Header graphic for print
Real Lawyers Have Blogs On the topic of the law, firm marketing, social media, & baseball

Why journalism should be a required course in law school

Practicing lawyers, acting as citizen journalists via their blogs, are covering legal stories and cases with depth and insight not possible by the traditional press.

I may not agree with their political views, but blogs such as Talk Left by Jeralyn Merritt and Power Line by John Hinderaker & Scott Johnson have huge readership. Such blogs are advancing discourse and influencing public opinion on major national issues.

And these guys are not alone. Practicing lawyers covering issues as diverse as telecom law, privacy law and divorce law are blogging by the thousands.

Dave Winer has a great point that journalism should be taught across all majors.

It’s too late to be training new journalists in the classic mode. Instead, journalism should become a required course, one or two semesters for every graduate. Why? Because journalism like everything else that used to be centralized is in the process of being distributed. In the future, every educated person will be a journalist, as today we are all travel agents and stock brokers. The reporters have been acting as middlemen, connecting sources with readers, who in many cases are sources themselves. As with all middlemen, something is lost in translation, an inefficiency is added. So what we’re doing now, in journalism, as with all other intermediated professions, is decentralizing. So it pays to make an investment now and teach the educated people of the future the basic principles of journalism.

Winer’s words are spot on for would be lawyers looking to enhance their reputations as reliable and trusted authorities as they practice. I know you’re stressed enough with the required class load in law school, but there are worse ideas than auditing a class or two over at the journalism school.

Technorati Tags: ,

  • http://www.anythingtheysay.com theBhc

    Many of these guys don’t need journalism school. They don’t do journalism. They generally expound (usually wrong in the case of Powerline) legalistic opinion, half-formed or less. In the case of Powerline, they clearly have a preset agenda and will offer up ill-informed, unsolicited opinions about anything. This brain trust scoffed at evolution — when that was fashionable — and promulgates every right wing talking point dutifully.
    You don’t need journalism to do that.

  • http://www.insurancecoverageblog.com David Rossmiller

    Although Powerline is primarily about politics, it would be denying reality to say the three bloggers who write it don’t use their legal skills or discuss cases and constitutional matters. Good grief, are we going to come to the stage where we deny quality just because we don’t agree with someone’s politics? Six words: Time magazine’s Blog of the Year.
    As one who was a newspaper reporter for nine years before becoming a lawyer, I can fully agree with Kevin’s post for a number of reasons. Journalism could teach lawyers a few things about writing simply and making a point without droning on and on. It could also give them an appreciation for analyzing issues in a way that is both informative and entertaining, contrary to the turgid prose they teach you to write in law school. It could also give lawyers some insight about talking to and dealing with the media, and why that can be a good thing for their clients and their careers.

  • http://www.erikmazzone.com Erik Mazzone

    Great idea, Kevin.
    Auditing a class in citizen journalism would certainly help prepare lawyers for their increasing role in citizen journalism and self-published marketing. Just as helpfully, the journalistic approach to writing — prioritizing, with an emphasis on clarity and placing important points up front — would dovetail nicely with the legal writing technique taught in many law schools.
    Maybe the result would be better writing in both brief and blog…