The Economist points out an odd ommission from press coverage of Alan Milburn’s report on the lack of social mobility in the UK: the fact that journalism has become one of the least mobile of all the professions.
Journalists born in 1958 came from families earning 5.5% more than the national average; in 1970, their parents earned 42.4% more.
And it’s the only one where the proportion of top professionals going to private school has risen.
Of course, I knew that. After all, I listen to Radio Four.
It’s not the image most people have of the typical journo, is it?
And over the same period, the proportion of ‘lecturers and professors’ coming from above-average income families dropped – reasonably significantly (20.71% down to 11.25%).
Centre for Market and Public Organisation, Social Mobility and the Professions, Page 5, http://www.bris.ac.uk/cmpo/publications/other/socialmobility.pdf
So you can turn off Radio 4, now.
Related article? http://writeeditblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/journalism-can-be-class-act-or-middle.html