I hope not too many people are shedding a tear over this. It wasn't that long ago that almost no one in journalism had a degree or diploma in the subject. It used to be something that generalists learned 'on the job'. Making it a 'profession' changed it from something where a wide variety of people from all sorts of backgrounds did it to something that reflected a more middle-class viewpoint.

The decline of the legacy media has had some bad consequences---but it has also dramatically expanded the Overton Window. With the web and independent journalism we can read and hear many very informed points-of-view that were totally silenced in days of yore. On the whole, I think the present media landscape is more vibrant and informative that it was when I was young.