MacKenzie’s gone and made a right Clegg of himself

Kelvin MacKenzie has launched a scathing attack on modern journalism; dismissing university courses in the field as a waste of time, he calls for the closure of all journalism schools. But with what reason?

An interview first undertaken by City University student Harriet Thurley - check out her Twitter profile here - was yesterday picked up on by The Independent (which initially printed it without citation), and caused quite a stir amongst the media folk. Most dismissed MacKenzie’s dated ramblings; I read a particularly insightful comment from one Independent reader - “It sounds like Kelvin is still in an eighties time-warp. Eighteen-Eighties that is.” And it’s not just this, MacKenzie’s horribly out-of-sync frame of mind, but the fact he’s seemingly gone and done a Clegg.

You might have read recently about Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s intentions to make work experience fairer with the abolition of internships, but this comes from the man who got where he is today through precisely such ‘who you know’ methodology. MacKenzie’s own rant mirrors Clegg’s situation impeccably: while Kelvin feels that 18-year-olds nowadays should simply “try and achieve three decent A-levels, go to a local paper, then to a regional, and then head out on to nationals or magazines by 21-22”, things have changed in the past few decades. This just isn’t possible anymore; no local paper will give you a second look without some kind of qualification. MacKenzie’s argument of ‘learning on the job’ is equally ignorant, as most local papers are horribly understaffed - nobody has the time to train a new reporter from scratch.

Kelvin claims there is no merit in going to university if you want to be a print journalist. University is about finding yourself; indeed, under a journalism course, finding your writing style, your knack for the subject (should it exist) - the bitter ramblings of MacKenzie, who had no opportunity to attend such courses himself, might sing a different tune had he had the chance to do so - “not only did I not sit A-levels I only got one 0-level despite taking 15 of them over two different examination boards.” So, dear readers: if Kelvin can’t go, none of us can.

Allow me to refer you to City University professor George Brock for further deconstruction of MacKenzie’s inane, misguided prose. I’m sure it will shed some light on the subject from a more neutral viewpoint than I - Professor Brock rightly concedes journalists can be successful without having “ever been anywhere near a journalism course.”

But that doesn’t make them irrelevant.