EJ Academy
The Truth About Teaching: SEJ Academic Members Weigh In By SARA SHIPLEY HILES
Journalists get called a lot of things: Ink-stained wretch. News- hound. Scribe. Hack. Pencil pusher. Word nerd. Photo geek. How about “professor”? To a working journalist, that may sound delightful. Getting away from daily deadline pressures, working in a collegial atmos- phere, molding young minds: This is the stuff of which academic dreams are made.
But the ivory tower isn’t idyllic. Low pay, high workloads and the politics of higher education are among the common complaints. So is it right for you? We crowdsourced questions and answers about the academic life using the SEJ-Talk and SEJ-Edu listservs. More than a dozen SEJ academic members offered their expert advice. Their wide-ranging discussion revealed, as one member put it, that “Universities are not the temples of reason and collegiality that you might hope for.” But it also showed that teaching may be a sat- isfying, even inspiring, second career. Below, we’ve compiled answers to common questions about switching from the newsroom to the classroom. Think of it as an abridged version of the “Truth about Teaching.”
If I want to teach, do I need a Ph.D.? No. But it does help.
“If you have long and broad experience with a well-regarded media outlet, some departments are willing to hire you with only a bachelor’s degree, but probably as a contract lecturer, not on a tenure track,” says Al Cross, an associate professor and director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the Uni- versity of Kentucky. A master’s degree can lead to better pay and more respect, says Annie-Laurie Blair, a senior clinical professor of journalism at Miami University of Ohio. She has been teaching full time since 2007 after a career in corporate journalism.
Bill Kovarik, a professor at Radford University School of Communication, says a Ph.D. is “a must unless you just want part- time work.” Pursuing one, however, takes several years and some- times tens of thousands of dollars.
On the other hand, Bernardo Motta, an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, suggests doing the Ph.D. only if you love academic research. “If not, it might kill you,” he says. Research institutions or schools that have graduate programs may want a Ph.D., but they also need people who have fresh expe- rience and industry connections. Sometimes another “terminal de- gree” like a Master of Fine Arts or a law degree will suffice; it all depends on the school. When Bob Wyss began looking for a teaching job, he had a master’s degree, adjunct teaching experience and a 20-year track record as a journalist, yet he was passed over several times for can- didates who had Ph.D.’s. Eventually he found a school that valued his credentials, and soon he will become a full professor of jour- nalism at the University of Connecticut.
What types of academic jobs are out there?
It starts with the lowly adjunct instructor. These are one-off positions, usually hired to teach a particular class for a particular semester. It can work for journalists who like to teach on the side and earn some extra cash, perhaps $4,000 per semester. It can also be a foot in the door to a new career.
But being a full-time adjunct stinks. It’s been compared to
“slave labor,” or more charitably, a “volunteer job.” At some uni- versities, adjuncts are unionizing in hopes of earning living wages and benefits.
Some journalists have been hired as instructors or lecturers in the $30,000-$60,000 salary range plus benefits. These teaching-ori- ented positions may come with multi-year contracts. Other common titles are “professor of practice” or “extension professor,” which may be tied to university newsroom work or professional training programs.
At the top of the heap are tenure-track positions, with salaries reported in the $40,000-$90,000 range (and sometimes much higher for wealthy institutions in certain markets). These often, though not always, carry the expectation of a Ph.D. and significant academic research responsibilities. Tenure offers some job security, but getting there is an exhaust- ing, multi-year slog. Just ask Tom Yulsman, a professor of journalism and director of the Center for Environmental Journalism at the Uni- versity of Colorado Boulder. He attained tenure and full professor status without a Ph.D., but he (sort of) jokes the process nearly put him in the hospital. “Did I mention that this was hard?” he says. Course loads vary from one to four classes per semester, de-
21 SEJournal Summer 2016
The upside of teaching journalism? Tom Yulsman of the University of Colorado Boulder and his wife Sylvia Fibich (left), after toasting with vodka served on glacial ice, as they and students visited a fjord on a trip to Svalbard, Norway. Yulsman co-taught a field module on climate journalism offered by Oslo and Akershus Uni- versity College last September.
Photo by Kelsey Ray
“This has been the best job that I have ever had, and the strug- gle was absolutely worth it,” he says.
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