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The article seems much ado about nothing. It's not necessary to "major" in a subject to learn a lot about it. In the US (unlike the UK), undergraduates have the
by auctiontheory 14y ago
The article seems much ado about nothing. It's not necessary to "major" in a subject to learn a lot about it. In the US (unlike the UK), undergraduates have the flexibility to take coursework in a broad range of disciplines. Nothing stops a journalism major from taking plenty of math and statistics and CS classes, assuming s/he can hack the work.
Should journalism programs require a course on "making sense of data and technology"? Yes, probably they should.
- devonbarrett 14y agoShould all disciplines require a course on "making sense of data and technology"? Yes, probably they should.
- obstacle1 14y agoThe author didn't suggest that you had to major in a subject to learn it. Her thesis is that it's wrong for journalism programs to not require stats, math, and coding courses, since modern journos must do stats, math, and coding. >My frustrations are with the lack of an applicable concentration that reflects the state of the news industry in 2013. >How is it okay that journalism students are able to graduate without ever taking a real statistics or mathematics class, given the crazy demand for data journalists? Or without ever taking a programming class?
- anotherbadlogin 14y agoAt the very least, nobody should get a journalism degree without passing a statistics class. Without an understanding of statistics, journalists will be duped by the same lies they'll propagate to the equally ignorant public. Journalists should be INTERPRETING the statistics and communicating their true importance (or lack thereof) to the readers.