By David Ball
Staff Writer
When Comcast’s Jacksonville office must defend or explain an issue to the public, the company’s media relations coordinator, Bill Ferry, draws on his journalism degree and experience to deliver his message through the press.
“I will typically drop what I’m doing to work with a reporter,” said Ferry. “I know what deadlines are like, and I know to act quickly to get them the information they need.”
And when Comcast runs into snags with government agencies or negotiating a franchise agreements, Ferry dons his other hat as vice president of government affairs and draws on his his law degree and experience as a practicing attorney.
“Cable lines go into the rights of way, and there are various government agencies that regulate that, and I would do that kind of negotiating,” said Ferry, who oversees Comcast’s affairs across North Florida and South Georgia.
Ferry said he’s found much success in his career through his combined study of journalism and law, and he’s not alone. Howard Coker, former Florida Bar president and longtime Jacksonville attorney, said his journalism undergraduate degree was just the right start for his legal career.
Florida Coastal School of Law assistant professor Craig Feiser earned a journalism degree from Michigan State University and worked as a reporter and editor for daily newspapers in Michigan and Georgia before entering law school at the University of Florida. He said while many of his law students earn majors in business, humanities, economics and government before entering law school, journalism seems to be an increasingly popular choice.
“It seems like more and more these days I’m seeing people who are former journalism or English majors go to law school,” said Feiser. “They seem to gravitate toward constitutional-related courses ... or you can become a media lawyer, which is a growing and common area in law practice.”
The University of Missouri helps students along that track with several integrated programs to earn degrees in journalism and law at the same time. The master’s in journalism and juris doctorate in law program takes approximately four years.
“As lawyers, graduates will have the skills to communicate more effectively in the practice of law, regardless of their field,” the program’s Web site states.
Ferry said combining the two fields makes a lot of sense.
“When you are writing the news, you are influencing how people view information,” said Ferry. “It’s similar with law, where you’re trying to influence or build a consensus on something among a group, usually to win a case.”
Ferry took a somewhat unique approach by earning a masters in journalism at Northwestern University after he earned his law degree at Indiana University and had worked several years as a trial attorney in Chicago.
“I didn’t find (the courtroom) that stimulating,” said Ferry. “I’m not really a combative person, and there was too much of that and not a lot of creativity.”
Ferry said he found that creativity in journalism along with the analytical thinking he enjoyed from law. After journalism school, Ferry edited an English version of a Russian business publication before moving with his wife to Alabama and working a short stint as a Washington D.C. correspondent for the Huntsville Daily News, now the Huntsville Times.
Ferry said it was more difficult to market his lawyer/journalist background in Alabama than in Chicago, and that led to his first public relations job at a U.S. Army chemical weapons disposal facility. Ferry said good communication skills, like those taught in journalism school, were a necessity.
“My job was to run an information office to explain exactly what was going on,” said Ferry. “Obviously, there were plenty of very concerned people I had to deal with on a daily basis.”
Ferry continued his career at a cable company in Alabama before joining Comcast in 2003. Ferry said he often writes talking points on new policy for the 500 customer service employees working the company’s call center, and he’ll even do some copy editing for the marketing department.
But, most importantly, Ferry said he uses his legal knowledge to dissect ever-changing and often-complicated communications laws, then he uses his journalism knowledge to relay that message to the media and public.
“When we notice something new to our subscribers, the question is how do we communicate something that may have a whole lot of moving parts?” said Ferry. “I need to understand it, and then I need to write it clearly.”
Coker said the writing skills he learned as a journalism student paid dividends in his law career.
“I think clarity and brevity are two things that are appreciated by all of the courts,” said Coker. “It helps with attention to detail, and I also believe your background in journalism causes you to delve deeper into factual scenarios.”
Coker said he didn’t realize how the fields complimented each other when he enrolled, as he chose to major in journalism simply because it could give him a good career in case he couldn’t afford to attend law school.
“Every now and then you do something for one reason and it works out the for the best,” said Coker, who enjoys writing but doubts he’ll be publishing any novels like popular lawyers-turned-authors John Grisham and David Baldacci.
“I get the urge,” he said, “but I just don’t have the time.”
John Mitchel: Irish revolutionary combined law and journalism
While modern lawyers may recognize benefits of combining journalism study with law, the practice does have historical roots. Enter John Mitchel.
Mitchel (1815-75), born in County Derry, Ireland, was a practicing lawyer who later earned fame as a journalist and Irish revolutionary. In 1843, he began to write for The Nation and developed a distinctive style of biting satire using a neo-biblical vocabulary and forceful rhetoric. Although he became editor four years later, Mitchel’s militancy alienated many moderate nationalists, and he later left the publication to found The United Irishman, where he called for rebellion against Britain.
He was transported to Australia for treason just before the Young Ireland revolt of 1848, which he had helped prepare. Mitchel escaped to the United States in 1853 and led a turbulent and contentious career as a journalist, editing the proslavery journal Citizen in New York City, and during the Civil War, the Richmond Enquirer. After a short imprisonment in 1865 for his Confederate activities, he became an acknowledged leader of the Irish-American nationalist, and as such edited the Irish Citizen.
He returned to Ireland and was elected to Parliament in 1875 shortly before his death. His books, “The Last Conquest of Ireland” (1861) and “The History of Ireland” (1868) incited active malevolence to the English in Ireland, treating the Famine as deliberate genocide. However, Mitchel’s most inspiring book was his “Jail Journal” (1854), written during enforced isolation in British prisons. It’s emotive identification of the individual and the nation made it a central text of Irish nationalism.
Sources: Irish Literature Companion and Columbia Encyclopedia.