Why journalism students who learn about business could have an edge

John Thomas of Quill Magazine spoke with Quinnipiac University School of Communications dean Chris Roush about his new book, “The Future of Business Journalism: Why it Matters for Wall Street and Main Street.”

Here is an excerpt:

Still, you suggest that journalists who learn about business could have an edge in the marketplace.
Part of the problem is, for most business journalists who are coming into journalism, they’re not coming into the field with any training or knowledge, because colleges and universities are not training students to be business journalists. They’re training them to cover sports, city hall and so forth. Only about a dozen schools teach business journalism with any rigor.
You know, the students who are journalism majors for the most part are very passionate about the field. They want to change the world, they want to act as a watchdog for society. I still see that. For me that hasn’t changed in journalism in the last 100 years. What young journalists could do better is, I think, that they don’t understand the need to really specialize and to develop a niche, because that is what is happening across all forms of media.
I had a student last spring who took the business reporting class I taught here at Quinnipiac, I could see throughout the semester his eyes getting wider and wider and wider. And he came to me and said, “I’m graduating. I’m going to be looking for a job. I think this is what I’m going to do.” It shouldn’t be your last semester in college that you realize, “Hey, I need to specialize.”