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by alephnerd 306 days ago
I mean, true independent journalism started off as a blue collar job.

The journalists who drove the Muckraker movement [0] were a mix of self taught and state school grads who worked for newspapers like McClure and the World which were founded by hardscrabble immigrants [1][2] who were educated in a nontraditional background.

Fundamentally, journalism back in the day was a calling that could only be learned by doing, and the modern "BA-to-MA-to-Local-to-National" pipeline is an aberration.

Ironically, the more charged, polarized, and independent news blogs are closer to "original" Muckraker journalism than centralized institutions like a NYT or a CNN.

Imo, an apprentice driven model coupled with part-time college would probably help solve the journalism pipeline issue.

[0] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muckraker

[1] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._S._McClure

[2] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Pulitzer