Becoming a journalist

Abstract

In the last 30 years there has been a transformation in the way in which young people in the UK have become journalists. Not only has journalism become a graduate occupation but there has also been a steady increase in the number of university journalism courses and degrees. This development has been greeted with both scepticism and anxiety by already established journalists, who argue that universities are unsuited to prepare new entrants for the `realities' of journalism as an occupation. This article reports on a survey of graduates from journalism programmes in Scotland. The evidence of this survey is, first, that a journalism degree is, in fact, an effective preparation for a successful journalism career and, second, that graduate journalists absorb news-room culture without difficulty, to the extent of discounting the value of their own `academic' journalism training. There is some evidence, though, that graduate journalists do bring a new perspective to the assessment of journalism as a career.