Learning to code
Everyone should be worried about what they’ll do for a living if they lose their job or if their career field looks gloomy, and that includes journalists.
Unfortunately for some, specifically a handful of vocal journalists on Twitter, that advice is harmful, especially if one tells them, “learn to code,” which means they should learn how to write computer code.
Last week, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post and other online publications, as well as newspapers owned by Gannett, announced layoffs that affected journalists and media professionals. It’s unfortunate those people lost their jobs, but it’s not the end of the world, and people online made sure to remind them about that.
Especially on Twitter, where journalists were bemoaning their job loss, people have commented, “learn to code” as another career choice or skill to learn. It was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, and I enjoy the origins of the joke.
It started as a spiteful response to media publications stating blue-collar workers could simply learn to code instead of doing their current job. From sources like Wired in 2017 to the New York Times in 2018, they introduce the idea about teaching coding to people at younger ages so they can have those skills later on in life. They don’t address how today’s blue-collar workers can do it, even if they are capable or want to learn.
In 2016, Forbes and NPR reported that teaching blue-collar workers would address a “brain drain” in areas experiencing dwindling coal miner jobs. “Learn to code,” was what blue-collar workers, specifically coal miners, were being told by reporters when their areas were impacted by job loss.
Call it schadenfreude, which is enjoying one’s misfortune, but I’m entertained by the revenge of the Twitter crowd calling for these journalists to “learn to code.” But when faced with such a response, it’s been considered as a hateful attack against journalists and freedom of speech.
The online journalism industry is rotting just like our blue-collar jobs, as pointed out by those same media outlets that allege online advertising and hedge fund mergers are killing online journalism. But I think the message we’re sending to each other is a confused one.
To the people who work in the fields, mine coal or drive trucks, the opposite side responds with how they should learn new white-collar trades and adapt to changing times without even addressing why those times are getting tougher. However, if the same advice is given to those same people from their white-collar towers, they’re sent into a defensive panic. Like with blue-collar jobs, their positions are dwindling, too, but don’t you dare tell them to adapt to changing times.
It shows more and more how there is a clear class divide in our culture. We have politicians who support the idea of eliminating coal-mining jobs and an economy that favors outsourcing them or placing heavy regulations on the trades, while at the same time the white-collar workers tell them to abandon their work. It’s like hitting someone while they’re already knocked down.
While I recognize that learning to code can be beneficial, I often wonder how our culture can make blue-collar and trade skills equally as attractive to embrace. That solution comes with changing how media entities see the problem.
-Jacob Runnels is a reporter for the Journal-Tribune.