My $18,000 journalism degree was a waste of time

‘. . . the original information taught over three years of a journalism degree could be condensed down into one hour of YouTube content.’

Sums up most degrees.

Relevant from Rory Sutherland:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/06/a-degree-course-should-last-a-year-after-that-let-them-pay/

“…getting to pursue the backbone of my passions, I thought.”

What does that mean?

“It doesn’t take three years to understand good journalism, and while the ethics do sometimes come close to eliciting fruitful discussion, you’re wasting time better spent landing real bylines.”

Maybe not three years to learn journalism, but style and grammar take a lifetime.

Some valid points but for me the whole point of the journalism degree was learning the rules, ethics and limitations of journalism in an academic context, then using my lecturer’s contacts to gain valid work experience so I could start to learn the trade. One month unpaid experience (and several published articles) at Reuters was the reason I scored my first paid journo job (in 1998) and the degree became a ‘tick the box’ for future job apps. I constantly disagree with people who say anyone with a social media account can be a journalist – just because you have an audience doesn’t mean you have any clue how to tell the story or know why balance and objectivity are important

Swing the guns around and aim at something a little bigger and uglier.

Not pretending to know your personal goals, beyond those stated in your post, but these skills are significantly relevant in the current day and age. Many agencies are looking to benefit from writers who have an innate understanding of contextual, tactical and highly relevant stories (possibly the original fake news?). And too many agencies are struggling to navigate and create stories that sit in the middle of cultural threads and trends for clients – something a passionate and entrepreneurial writer is able to do. Journalistic skills, such as detail at pace and the ability to create a point of view an audience wants to read are in high demand.

While the current investment may look like a loss, I suggest think about a repackage and address a more fruitful target in the creative industry, other than column inches. Have faith in yourself and your skills, just readapt. Everyone has to do it at some stage…

Imagine I did my Masters in Journalism and Mass Comm with distinction and wasted around 34k as an international student. Just worked as an intern at a few newspapers and that’s it. Now in Corporate Comms. I should have done something else or saved it for the deposit. Got slaved by the passion!

Absolutely agree. You learn more in one month on the job than you do during a three year Bachelor of Journalism degree.

Hmmm, a disgruntled uni student pondering the value of his degree. He’s not alone there and he’s certainly not the first journo to realise there’ll only ever be one Hunter S Thompson! A journalism degree isn’t a pathway to guaranteed employment and no one will hold your hand while making career choices. That goes for any degree!
I did a journalism degree 10 years ago and never regretted it. It landed me a job and has been a solid base to build my skills and shape my career since. The journalism game isn’t exactly easy these days. But there’s always work for those crafty enough to adapt to change.

I’ve managed a team of journalists for over 10 years, and almost without exception, feedback has been along the lines of: “I learned more in my first three weeks on the job than I did in my entire uni course…”

Doesn’t say much for the ‘real world’ experiences of lecturers, or their gut feel for what journos will need when they join the workforce.

Interesting viewpoint, but predictably naive. I studied 1 year postgrad at RMIT, and I can assure anyone that the course cannot be condensed to “one hour of Youtube content”. TV training, radio training, shorthand, you reckon you can get those three things into a 1 hour video, eh Paul? Get a prospectus together, I’ll invest when you can show how it’s done. Your use of hyperbole shows you at least learned something about clickbait.
Sounds like Paul studied at a shit university, or he was a shit student, or this is all just an attention-seeking bitchfest… By all means, six months of on-the-job experience might be worth more than 3 years of undergrad study when it comes to GETTING THE NEXT JOB, but getting a broad and well rounded education in how to be a journalist takes a lot more time than that. That’s why journos are what they are, and bloggers and PR aren’t.

Paul,

With respect, bullshit.

You won’t know what you learnt until you’re out applying it all. You’ve either spent your entire undergraduate degree time at the pub (possible) or you’ve learnt far more than you realise.

I’m also having trouble reconciling “the original information taught over three years of a journalism degree could be condensed down into one hour of YouTube content” with “it’s impossible to get an insight into an increasingly decentralised industry as a disposable student in three years, let alone in one two-week glorified work experience”.

Enjoy your new career – despite the pessimism I expect it will be amazing.

L.

These days, it seems if your career doesn’t involve liberty/justice, or the outcome on lives (surgery, law, engineering, veterinarian etc.), there’s far less need for a degree.

Hey Scott,

You’re certainly not wrong. I don’t entirely regret the degree, however I suppose I expected more — some of that does indeed just come down to the nature of university and degrees in social sciences in general, it seems.

Cheers,
Paul

Started out as a copyboy on an afternoon tabloid in the late sixties when there was no such thing as a journalism degree. Learned more in five months of getting abused by grumpy-arsed subs and smart-mouthed reporters than I would have if stuck in a lecture hall for a decade. Got a cadetship, thrown in the swim-or-sink deep end, made mistakes, got my bum kicked, ended up interviewing all sorts of people from millionaires to murderers, superstars to drunks in gutters. Best advice ever received from an old school sub: ‘Son, if Jesus Christ arrived back on the planet today, you should be able to tell the story, including his background and quotes, in 15 tight sentences.” Those were the days!

Journalism graduates at good universities get taught to edit and write and how to be entrepreneurs these days, they all need ABNs.

I offered my services to my local daily newspaper during my school holidays in the 1990s, which ensured I landed a cadetship right out of high school. Journalism was all I wanted to do. While cadetship training extended only to shorthand lessons once a week and a couple of media training sessions, I learned so much in those first few years of journalism that could have ever been taught in a classroom. I covered the boring stuff, wrote the briefs, covered the local flower shows, then finally, got onto the police round, which I loved.
While in-house, I learned:
1. How to spot a relationship issue between the editor and advertising manager and how that translated to what ended up on the front page the next day.
2. That real estate advertising equates to positive stories about the local real estate industry.
3. That you need to put your head down and bum up to get through the 658 stories assigned to you daily at a regional newspaper short on staff and big on egos.
3. And finally, how to apply the beautiful pursuit of freelancing to my journalism degree to have a far healthier, happier and more prosperous career covering stories that actually matter to me than I could have ever hoped for as an in-house journalist.

I originally was employed as a photo-journalist for some ten years back in the 80s before moving over to ad sales. Working for a small fortnightly newspaper we did everything from write the copy, take editorial photos, sell the advertising, sub-editing and then getting the glue pot out and make up the galleys for the printer.
Since then its been a downward spiral and of late publishing has well and truly been flushed down the toilet. Younger folk aren’t willing to pay for a newspaper or magazine, they’d rather read it on- line, usually for free. Everyone is now a photographer, armed with an amateur SLR and plastic lenses they just want to see their mediocre work published rather than actually receive payment for it.
Every person that has ever used Photoshop is now an art director with even those with a Masters degree in Graphic Design struggling to find full time work.
That said no-one will employ you unless you have a degree now but as has been seen this week there have more sackings at Fairfax (and previously at News Corp), Pacific Mags have cut Sub editors jobs and RIP to Rugby League Week, Cleo, Top Gear, Dolly and magazines galore.
The bottom line is that our previous journalistic excellence in publishing is now making way for social media mediocrity with a selfish society that would rather sit in a restaurant with their partner reading garbage on their mobile phones.

I believe in the old world where cadets were employed and paid to learn is still the best way. I don’t believe in the whole Uni and then work for free process. In many professsions this just doesn’t cut it for anyone’s working soul. All i can say is to the recruiters and people making decisions on employing people is to look for passion, loyalty and ethical traits first, bullshit degrees where Universities won’t fail students or see through the assignments completed by someone else just doesn’t cut it.

Journalism is not a vocation to be studied. It is one to be practised. Better to study a good discipline like science or history. Then you simply must read a lot, write a lot and ask as many good questions of a knowledgeable people that you can.

There’s no saying what you would have learned at university. I learned TV, Radio, hard news, feature writing… and it certainly wasn’t learned stuck in lecture halls. You got a shot at all of those things in your first six months did you? Or did you just learn how to sub stories? This whole attitude of “I learned more than you” or whatever, its just a sad dick measuring contest. For people who didn’t go to university, you cant say what kind of journo you’d be now if you had. However, those of us who did go to university, we ALSO learned on the job, and as such, have authority to speak on both.

Hey Ben,

Some valid points, however it’s more my argument that the fundamentals surrounding the practicalities of journalism can be and usually are picked up on the job.

Could I conclusively demonstrate everything from a software standpoint with radio, t.v. and general news production in an hour? Probably not — however, I’d say I could easily outline the fundamentals, with the specific workflow that varies from workplace to workplace being nutted out there.

“By all means, six months of on-the-job experience might be worth more than 3 years of undergrad study when it comes to GETTING THE NEXT JOB” this is more or less my point. After graduating, landing the next job is the most important part. What good is the degree when there’s only one opportunity (internships) to formally tie it to industry experience?

Getting a broad and well rounded education in how to be a journalist takes a lot more time than three years indeed, but I’d still wager the building blocks taught at uni could be just as easily picked up chasing real stories.

Cheers,
Paul

Sounds like that’s essentially the experience I romanticise but am having a hard time finding a way to live out!

Spot on quote from the old school sub, and sums up about 80% of the “news writing” courses in a journalism degree.

Hey Luke,

The points may seem contradictory, I suppose my main argument is that all of the theory could be condensed into an hour, and then the rest of the practical experience picked up on the job.

Hopefully you’re right! I’ll keep the pessimism on hold for now.

Cheers,
Paul

Perhaps you should have done your research and gone to one of the better journalism schools in the country like RMIT. You do make a lot of valid points and a lot has changed since I studied there, however I was able to write for websites, have access to several internships, conduct radio / TV voiceover / filming / editing training using pretty good quality industry-level equipment and landed my job because of the contacts I made during my internship set up through RMIT. Since then I’ve used several references to get other jobs and get in Masters degree I completed. You can’t necessarily access all these things walking in off the street. The course was very practical, no notepads or cut-and-paste quote jobs. not sure what the course is like now, I know it’s a hell of a lot easier to get into that’s for sure. You sound like a real go-getter and could probably tee all this up yourself, but you do mention your internship at the ABC… can’t walk in off the street and get one of those. Especially these days.

Paul, I think you take a far too narrow view of what your degree has equipped you with. Also, *never* work for exposure. That’s some terrible bullshit right there from anyone who says you should do that.

Speaking as someone who *has* a journalism degree and has never really worked as a journalist (I’ve freelanced a little), my degree is worth its weight in gold. I also went to uni during a period of deep uncertainty and unemployment in the media industry. And on graduation, figured I might never work as a journalist, so I turned my mind elsewhere.

During my time studying journalism, I built some skills I think hold me in good stead. I learned to think critically and examine issues from a range of perspectives. I learned to hold two or more conflicting thoughts and viewpoints in my mind at once and balance them in order to assess each one’s worth. I learned to question and research. I learned to have broad and deep interests. I learned to talk *with* people and ask them questions, not just *at* them. I learned to be inquisitive. I learned to write. I learned the fundamentals of public speaking and performance. I learned to be critical of my own work, and how to criticise others work with balance and compassion.

Without my degree, I certainly wouldn’t be doing what I do today, and I use the skills it taught me every day.

There’s a great deal more to a degree than what it purports to teach.

You might think you learned nothing – I felt the same way about my own undergrad arts course and post-grad Journalism diploma.

But you’d be surprised at how you compare to writers who haven’t studied media at university at all.

My post-grad diploma was full of magazine writers who had carved good titles for themselves but didn’t have qualifications. With few exceptions, their writing was sub-par and they had little understanding of media law and ethics.

Aside from the actual journalistic techniques learned (which will always pale in comparison to on-the-job training), university graduates demonstrate the application of hard work, an ability of working in teams and familiarity with receiving feedback on their writing. Plus, you’ll hopefully know enough about defamation and media regulation that you won’t cause your employer to be sued.

There is no doubt universities pump out too many journalism graduates each year.

But the courses develop skills, the concept of best practice and ethics to apply when in the workforce.

The reality is if you want to be a journalist there are jobs out there but graduates need to be prepared to work in country areas before working their way back to the city – this might take a few years and several outlets. We all started somewhere and the life experiences priceless.

Just don’t walk into a newsroom thinking because have a degree you are going to run the place or not start at the bottom. There’s lots to learn on the job and usually people willing to help.

Embrace the challenge and reap the rewards.

Cheers,

S

It seems there is a strong rhetoric of students of journalism talking through the merits of a degree of journalism, and pushing the path they travelled as a right of passage whislt ignoring that the world has evolved to prove success can be obtained without said passage.

As was pointed out earlier, Journalism isn’t the only industry to suffer this, but there has been such a significant and agressive shift that was ignored by the industry (relatively speaking). If the public obtains its information in a new way, then journalism needs to shift to adapt.
I’d argue the merits of the writers offering is to draw focus on a changing landscape.
If Fairfax are shutting shop on journalism, News are closely following, and there is a fundamental shift in news consumption (fake news or otherwise), then unless the degree gives you a skillset that prepares you for this demonstrably new environment, that $18k could have been invested better.

Paul… you’ve tried to catch me out. Good for you. My hastily dashed off comment could be misread. Getting a well rounded education takes more than 6 months, was my intent, i could have been more specific about that. However, “the original information taught over three years of a journalism degree could be condensed down into one hour of YouTube content”… you can’t talk your way out of that one when you had hours to edit this piece before publication. Trying to weasel out of what you said in that article isn’t doing you any favours. Maybe you could “outline the fundamentals” in one hour. That is not education. That’s listing dot points. And that’s not what you said. You’re falling into a classic trap for young players right now, engaging with the comments section like this: but we’re not normal readers mate, we’re the people your going to be applying to for jobs. Tread carefully. Your career depends upon it.

Science says no on that one.

“In the three years it takes studying, writing about and discussing journalism in university, you’d almost be better off working for free elsewhere”

Yep. So many “journalists” just parrot what their favourite people say anyway.

As for writing for exposure, it’s worse than that, you’re now up against well informed industry people who get paid a lot and are happy to write for exposure (and SEO) reasons.

Lol, I am LOVING this career train crash! Get me some popcorn, Michael, cause I’m settling in.
Paul, a little breakdown for you… You have, in one fell blow, managed to inform every newsroom in the country that you are the kind of person who bites the hand that feeds him. Your lecturers, bless their souls, would be crushed by your comments. And on twitter you say you intend to study postgrad!!!! LMFAO. Aside from the absolute hypocrisy of that, good luck getting decent grades next year bud. If you reckon this forum dogpile is slightly unpleasant, get ready for years of wondering why your applications just aren’t getting picked up. I’d be asking Mumbrella super nice if they could take this down…

Ten years again I tutored in Journalism at UQ. First class I asked what students wanted from the degree. 18 in class, 15 wanted to be on Getaway! Journalists have an important function in a democracy, but this cannot be entrusted to the large percentage who see it as gateway to celebrity. Ot just might be one of those careers that are best learned through doing. Bring back cadetships?

@Ben … After being taken on as a dumb kid copyboy, I did a four year cadetship … spent six months writing, reporting and reading radio news, stint on subs’ table, realised in a hurry that spelling and grammar mattered – no spell checkers back then – spent a year working in a photographic department, learning about pics and working with photographers – a reporter’s best friend on the road – covered politics, crime, industrial, showbiz rounds and then wrote features and editorials. Ran a staff of 20 reporters, putting out four editions of a newspaper a day. Last job 19 years as feature writer on a national magazine. I didn’t need a uni degree to do any of that. The point is that back then media workplaces were properly staffed and managed, the young guys learning from the older guys. There was a sense of being part of a team, even thought there were differences and rivalries plus the occasional blow up in a pub. Not so today. Try doing a shift at a sweat shop like the Daily Mail – you’re expected to churn out eight stories a shift, rewriting crap that you “borrow” from other sites and all that matters is how many hits your rewritten crap scores. That’s the new journalism? No thanks.

An interesting insight. I would have to agree with you immensely in terms of learning more on-the-job than at university. Though, in my experience it was a total catch 22 (like with a lot of degrees I’m sure), when applying for jobs in the publishing industry after school I was told come back when you have a ‘qualification’. Yet, at the end of my Media degree all I got was, experience, experience, experience. It’s a matter of luck these days, in any field really, to just secure a position, let alone that ‘dream job’.

Yes but this is his point no? What worked in 1998 isn’t that important now. Things have changed but our education system is a dinosaur.

Have been discussing this for years. Nice one, Mumbrella, for publishing it. Uni’s a bit of a rort, bring back the cadetship, if we really want to invest in journalism.

There are some valid points in this article. However, one of the most important skills taught at university is critical thinking. It takes time to understand how to create balance in an argument. This was probably the major skill I honed during my journalism degree, as well as editing skills for audio/video and developing my writing skills.

I can see value in both sides – I think uni can help you decide whether you want a career in that field, albeit at some cost, if it has good practical components. In my case, I kinda wanted to be a journo but it’s only once I went to uni that I discovered I liked electronic media much more than print. I’d never considered it, until it was part of my course. Until then, I thought ‘journalism’ was newspaper or magazine articles.

In Paul’s case, he was passionate about a journalism career before uni, so he might have already ‘unofficially’ studied up on much of what’s in the course.

One more thing: I got my first paid (country) job in radio thanks to one of my lecturers thinking of me, a year after I’d left uni.

I don’t know what you studied in your degree, but the one I did ten years ago gave me a solid grounding in media law, which has turned out to be incredibly important in my years of reporting and editing. I now deal with a rising crop of freelancers, most of whom have had no formal journalism training (they are all experts in a specific area), and if I wasn’t aware of the law, we would have been sued many times over by now.

The platforms and styles have changed, but the basic tenets of journalism haven’t, and if you have come out of a journalism degree with the belief that a YouTube tutorial would have been just as good, then you suffered through a very poor course indeed.

You might want to watch a YouTube tutorial on grammar and phrasing, by the way.

The paradigm of how we think about education – particularly higher education – is back to front.

Then thinking of “I’ve paid for this degree – now educate me” makes sense were you buying a commodity, or even knowledge. But that is not what you buy with an education. You pay for access, but the education is always up to the student.

To give a really simple example, say you pay me to teach you piano and we set up weekly tuition. I show up, I give you the lesson every week and you get what you paid for. However – if that is all you do – come to a lesson just once a week – you are never going to be able to play the piano. Should you practice properly and actually become a pianist – you’ve really done that just with the help of tuition. Really, we are all autodidacts, teachers just help you do it faster. That is what you pay for.

You can’t buy and education the way you can buy a car.

A uni degree is evidence of the ability to pass HSC or its equivalent, the ability to stick at something, to write in an ordered fashion, to undertake critical thinking, and to find stuff out. That’s what it signalled to me when I was hiring people. TAFE is for vocational qualifications. Given the choice between otherwise identical candidates a degree is a clincher. Some people make the effort, some make excuses.

Ben, I think our learned friend may have been one of those Ps get degrees sorts. Little attendance, because, you know, they feel entitled to turn up when they like, if they like, with work poorly produced prior to a deadline but with an excuse such as, ‘sorry I had to work’. Perish the irony. I wonder if in the real world last minute copy that is poorly written and edited will actually wash? You can’t teach being turned down for a job or being fired at uni, so yes, Paul makes a solid point. Clearly some things are better taught on the job.

Failure due to arrogance and a misguided sense of how good they are may well be one too.

Paul,

I’m sorry, but rubbish. I graduated with a journalism degree in the middle of a recession, when no media outlet was hiring and there were no International brands (like the Guardian, Buzzfeed or the NYT) operating here. Even though I was employed at News Ltd at the time, I started freelancing not long afterward.

I use my degree every day. I wouldn’t know what the hell I was doing if I didn’t have it. The “on the job” experience you talk about, well yeah duh. Do any job long and often enough, and you will get better at it and learn things you mightn’t have otherwise.

University is not supposed to land you a job. That’s probably the most enduring misconception about getting a university degree: that it’ll get you a job. That might have been true in the 90s, but it’s not anymore.

A journalism degree equips you with critical thinking skills, it helps you understand biases sometimes inherent in the media, and the ethics and laws that govern the industry. Without it, and I say this as a former News Ltd staffer, you’re likely to become a mindless twat who blindly tows the company line.

And if you’d been paying attention, maybe you wouldn’t have committed this copy crime: “it’s impossible to get an insight into an increasingly decentralised industry as a disposable student in three years, let alone in one two-week glorified work experience”.

Grow up, Paul.

Yeah nah, me bill’s to bloody high. Sorta like me mrs in the next room, except instead of horse we’re talkin about two bucks of calls.

The subtext of this article is all very nasty and arguably slanderous on a number of levels; I am surprised it’s been published. It’s not the sort of writing you’d really want to subscribe to on any level, and just comes across as a disgruntled ex-student getting his own back.

Fingers crossed Paul Maland isn’t considering any further study at a university institution. That might be considered hypocritical on his behalf to say the least. Perhaps he can write a further piece on the experience should he chose to do so? Just a thought.

And smoking in the newsroom, pinching the ladies arses as they walk past, and the right to grab my own crotch when the need arises (as in literally) and wave it in their general direction. Where’s the old school values when you need it these days? Let’s get rid of this PC university bull once and for all!

Mate, you got a sourload from a bunch of windbags on Mumbo and 40+ comments. You will one day make editor-in-chief, should you turn your hand to media and marketing journalism. Best of luck.

Just one extra note. One might also concur that if Paul Maland is arrogant enough to consider further study at the university he has slandered, then the hypocrisy is ten-fold. Having criticised it and its staff through what he probably thought were well crafted yet sardonic bon motts, he’d be ill-advised to return. It will be interesting to see if his alma mater does take any further action regarding the idiocy that has transpired here.

It could be worse, the industry could have changed and you could have collapsed an entire press group and sacked all the journo’s or even flat lined an entire tv station? At least you can turn your ship.
Perhaps there are too many showboat professors out on the circuit and not enough focus on staying with the times. It would be great for the industry to review the course curriculum…
Then again, times are changing fast. And will change faster yet.
However, last time I looked, uni students could pop their heads up and see the world changing as well???
So, stop blaming the system and get amongst it. Given you didn’t crash a whole company, stop with this avoidance stuff and get down to business or you will miss the next thing. This schooling may well be the best lesson you ever learn.
Welcome to the stage.

“I wasted $5000 on cocaine and all I was left with was this nasty feeling of emptiness and a headache.”

Jeez, really?

Well Paul it is lovely to see good debate already, regardless of agree or disagree it is all good debate…you will be a good journalist.

There are definitely upsides to going the acedemic route. Learning in depth various things you didnt even know were relevant, the benefits to your character as a by product of the study process. Dicipline, analytical skills, researching etc
But for me in regards to your slant written in this post, i agree and assume its your expectations that have failed you.
Expecting the studies to be something they arent.
Expecting the degree to be a direct pathway into employment.
Then realising expectations didnt match the reality.

Im glad youve written this post because i think alot of people can relate.

My thoughts are that you seem at a crossroads.
Is this field worth it to you personally, to continue in? To know, change your expectations to match reality and ask is it worth it to you? Are you willing to perserver? Why did you start in the first place? Is this just a hobby you’d like to persue on the side? Have you invested too much to give up on it now?

Does some other field matter to you more?
Is another field more meaningful to you? Does a nagging feeling draw you towards something else?

Hope you find a way to make your degree work for you.

Having sat through an important trial in the Supreme Court in Victoria late last year, I was disgusted at the idiots representing the media in this country. The bias was a joke and the writing was second rate — one idiot wrote the biased bs that was printed and the others sat on their arses and just parroted the same piece of junk! Who is paying these people?? Why are they AFRAID of printing the truth?? In my quest for answers to my own questions, I did read that journalists were a bunch of drunken insomniacs, so that would explain something. I know to stay the hell away from the mainstream if I want real news.

Hey there, do u know what 1 hour youtube video could explain journalism to me? Would really appreciate it thanks xxx

This is an interesting article and given the ongoing changes in the media industry, certainly a worthwhile discussion to be having.

I don’t think journalism degrees are worth the paper they are printed on. Based on my eight year horror exposure to the industry before I called time and left the crumbling industry to face its eventual demise, you learn more in one week on the job than you do sitting in the classroom for three years. These degrees are padded with academic fluff and like many degrees, are a tick boxing exercise only which serve the profit-driven industry of the education sector. It’s also incredibly criminal universities continue to pump out graduates and had out degrees when the industry is withering away. This leaves so many with dreams that won’t eventuate and a HECS debt you cannot jump over. There needs to be some regulation here.

I would caution anyone against a career in journalism. The industry is dying and if you do manage to get a start, expect to be exploited with endless unpaid overtime, poor pay, unrealistic expectations, toxic working environments and poor mental health.

I got a start as a cadet with a regional newspaper while finishing my studies externally. The newspaper was happy to pay me cadet wages but immediately expected I function as a fully qualified journalist with virtually zero mentoring, training and support. It only got worse as the years progressed. My pay never matched my duties and responsibilities (despite doing the exact work of senior staff) and eventually, obtaining my degree and a completing the cadetship didn’t result in any wage growth either. I was basically told money was tight, too bad. Young journalists are expected to subsidise the wages of older staff on more forgiving agreements. At the time, I was a child of the John Howard WorkChoices. The choice I had was to work 50 plus hour weeks on near cadet wages while experiencing a relentless decline in mental health. Choices sure are great!

It is indeed quite sobering to hold a degree and a cadetship and have many years experience under your belt and be paid less than someone packing shelves in the local supermarket. There is something so inherently wrong with this situation.

Newsrooms are toxic places. It’s dog-eat-dog. Staff are overworked and underpaid and placed under immense stress due to cost-cutting. The workload is forever increasing while resources are whittled away to help the bottom line. This leads to a toxic culture of rugged individualism where people seek to protect themselves and their position at the expense of others. Forget about notions of working together on a team for a common goal. Management encourages this vicious undermining thinking they get a better product if everyone is fearful of their job and out to best their co-workers in some kind of Hunger Games newsroom.

My experience is a cautionary tale. Journalism stole from me during my time in the newsroom by grossly underpaying me for my work and stole from my future too thanks to starvation wages that allow a hand-to-mouth existence. Rest assured the privileged upper echelons of the business got their bonuses and handshakes on the back of my hard work and unpaid overtime.

Will it change? Of course not. There is an endless supply of graduates hungry for a start and news bosses know that. They don’t care about staff retention because you can chew them up after a while and simply replace with a new model.

If you are reading this and want a career in journalism, think twice.

You landed journo work in 1998? That’s so irrelevant to a conversation on starting out in the industry in 2020 lol.