I'm sure that this has been pondered at length by other people in the scamblogosphere, but I wonder why it is that, despite the fact that this information is so readily available, the mainstream media has been so slow to pick up on the law school scam.
I have read several articles recently exploring the idea of making it easier to discharge student loans in bankruptcy. I read the NYT article about law school grade inflation. But other than that, it seems the mainstream media does not want to touch this with a ten foot pole. When I was applying to law school, there were a few bloggers and people in comments sections trying to shed light on the reality of the situation but even they were few and far between (this was back in 2007). Every now and then I would read an article on the declining value of a college degree, but if anything those articles served to validate the idea of going to law school (or really any graduate program) to somehow distinguish myself from the masses.
If I were a journalist, I would be all over this. What gives?
Give it time. Keep spreading the word. Tell your friends. Tell your family.
ReplyDeleteI wrote tv news stories for a while as an intern. The media has a certain culture that has certain rules. These rules form the guidelines for the stories one is allowed to write. What I am saying is that stories in the media are highly derivative/duplicative or earlier stories. New stories only build upon earlier stories. This is a very conservative culture. If one advances too far, one is ousted.
ReplyDeleteThe culture of the media has evolved over decades just like a species evolves over time. Any species will evolve over time and is molded by the forces of the environment in which it lives. The media organism has forced exerted on it which over time shape its culture, the same culture that serves as a guide to which and what kind of stories are allowed.
What force shape the media culture? Primarily the desires and needs of advertisers. What is one big source of ad money? Higher education.
You expect mass media to bite one of the hands that feed it?
The internet is a game changer, a black swan, a monkey wrench in the propaganda regime that shapes american culture.
Use this monkey wrench well.
Create a blizzard of text and images that will counter the media-disseminated propaganda of the law school industry. It can be done.
I agree with my Homeless colleague and fellow brethren.
ReplyDeleteThe only TV I have watched the past decade or so has been NFL football games and that is virtually it. I'm probably the only person under 30 that has never watched a full episode of Lost, Survivor or even American Idol.
The internet has given us access to information, and while revealing that the majority of people are still retards, it has also show that there are some fucking brilliant people out there and a large enough minority of intelligent people that you CAN get the truth out there and people will listen, and think.
But don't worry, the federal government won't take that type of thing lying down. They already have bills that are well on their way to becoming a reality that will shut down parts of the internet at the government's discretion for "our safety" and also track us all down at all times. You know, to catch terrorists and such.
Try to pass a health care bill, create jobs, or give Americans increases quality of life and protection? You'll hear non-stop whining from politicians and the media about how it's all socialist. Want to give corporations and banks tax payer money? Boom done. Want to take away people's freedoms? No problem!
I think though, if they pull the trigger on taking over the internet, they've pretty much crossed the line where revolution starts, it just hits too close to too many brilliant idealists homes. The only question is if these brilliant people can really cause change. I'm not one of them, but I'll follow along if the cause is right.
I asked a similar question re: the NYT story and why the media is so slow on the uptake. I got varying responses, most of which had something to do with them being in the pocket of the student loan industry in some way.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's that as much as a resistance to do any hard-hitting journalism or anything that rocks the boat. Like the above posters have pointed out, news media in the past generation has become increasingly driven by sappy human interest stories and other puff pieces. At best, the lack of attention to the higher ed problem is due to incompetence.
Essentially, major news media outlets are controlled by early-boomers.
ReplyDeleteFor that generation, narcissistic as hell and coming of age in an era where an English Lit degree would get you an actual corporate job, they will find it incredulous, preposterous, that THIS generation simply cannot find adequate employment opportunities with advanced degrees in a "profession."
To them, a generation raised in unprecedented (and temporary, as it turns out) post-war prosperity, the story just cannot yet be believed.
Well, i guess the news have some kind of luck associated with them also. Sometimes frivolous news is going viral while important ones never get the airtime they should.
ReplyDelete