Jay Rosen on journalism school: “I told the graduates [of Columbia Journalism School] they had passed through not only a great professional training ground in journalism, but a "great school of theology." It's like a divinity degree, I said. Smart people entering the profession learn the religion of journalism, and acquire their faith in a free press, among many other practical lessons.”
The counterpoint comes from Allan Fotheringham, writing in Maclean's Magazine, the issue of November 18th, 1996, p. 88, to the budding journalist: “Stay away from journalism schools. You can't teach journalism any more than you can teach how to make love. You either got it or you ain't. A matron once asked Louis Armstrong what jazz was. He replied that if she had to ask, she'd never know. It's the same as the chap who asked J. P. Morgan what a yacht cost. He was told that if he had to ask, he couldn't afford one. Journalism schools fall into the same category.” And later in the same article: “Get a good, broad education--while avoiding journalism school--in history, economics, some psychology might help. You don't need English classes, since you're enamored of literature anyway.”
