Are journalism schools dying?

If journalism — and the role of the press in American society — is in a state of flux, then what about journalism schools?

For as long as doomsayers have predicted the decline of civic-minded reportage as we know it, reformers have sought to draft a rewrite of the institutions that train many undergraduate and graduate students pursuing a career in journalism. Criticisms of journalism schools have ranged from questioning whether the institutions are necessary in the first place (since many journalists, and most senior ones, don’t have journalism degrees) to debating the merits of teaching practical skills versus theory and whether curriculums should emphasize broad knowledge or specialization in individual fields.

But is formal teaching necessary? Panelists seemed to suggest that good journalism requires talent and a set of basic analytical and writing skills that can be learned — either at school or on the job. The same could be true for business: “There are lots of people who are brilliant businesspeople who don’t have an MBA,” noted Alberto Ibargüen, the Knight Foundation’s president and CEO. But people without the necessary talent won’t become successful by earning a business degree, he added.