Does it make parents look better' if their child goes to university?

pukkamum

Funky_Bold_Ribena wrote: »

I think you should start using it then...and yes of course it was hard work. My other subjects were also psychology and English. But just because your sister did no work does not mean that everyone who does a media degree does no work.

Tbh I did it more out of interest than for work, I became a sahm not long after finishing.
I didn't say once that everyone who does a media degree puts no work in, I just think that for many it is an easier degree to do purely for doing a degrees sake.

Tropez

Bennifred wrote: »

I wouldn't be best pleased if one of my children turned to crime - I would think it reflected on me, reasonable or not

But it wouldn't, unless you encouraged them to become a criminal.

My partner had some of the worst parents she could have, parents who acted criminally in their treatment of her. She's one of the most caring, compassionate and law-abiding people you could meet.

On the flip side, we see plenty of people who come from loving, caring homes who commit crimes. The parents are not culpable for their behaviour, although I understand that those parents often erroneously believe themselves to be.

Norma_Desmond

Funky_Bold_Ribena wrote: »

I think you should start using it then...and yes of course it was hard work. My other subjects were also psychology and English. But just because your sister did no work does not mean that everyone who does a media degree does no work.

No one is saying that you do no 'work' for a media degree - it's the intellectual difficulty (and dare I say, 'importance') of the course that's relevant surely?

Funky_Bold_Ribena

Norma_Desmond wrote: »

No one is saying that you do no 'work' for a media degree - it's the intellectual difficulty (and dare I say, 'importance') of the course that's relevant surely?

Who decides what is or isn't important?

Bearing in mind how much time the UK sits glued to the TV and with more people phoning up to vote some knobcheese in or out of reality singing competitions than actually voting for actual politicians, it would seem that media is indeed more one of the most important things to the average UK citizen. I personally think that's shocking but hey ho.

poet123

Funky_Bold_Ribena wrote: »

Who decides what is or isn't important?

Baring in mind how much time the UK sits glued to the TV and with more people phoning up to vote some knobcheese in or out of reality singing competitions than actually voting for actual politicians, it would seem that media is indeed more one of the most important things to the average UK citizen. I persoanlly think that's shocking but hey ho.

Only when other bases are already covered like housing, food, health, education, etc. So.....

Funky_Bold_Ribena

pukkamum wrote: »

Tbh I did it more out of interest than for work, I became a sahm not long after finishing.
I didn't say once that everyone who does a media degree puts no work in, I just think that for many it is an easier degree to do purely for doing a degrees sake.

No you called it a mickey mouse degree. Plenty of people rake it in after getting media degrees; media has alot of power...I suspect you just don't know the impact that studying it properly can really make to a person who really wants to use it.

Norma_Desmond

Funky_Bold_Ribena wrote: »

Who decides what is or isn't important?

Bearing in mind how much time the UK sits glued to the TV and with more people phoning up to vote some knobcheese in or out of reality singing competitions than actually voting for actual politicians, it would seem that media is indeed more one of the most important things to the average UK citizen. I personally think that's shocking but hey ho.

I think it's a given that surgeons, doctors, engineers and scientists et al are important.

It's possibly because 'the media' and the UK's addiction to celebrity is so reprehensible that studying it is seen as a cop-out.

pukkamum

Funky_Bold_Ribena wrote: »

No you called it a mickey mouse degree. Plenty of people rake it in after getting media degrees; media has alot of power...I suspect you just don't know the impact that studying it properly can really make to a person who really wants to use it.

Is your degree in being pedantic?
I am well aware that some people with a media degree use it to get good jobs, I am also sure there are equally as many with a media degree who are either doing jobs they could do without said degree or are sat at home waiting for channel 5 to knock on their door.
Anyway the media degree was purely an example.
Oh and the last comment is just stupid.

Tropez

Funky_Bold_Ribena wrote: »

No you called it a mickey mouse degree. Plenty of people rake it in after getting media degrees; media has alot of power...I suspect you just don't know the impact that studying it properly can really make to a person who really wants to use it.

Generally, the disdain people show for media studies is based largely around the sentiment printed in the likes of The Times, Independent and Guardian, denouncing the subject as worthless. The truth is, it isn't worthless, on the contrary, it is very useful.

The United States was one of the first countries to promote media studies courses (under the guise of Communications Studies), something which has been instrumental in the rise of American cultural imperialism. The focus on studying popular culture through media studies has allowed the Americans to push American media, American goods and American services globally and with relative ease. Students of media and communications are quite rightly sought after in the United States.

The British media and communication courses, while derided at home, have actually enjoyed great success outside the UK, primarily because while the American-system was more sociological, the British was more humanities-based, something which the British respond better to. People who wonder why British businesses have been pushed out of our own marketplace by foreign corporations with apparent ease, the way that marketing and media friendly images have allowed foreign companies to enjoy such success in what was once an insular nation need only look to the way that our own media studies courses have been used and turned against us.

People who deride the subject as worthless and its students as time-wasters simply fail to understand the far-reaching implications of the subject and how it is used. Companies don't, whether their primary business is media based or not, and those who have attained good qualifications in media studies are actively sought.

Perhaps one of the reasons for the disrespect we show towards media studies in this country is due to the amount of students who do take the subject because they've been informed it's an easy degree with easy money at the end of it and that may be higher than average compared to other courses. The truth is, if you're good at the subject, you're a more worth candidate for a future job just as with any other degree. We would probably be better served to dispell the "Mickey Mouse" degree myth.

paulineb_2

Norma_Desmond wrote: »

I think it's a given that surgeons, doctors, engineers and scientists et al are important.

It's possibly because 'the media' and the UK's addiction to celebrity is so reprehensible that studying it is seen as a cop-out.

Or possibly because theres still certain degrees that need a fair amount of qualifications at decent grades to get in and others where you need less at a lower grade are seen as less important somehow

There are many jobs that are worthwhile. I worked with addicts for a long time, I didnt need to have a degree to do that job but by the time I applied for it I did have a degree and a relevant postgrad and thats what also led me to do a second post grad in a related subject

Id say that degree or not, the work that I and my colleagues did was important, to the people we were trying to assist, Id also say the same for nurses, teaching staff, but also, I know several people who dont have degrees who work as assistants working with visually impaired kids, teaching assistants and auxilliary nurses, who probably dont get paid much for what they do and might not have a degree (some might do), also important jobs.

I think that some jobs are considered worthier than others and by default the degree people will study to do that job will also be seen as important, challenging whereas some degrees will be seen as all you need to do is turn up and you get your bit of paper.

I cant say I had any longing to do the degree I did (business studies), it was a means to an end for me, but there was nothing mickey mouse about it in my view, however some people might think it was, compared to a law or a medicine degree, its all subjective really.

Im not sure its the fact that people dont like the media when people are looking down on people who do media degrees, just that perhaps the degree is seen as not very academic.

However, if someones chosen path is media and not law, then who am I to say something isnt of value, because for all I know that person who did media, could have done law, physics but just chose not to.