Los Angeles Times columnist James Rainey quoted USC Annenberg students and journalism professor Jonathan Kotler for an April 17 column about the enthusiasm of journalism students despite an evolving industry.
"I'm at a journalism school talking to young people and they are affirming the faith: the thrill of chasing a story, the queasy high of deadline, the satisfaction of getting it first and the enduring hope it all might matter," Rainey wrote. "
Journalism graduate student Adrianna Weingold (pictured above in an LA Times photograph) told Rainey that being a journalist is like an adrenaline rush.
"Every day is different. Every story is different," Weingold said.
Rainey wrote, "When she added, 'There are very few careers that let you get out in the world and talk to people and learn something new every day,' an old flame within me leaped anew. Really."
The column said applications jumped more than 20 percent this year for the graduate journalism program at USC Annenberg's School of Journalism, Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism got 44 percent more applicants this year than in 2008, and other journalism schools reported similar increases.
"The young ones may not have the same reporting and writing chops, but they tend to beat the stuffing out of old-timers in their facile use of the Internet for reporting and writing and with their entrepreneurial spirit," Rainey wrote.
"They are much less afraid of change," Kotler said. "Start-ups don't scare them, they excite them."
Journalism graduate student Chris Nelson told Rainey that Annenberg students aren't so naive that they've overlooked the media job market.
"I don't think people are feeding us a line when they say this is the most exciting time to be in journalism," Nelson said. "It's a ground-floor opportunity to shape how journalism is going to be. . . . We are sort of setting the rules right now."
Said Weingold : "I think we're headed for a complete convergence. And I'm just headed for journalism, in whatever form it decides to take."
