Barbara Ehrenreich: Welcome to a Dying Industry, J-School Grads
By Barbara Ehrenreich,
AlterNet. Posted June 4, 2009.
Drop your sense of entitlement, Ehrenreich tells a graduating class of media makers, journalists are now "part of the working class."The following is the text of Barbara Ehrenreich's commencement address on May 16 to the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism Class of 2009.The dean gave me some very strict instructions about what to say today. No whining and no crying at the podium. No wringing of hands or gnashing of teeth. Be upbeat, be optimistic, he said -- adding that it wouldn't hurt to throw in a few tips about how to apply for food stamps.
So let's get the worst out of the way right up front: You are going to be trying to carve out a career in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. You are furthermore going to be trying to do so within what appears to be a dying industry. You have abundant skills and talents -- it's just not clear that anyone wants to pay you for them.
Well, you are not alone.
How do you think it feels to be an autoworker right now? And I've spent time with plenty of laid-off paper-mill workers, construction workers and miners. They've got skills; they've got experience. They just don't have jobs.
So let me be the first to say this to you: Welcome to the American working class. .........(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.alternet.org/story/140442/barbara_ehrenreich%3A_welcome_to_a_dying_industry%2C_j-school_grads/