The Unteachable 'Sixth Sense' of Journalism
An 1876 editorial from the Northern Star debates whether the craft of a reporter can be taught in a classroom or only mastered in the heat of the newsroom.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The young man may be well grounded in history, the classics, the sciences, and in political economy, may study the subjects that seem best suited to editorial needs, and yet fail as an editor. Besides knowledge he needs tact, insight, judgment of men and things, and a kind of newspaper sense, which we have sometimes called the 'sixth sense,' the journalistic sense. If a man is not born with it, he can only acquire it by actual experience on a newspaper. The trade cannot be learned except in the trade. No professor in a college can teach journalism. He can teach much that is indispensable to it, but after all, the workman must learn to use his tools in a newspaper office. We should say then, that the best plan is to give the boy the best general education he can get in a college, having his course in life in mind, and then let him learn practically the business of a journalist as he would any other.
“If a man is not born with it, he can only acquire it by actual experience on a newspaper. The trade cannot be learned except in the trade.”
This 1876 reflection echoes the modern existential debate over the role of formal journalism degrees versus 'on-the-job' training in an era where the industry is undergoing massive technological disruption. The Snohomish editor's insistence on a 'sixth sense' remains a common refrain among practitioners who view the profession as an innate instinct rather than an academic discipline.
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