I was recently asked to help a young person in their decision of what to study at university.
Of course, they're only 17 but are being told that they need to decide their future RIGHT NOW, THIS MINUTE. All rather scary for little old me, who didn't stumble upon my passion, and career path, until halfway through my university career!
Needless to say, the reason she asked me for help is because this student is considering journalism as a possible career path. She's not sure, and she doesn't know what kind, what medium, or even if she'll like it, but she wants to have a look at the wonderful world of the media to see if it's something that brings out her passion, drive, and success.
The problem is, nothing's that simple anymore. When I went to university, a mere 10 years ago, journalism courses were few and far between. In fact, the best advice people could give was to go to university and study a good old-fashioned subject like English or history - something you enjoy, the rest will come later.
Now though, it seems you can get a degree in anything. There's not just journalism on offer, there's broadcast journalism, print journalism, sports journalism and .... hold it ..... celebrity journalism!!!! Forgive the rant, but the next generation of hacks will not have learnt their trade on local papers, sitting in council meetings, doing vox pops, covering local elections. No, they will have spent three years - THREE YEARS - studying the art of "celebrity journalism". Don't get me wrong, I'm all for education, and studying, and learning from university, but is it not an incredible indictment on the world that we live in, that we're going to watch a whole generation of teenagers get into tens of thousands of pounds of debt in university fees, in the name of a course entitled Celebrity Journalism.
I might have to stop there...just can't quite get my head around it!
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