literature with superb professional training in the skills and ethics required to work as a journalist in the multimedia era.
Our combination of academic rigour and professional training is unique, and it enables our students to get jobs as journalists. You can hear their testimony here.
You can also come to the Centre. We will be proud to show you around our fantastic newsrooms and studios and to explain exactly what it takes to succeed as a professional reporter in the 21st century.
As new technology offers citizens unprecedented access to information, journalism confronts intriguing new challenges. Traditional media power is facing competition from citizen journalism and the anarchic democracy of the internet. New skills are at a premium as newspapers migrate online, video and podcasts proliferate and blogging expands to do battle with conventional commentary.
The news industry is in a period of spectacular change. Serious journalism about public affairs must compete for attention with an expanding supply of infotainment. Distinctions between broadcasting and printing are disappearing. There is no longer a single public sphere. Sport, celebrity and the arts claim places alongside politics, economics and diplomacy as topics deserving coverage.
In the past, few successful British journalists were formally qualified. To become a doctor or lawyer required rigorous academic and professional training; many reporters simply muddled through, exercising power without reflection or responsibility. Now the era of the amateur is over. To serve the public properly, the top reporters, correspondents and columnists of the future will need excellent vocational skills and highly trained minds.