Extra Credit, Higher Edu. Article Anaylsis

After reading the article from Higher Education, there are clearly two aspects in analyzing the issue of journalistic free labor in the form of journalism students. From the aspect of a journalism student, it is questionable whether or not it is ethical of journalism schools to enroll so many students under the circumstances of the current economy. This is true because with so many papers laying off workers, the chances for a journalism student to have a shot at a job is extremely slim. As students, they are paying expensive tuition in hopes of having a better chance at finding a job after graduation. However, this is giving them a great opportunity for coverage in major publications, and if the industry were to take off after their graduation this could potentially put them in a good position for a job. As a student in a j-school program, I would probably be there in part because of the poor industry so by writing for free in a paper with such a high readership I personally would not be opposed to helping out in the form of free labor.

However, many are skeptical of this idea of teaming up inexperienced young reporters with high profile publications. As an editor opposing this type of program I would have to take into consideration the large amount of veteran reporters that have recently been let go. They are too expensive to keep so papers will choose students as a form of free labor, making the already low paying job a free job in some cases. After researching a little more about the East Village local blog from this article I noticed that while this gives young journalists experience as an older editor I wouldn’t find this unethical because the fact still remains that the paper can’t afford veteran writers. So the decision comes down to this the smaller stories either aren’t written at all or they do by the j-school students and I don’t see the problem with that.