Brad Pitt & the Future of Journalism

Jay H. Neff Hall/Missouri School of Journalism Photo ©2011 Scott W. Smith

As I headed home to Iowa after a week of video production in Oklahoma I made a stop in Columbia, Missouri. I’d never been on the University of Missouri campus before, but had heard about the famed Missouri School of Journalism (J-School) ever since I was a paid 19-year old photojournalist while still in college. Missouri’s J-School was founded in 1908 and is the oldest journalism school in the United States.

A good way to look at Missouri’s J-School is it’s the equivalent in journalism of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in creative writing circles. It’s always mentioned in subjective “best of” lists. It also has a long list of accomplished alumni working on magazines, newspapers and in broadcasting. Some of Missouri’s most visible grads include Elizabeth Vargas (ABC News), John Anderson (ESPN), Chuck Roberts (CNN), and Jim Lahrer (PBS).

But the most visible,  most famous, and probably most financially successful former Missouri J-School student is Brad Pitt, who just a few credits short of graduating decided to try his hand in Hollywood. (It worked out okay.) Perhaps Missouri should do what the University of Miami did back in 1999 when they gave former Miami dropout Sylvester Stallone college credit for writing the Rocky screenplay. I suggest helping Brad get his degree before he wins an Oscar for his work on A Tree of Life or Moneyball. Certainly a professor at Missouri can give Brad an essay on being a Oscar-nominated movie star, producer and global philanthropist.

What is less certain is the future of journalism.  For journalists who don’t go on to become movie stars, but instead seek employment  in the shrinking journalistic  job pool of broadcasting and print, it is trying times. Don’t take my word, read Lindsey Wolf’s post Half of Missouri School of Journalism School Grads Can’t Find Work on the blog, J-School Buzz.  On school’s website their studies show, “Almost 90 percent of Missouri School of Journalism students who graduated in 2007-2008 are working in journalism, advertising or public relations jobs.” So it could be that recent jouralism grads are just entering the job market at a poor time. Time will tell.

But in 2008 Los Angeles Times editor James E. O’Shea (a Missouri J-School grad) was forced out of his position when he disagreed with the publishers plans to make budget cuts. In 2009, the L.A. Times in its third wave of layoffs cut 300 jobs including 11 percent of its editorial staff. Various reports have reported the total newspaper jobs lost between ’08-’11 at over 20,000.

Wolf’s research also reveals another downer for J-School grads in her post on Average Starting Salary for Missouri J-School Grads. (Basically $32,800.) You can live off that in many parts of the country, but recently I heard about a reporter making $32,000. working for the New York Times and living in New York City. When I figured rent could eat up well more than half of that take home pay I wondered how that was possible to live on there. The answer I was told— “Family money.”

If you don’t have family money and want job security well into the future I have two words for you: Computer Science. (Sign recently seen at Google offices: “We’re always hiring.”) But the good news is, there may not always be steady pay and regular work, but we’ll always need storytellers. We’ll always need journalists. Even if there aren’t traditional  newspapers, magazines and movie theaters—there will always be a need for people who can tell the truth and give a narrative context to the world we live in.

P.S. Other notable creative people who attended or graduated from the University of Missouri: Tennessee Williams, Sheryl Crow,  George C. Scott (Patton),  Chris Cooper (American Beauty), Kate Capshaw (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom), Tom Berenger (Paltoon), Linda-Bloodworth-Thomason (Five time Emmy-winning producer/writer), and Mad Men‘s Jon Hamm.

P.P.S. If Brad Pitt had continued on his journalism path there is a good chance he’d be where a lot of 47-year old journalists are today—unemployed. Or worse, he could be writing for the tabloids about some meaningless feud between Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie.

Scott W. Smith