Anybody know these video game journalist's qualifications?

[Exley97_v1legacy]

I figured someone calling themself a journalist would need a journalism degree.

Um, no. Before embarking on your project, you should know that a journalism degree -- if it's even offered by the college/university you attend, which sadly isn't a given -- is not a prerequisite for becoming a professional journalist. I work in journalism, and I can tell you definitively that a large number of the reporters and editors I've worked with over the years lack a proper journalism degree (either because it wasn't offered at their school or they majored in English, communications, political science or some other arts & sciences major).* This is a long way of saying that if you're using a lack of degree as ammunition in an attempt to discredit certain games writers, well, you're barking up the wrong tree. This is not to say that a lack of journalism experience and ethics don't hurt the games journalism space -- indeed they do. But if a writer is serious about becoming a professional journalist, in whatever space, and attains the proper real-world experience to do it professionally, then a lack of a degree doesn't matter shit.

*for the record, I have a degree in English and journalism. So hooray for me.

 

[cikame]

It's a strange thing to focus on, to assume from the start that people need a qualification to do anything.
I think of it this way, if i wrote something in this forum and received a massively positive response, it would be a good indication to me that others would pay attention to what i wrote, and that i was capable of producing content people can enjoy.

I don't know how all those journalists made their starts, but that would be a much more interesting story than "what school did you go to", which incidently is the most boring part of anybody's life.