Is journalism school necessary?

Who the hell is enrolling in journalism school? That’s the questioned posed recently by Sarah Lacy, upon learning that enrollment in J-schools is on the rise.

To understand the puzzlement behind Lacy’s query, it helps to understand her background. Lacy, who has covered business news for  the past 10 years, writes for BusinessWeek and Tech Ticker.  But she didn’t get to where she is taking classes on media theory or news writing or journalistic ethics:

I like to joke that I’m “unqualified” to do my job. But I think it was precisely that total lack of journalism training that gave me an edge. I never worked the cops-and-courts beat. I don’t know how to write an inverted pyramid story or even really what that is. I do know how to write for different platforms, be scrappy and break news. I’ve had zero important alum connections and never got an internship at a big daily. And, in hindsight, that’s probably the greatest stroke of luck I could have had.

I admire Lacy’s ability to succeed without formal training, but I can personally attest that I probably wouldn’t haven’t gained the experience I have without J-school as a conduit and connection-builder.

When I enrolled in the journalism program at USF St. Petersburg, I did so with the intention of gaining experience that would get my foot in the door with a local news publication. Prior to signing up for classes, I couldn’t conceive of the St. Pete Times or Tampa Tribune giving me an opportunity to work my way up in their respective newsrooms without hands-on reporting experience and a folder of quality clips.

As things turned out, my studies at USF St. Petersburg paid career dividends: Starting in my first semester, I was able to freelance for the Times‘ sports department. The following term, I landed a coveted five-month internship with the Tampa Bay Business Journal that still stands as the best trial-by-fire I could have asked for. Less than a year later, I became editor of the school newspaper and earned recognition for my efforts in that capacity from the journalism faculty.

But for all my diligence, I still couldn’t get my foot in the door with Times or Trib newsrooms. I didn’t have daily paper experience. (Yes, I even applied for a summer internship with the Times; snake eyes.)

It took about three nerve-wracking months following graduation, but I landed my first official gig as a journalist at Creative Loafing, as a copy editor.

Maybe I could have gotten the job without my journalism school education; I’ll never know. But I do know this: Without my training, I might still be waiting for someone to have faith in me and give me that first, all-important break.

Sure, you can learn the cops-and-courts beat, inverted pyramid and media ethics without having to shell out tuition money. Any honest journalist knows that what he or she does isn’t a specialized field of practice. It’s a craft, pure and simple. But in today’s newspaper industry, who has the time or money to groom novices? As much as I may regret having spent money I didn’t have, I look back on my studies as an invaluable crash-course in journalism.

So who’s going to J-school these days? I sincerely hope they are the budding innovators who intend to not only learn journalism’s traditional practices, but also to gain the knowledge to transform an industry in transition.