Press Release Site

Trainers from www.trainingforjournalism.com question the worth of a three-year degree in journalism which could cost £40,000 when the basic skills can be taught in eight weeks -for a fraction of the cost.

How can universities justify the three years and £40,000 cost needed for a journalism degree when graduates are unlikely to earn even the average wage, asks journalism trainer Sally Nash from www.trainingforjournalism.com.
 

"Journalism is a craft and the basic skills can be taught in a mere eight weeks for a few hundred pounds," adds Nash. "The point is either journalism is vocational or academic and if it's vocational then it shouldn't be a degree. But universities and colleges offering journalism courses seem to want it both ways: arguing from an academic perspective while selling the courses on the basis they will lead to a job.
This is a con."
 

Nash points out that many student journalists, dreaming of glamorous media careers, will end up in an office rewriting press release, or worse still pasting them into design templates. And she points to research commissioned by Nick Davies at Cardiff University which revealed that about 80% of news coverage is rehashed from press releases.
"Do you need to spend three years and get into debt in order to do that?" asks Nash.
 

"Collating press releases into websites or magazines requires at most a knowledge of In-Design or Quark."
 

Nash did a three-month journalism course in periodical journalism before landing a job with Reed Business Information. And now Nash and fellow trainer Dean Stiles - both graduates who between then have over 40 years' experience in employed and freelance business-to-business journalism - have launched an eight-week e-course called "An Introduction to Journalism".
 

The affordable e-course provides personal tailored feedback and guidance and covers the main skills needed when embarking on a career in journalism: news writing, feature writing, sub-editing, writing for the web and getting commissions.
 

"To write well simply take a short course like ours at a 100th of the price of a typical degree and then practice your writing skills," says Nash. "Or if you have the funds and capability to do a degree then do one - only not one in journalism! Short courses, focused on basic skills, that offer value for money are the route into journalism, not academic degrees in journalism."

Notes to editors:

1. Cost of a degree:
Journalism average salaries:
According to Prospects, the UK's official graduate careers website the average salary for all journalists is £23,000 (October 2007). According to the Office for National Statistics' Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) "mean" gross annual earnings across all employee jobs in 2008 came to £26,020. IN 2008 the NUJ pointed out that nearly half of all journalists earn less than the average wage in the UK. Journalists' starting rates are at least £7,000 less than the median starting salary for graduates.

2. Nick Davies:

In his book Flat Earth News, Nick Davies cites a survey of press releases issued across two months by Northumberland County Council. Ninety-six percent of them were turned into stories by local papers. In many cases the papers copied the releases verbatim; in no cases did they add any information. They might as well have been published by the council.

3. Cost of a degree in journalism
Tuition Fees:3,225
Accommodation 4,500
Living expenses 5,000 - £500 for ten months

Total £12,725
Over three years £38,175 with inflation at 2% annually £41,084

These fees are based on universities offering degrees in journalism such as Kent and Reading.

4. For more information on the eight-week e-course in journalism which offers one-to-one tuition on basic skills including news and feature writing, visit: www.trainingforjournalism.com

Contact: Sally Nash
Phone Number: 01303 258131
Email: sally.nash@btinternet.com_
Website: www.trainingforjournalism.com