Publication Requirement in College

colm1408

Hi,

Right, so basically I'm in my final year of an undergraduate degree journalism in the college. For it, we have to do a portfolio module. But the problem is articles only count towards the portfolio if they get published. Personal blogs are not included. I'm wondering is it legal for them to have this requirement? Even if I do fifty articles a week, if no one decides to publish them, they don't count.

If I have a project and I don't do it, I fail. Fair enough. But even if I do the work to a good standard, I still might fail. That doesn't seem fair as I've spent over 9 grand on fees over three years and could lose out on my degree because of something that is almost completely out of my hands.

Love some answers. Thanks.

Beano

Why would it not be legal? Surely the college can set its own criteria for graduation? Surely you can get something published in a small local paper or freesheet?

colm1408

Cause it's out of my hands. And yes I can get stuff published in a freesheet but nothing is guaranteed. I can spend days working on an article and it could still be worthless to me. An editor might say his publication is full. I could be waiting weeks for them to get back to me. There's loads of variables. I have to get at least two things published a week. I can't know before I do something whether I'll be able to be marked on it. Every piece of work I choose to do is a gamble. Many courses have to do portfolios but I don't think art students have to get their work hung in a gallery before they get marked on it.

Pro Hoc Vice

colm1408 wrote: »

Cause it's out of my hands. And yes I can get stuff published in a freesheet but nothing is guaranteed. I can spend days working on an article and it could still be worthless to me. An editor might say his publication is full. I could be waiting weeks for them to get back to me. There's loads of variables. I have to get at least two things published a week. I can't know before I do something whether I'll be able to be marked on it. Every piece of work I choose to do is a gamble. Many courses have to do portfolios but I don't think art students have to get their work hung in a gallery before they get marked on it.

Sounds just like the life of a journalist. Seems to me like a very good real world experience project. Also I would assume that the course outline in the prospectus had information on this project and you read that about 3 years ago lots of time to prepare.

Ken.

Does it count as published if you and a few others do up articles,call it the colm1408 times, photocopy it 100 times and hand it out for free as a newsletter.

colm1408

No, the course is always changing. Last year, the final years had to do a thesis but now that's been scraped in favour of this portfolio. I do a tonne of work, send out a load of articles. If it's not published, it's considered worthless.
Anyway, I don't even know why I'm responding to you trolly *****. You can **** off. I will only respond to useful advice from now on.

Ken.

I asked a genuine question but good luck with getting help with that attitude. When you fail you can always try getting a job with the daily mail. They don't seem to require any qualifications.

Pro Hoc Vice

colm1408 wrote: »

No, the course is always changing. Last year, the final years had to do a thesis but now that's been scraped in favour of this portfolio. I do a tonne of work, send out a load of articles. If it's not published, it's considered worthless.
Anyway, I don't even know why I'm responding to you trolly *****. You can **** off. I will only respond to useful advice from now on.

lol you see if you had not been so impolite on that info I could have given you a bit of legal information a I will give you a hint if you have learned anything you could research legitimate expectation. Don't know why I have bothered with your attitude.

MarkAnthony

LOL, that is all.

Get Real

colm1408 wrote: »

.
Anyway, I don't even know why I'm responding to you trolly *****. You can **** off. I will only respond to useful advice from now on.

Wow, I was also going to offer advice but what is this above? The guy only asked a question. Same happened me in college, not exact same tbh, but requirements changed and there was no precedent set/ past assignments as an example.

While it is unfortunate for you, I don't have any sympathy after your rude response to a genuine post. Basically, if something is annoying/unfair, it doesn't automatically make it illegal/ give you an entitlement.

Quote: I do a tonne of work, send out a load of articles. If it's not published, it's considered worthless.

Ohhh... like in real life?

Peregrinus

But it's a perfectly reasonable question - what is the college's publication requirement? Is a self-published article "published"? Does it have to published in a particular medium? What if it's published in the trade press? In an in-house magazine of some organisation? Published for no payment by a not-for-profit body, or used by them as copy in a brochure or leaflet? There's lots of ways you can get "published" that fall between putting stuff on your on blog, and having the Irish Independent run it and pay for it.

Little CuChulainn

Well if you put your personality into your articles in the same way you do into your posts here I think there could be a good reason for the lack of publishing.

MarkAnthony

Little CuChulainn wrote: »

Well if you put your personality into your articles in the same way you do into your posts here I think there could be a good reason for the lack of publishing.

I don't know about that, I found the OP most entertaining.

nuac

I know a lot of journalists, and have met many in the course of business.

They tend to get more cooperation by making a friendly approach to contacts.

OP should think about that