WDWFigment
Well-Known Member
This is totally separate from the ongoing conversation about that HuffPo China article (and there's plenty to criticize about Bay's potential(?) involvement in the particular situation), but if I were either in charge of a journalism school or a student at one, I'd want someone like Willow Bay there.
Having spent too much time both working at and learning in higher education institutes, I don't have a ton of respect for lifelong academics. Aside from them, generally, being pretentious and catty, they often lack real world experience and have romanticized, unrealistic ideas of the learning process. In many cases, these incredibly accomplished individuals (on paper) don't bring nearly as much to the table for their students as the ones who have actually worked in the real world. That was my experience, at least, and I highly doubt I'm unique in this regard.
In the case of journalism, the landscape is incredibly dynamic. Regardless of what anyone's value judgments on that are, it is what it is. Schools need to be preparing students for the actual job market. I'd hazard a guess that many j-school academics are not doing that, but instead holding onto their lofty notions of what journalism should be, rather than what it has become.
Having a bunch of framed pieces of paper and a stacked CV doesn't mean you're actually more capable in real world situations than those without. All it means is that other people with those same pieces of paper and scholarly publications will be accepting of you.
I'm not suggesting that schools should stack their lineups solely with the Willow Bays of journalism, but having those types there to give balance to the world of higher learning, in my mind, would be a great thing that should be lauded, not criticized. Leave the criticism to the sharks of higher learning.
