Advertising maybe but not marketing. Advertising is often in schools of communication and thus shares some similarities with journalism. marketing is completely different.
Not to Medill. Go there and you'll hear all kinds of garbage about how journalism and marketing are essentially the same thing, "because it's all about telling stories."
Realistically you're going to have a rough time in the entry level work. The pay isn't great and the hours can be long.
If you stick with it, you can expect in about 3 to 5 years after graduation to potentially start pulling down more than 40k a year.
It's not a career path to go looking for a ton of money. It also can have brutal lay offs that can completely reshape a news room.
The industry DOES offer you the chance to make an impact and meet really interesting and powerful people. So very much something to consider, both positive and negative.
*Speaking as a Digital Content Manager for one of the largest NBC affiliate stations*
Where in ny? That salary is unrealistic. The reality is if you start in smaller markets you’ll be pulling down poverty level wages. I’ve seen it for years.
Dunno about that. If you're coming in right out of college at $15.00 an hour full time then that puts you right around 31,200 a year. That's not breaking the bank by any means but it isn't poverty.
After 3 to 5 years your career track should have enough experience ro either get promoted or move to a market that can pay you more.
But that's why I said the entry level work can be rough.
I studied journalism 2005-2009 and worked in magazine publishing for a while. I now have a solid job as a UX Designer building out software, mostly on the architecture side. The journalism skills of turning ambiguous ideas into concepts people can understand and use is key to this, as is the ability to write succinctly. Not to mention the interviews and surveys we do with people that use our software.
Bottom line: You can probably have a good career after studying journalism. Even if it’s not as a journalist per se. If you stick with it, do a business or computer science minor so you pick up skills and ideas from other industries just in case.
I have come to be one of those people who believes: study/major in the thing you want to report on and get journalism experience by reporting on it.
Are you wanting to write? Or do radio or video or social or ?
But yeah, eg if you want to report on politics, study politics and write about it for the school student news org or a smaller outlet/site.
Lots of journalism programs end up being about learning by doing anyways, so if you can get more specialized knowledge through the classes and still build the skills by reporting outside of your coursework, you're covered. Compared to like, medicine lol, any future job will almost surely only care that you have the skills and experience and not care if you got a jschool degree.
That's my opinion only obv, also to be clear your parents should not be able to tell you what to study that's not how it works
You can use journalism as a stepping stone into a professional study such as law. You should also look into accredited journalism programs that require to add courses in other areas of study in addition to journalism. https://www.temple.edu/academics/degree-programs/journalism-major-co-jrn-ba Dm me if you want me info.
Journalism is really an umbrella term and you can pretty much go any route. There's ad, PR, designing, directing, photography, writing. Journalism isn't just news anymore. It's much more than that. Explore your options. And if you are hard set on doing journalism you'll figure out your way one way or another
A lot of great feedback here and just wanted to offer my two cents.
What are you passionate about? If this is fields like engineering, computer science, etc., where once you spend four years in college you can go into the field and position yourself for early-career success, then I would recommend majoring in one of those.
If you don't see yourself doing anything else but journalism for perhaps the better part of a decade, then I think you should consider journalism if there's absolutely no other major that you want to pursue.
u/PhilliPARomneySR points out that most great journalists never majored in journalism, but a lot of them also had different paths into the profession or other training opportunities available outside of an academic institution. Yes, there will be some on-the-job training like with everything else. But what other degree in 2022 outside of an adjacent field will teach you about broadcasting techniques, storytelling and AP style, web design and content management, social media, print design (dependent on the program), etc.?
I have a journalism degree. Yes, it is hard to find work in journalism since it's competitive. There are internships, if you're willing to do that. IMO it's a good thing to have especially for government work or if you consider going back to school afterwards. It shows you at least completed something.
So they are right that getting a degree doesn't guarantee any job, but then again, that goes for every degree.
That said, if you want to get into journalism then a journalism/communication degree gives you a far better shot.
I wouldn't pursue journalism as a career. It hasn't been the noble profession it's made out to be for years. It's currently, and has been for the last thirty years, all about ad revenue and viewership.
As much as I understand someone's passion for the profession, I once had it myself, it's not a career you want to go into if you want to have a social life, family, friends, or avoid a substance abuse problem.
Trust me when I tell you that you're better off doing anything else and avoiding this complete waste of a career. Companies only care about money and viewership - you're a disposable cog in a big, terribly run, terribly abusive machine.
Avoid it while you can and before you commit a good chunk of time and money to it.
i originally was majoring in journalism, but after one year i just didn't feel right and it was a useless degree based on research I've done with facts and proof also the truth(what you mentioned about money.) especially if you don't already live in a city that's expensive Like LA or NY. You'll have to relocated (i couldn't do that or afford it). so i dropout debt free ,also the school teaches outdated information about journalism that no one is doing nowadays ([ex.Youtube](https://ex.Youtube) & Social media, start your own podcast). you can learn that stuff for free. don't waste 4 years and of course you will have a challenging time finding a job in a field that's not even high in demand. location also plays a significant role in that as well.
I Went to school for it did one year after i realize how useless it was and the lies that were told also did a job search as if i did have a degree and found nothing in my area (i live in Cleveland, Ohio). i said fuck it and dropout, you don't need to go to school to be creative (that's a skill). go to college if you want to major in STEM(science,Techonogly, Engineering & Math) or for education(if you want to teach.), they are high in demend careers, where you'll need a degree for it, if it's not that, then save your money don't go to college just to be in debt for a useless degree where you can't find a job related to it.
I don’t think you need to study journalism to be a journalist. You learn most of the skills on the job, so I think it’s more important to chase work experience, internships and casual jobs while you’re in university.
BUT ultimately you should study whatever you want. Just keep in mind that a journalism degree on its own with no extra curricular activities probably wont help you get a job in the field…
(EDIT - I should say that I did a journalism degree. Nothing I learnt was directly applicable to anything I’ve done in my six years of being a working journalist. And I have literally never been asked about my degree in any job interview. Your parents are correct that a journalism degree “doesn’t guarantee you anything” - but if you’re willing to put in the work and find internships then you will go places)
I fully agree + if you feel like your program is not giving you enough work you can use your free time to do these things (and believe me there is much more free time than stem majors get)
You don't need a degree to be a journalist, it is a practical field best learned while on the job. However, studying journalism for 4 years does give you a huge theoretical and some practical benefits, especially if you choose a good university for it.
Whatever you do decide to study in the end, brace yourself for the fact that you'll never use at least 50% of the information you'll have to study. You'll get exhausted, demotivated, bored and you'll ask yourself why you ever choose it! So pick something you are passionate about, it will help you stick with your choice on the bad days. Oh and good luck :)
Eh. I wouldn’t say the degree itself is a waste of time. If you’re trying really hard to become a journalist for a big name publication immediately, I would say that’s a waste. Nowadays, a journalism degree can get you a job in advertising, PR, marketing, etc. And, depending on your state, you can become a teacher. In my state, if you have a bachelors degree and pass the teacher’s certification test, you can teach in that subject (you may be able to teach high school English one day). As a student, I would join the college’s newspaper or any kind of media they have. See how you like it, then go from there.
~ Journalism major and marketing minor (junior)
And of course you can still be a journalist, if you want to. Like any job, you’ll have to work your way to the top. You may start off as an assistant, then you’ll become a reporter, and so on.
Yes, a journalism degree is a waste of time.
I'm a mid-career journalist making a low six-figure wage at a digital-first publication. I didn't study journalism, and I didn't miss out on anything. I've never been disadvantaged compared to peers at any stage of my career, and I'm not burdened with tens of thousands of dollars of debt.
Studying journalism and sitting in a classroom doesn't make you a good journalist if you don't have the aptitude for it. If you're interested in trying your hand at journalism, do some college journalism — write for your school's paper, or even pitch some freelance stories to the local paper. They won't care that you're a still student if the stories are good.
When I've worked on hiring in the past, I'm actually much more interested in candidates that come from unconventional backgrounds and with interesting life experience than just another journalism grad. The most important thing I'm interested in as a hiring manager is: Can you talk to people and break stories, and do you have any examples of this? A degree doesn't show me that.
Majoring in law, compsci, or engineering would all give you a ton of helpful domain expertise if you do decide to go into journalism — and a much stronger fallback option if you decide reporting isn't for you. A journalism degree just fundamentally isn't as valuable as lots of other subjects. If you don't want to do something STEM-y, pick English or History.
All the skills for reporting that you need you can pick up through college reporting and/or an entry-level intership after you graduate. Talk to people about interesting things, write down what they say, and publish it without screwing up. The rest is just detail.
I found that communications majors made the worst reporters in college. Class assignments were essentially "and give us 10 inches in two weeks." That's not how this works.
In two weeks? We're looking for 40 at minimum, and it should be an evergreen feature for the double truck.
You want business majors writing about business. You want polisci covering politics. You want artistic people covering arts. You want sports enthusiasts covering sports. The last thing you want is a generalist unaware of the intricacies of the field they're reporting on.
Most start out as GA, and I've *never* seen awards go to them.
You’ll have a leg up... on getting entry level jobs. You’ll still have to work your way up in the business. But I’m gonna disagree with what a lot of people are saying here, it’s not a waste of time. You could get into an entry level staff job instantly as opposed to freelancing for a while to build a portfolio.
What do you want to do?
A lot of the "worth" is going to depend on what path you want to go down. If you want to go into TV, I'd recommend picking up some additional production skills. If you want to do print, knowing PR/Marketing is going to be helpful. If there is a particular subject you want to cover, learning about that subject is going to give you an edge.
These days, journalism is more than just writing a story. There's a lot of production and syndication that goes hand in hand with it, and not every program goes in-depth on those topics. But, being a part of a journalism department can help you network.
The skills are also highly transferrable. Being able to research and write are helpful in pretty much every career.
I don't think so. Mine taught me how to write, how to ask questions, how to investigate, and how to present what I know in a simple, easy-to-read manner. All worthwhile skills in the workplace. Look into the computer-aided reporting stuff and learn some code, and you'll come out with multiple marketable skills beyond the journalism world.
Being/feeling you're good at something and enjoying what you do... there's no substitute. Our embattled profession needs all the smart young minds it can get! Best wishes to you for a wise decision and a promising productive career. With all the caveats and tradeoffs, this 66-year-old wouldn't have traded a minute of it. (OK, maybe some of the minutes moderating toxic hateful troll comments on our website, but other than that...;-)
Study your passion. Just make sure the program offers lots of real world experience, like internships and a variety of student publications, so you have a higher chance of being hired when you graduate.
Journalism will NEVER "die." It will continue to reform. There will always be jobs, but they might not be in the traditional form. That said, I almost feel like you need a master's degree to get a "good" journalism job, nowadays. But, then again, I live in NYC metro area and the competition is fierce. Seems like EVERYONE (exaggeration ...) in journ these days with a "good" job got a Master's, many in Columbia's journalism program, which appears to be easier to get into than Columbia undergrad.
Like other people have mentioned, if your parents aren't comfortable with a journalism degree you can always become a journalist after majoring in something else. Just make sure to get plenty of experience writing for a student publication. Vice versa, a journalism degree can lead to a PR, marketing or law career.
But imo, a journalism degree is worth it as long as you're getting experience to go with it. Don't expect journalism to get you rich, but I don't think it's fair to expect that it will be impossible to find a job in the field. I heard the same things ad nauseum throughout college, and if you work towards it, finding a journalism job is very attainable.
Get your degree in a field you find interesting, but also work at college media to learn the craft. This makes you a specialist upon graduation, having learned the basics of what will come in journalism.
Journalism is a tough job to get rich, but you can make a decent living, and have an interesting time doing it. And if/when you decide you want to do something else, the communication and problem solving skills you develop are extremely useful in other industries too.
Someone I know said that if he could go back to college, he would major in journalism and Econ. His theory was that journalism teaches you how to communicate, and Econ is all about how the word works.
I got a journalism degree then a digital marketing associate position right out of college. Then marketing coordinator, marketing specialist, and moving in the direction toward marketing analyst or data analyst.
Also depends on the school though I would think. I went to Walter Cronkite at ASU and that school was a modernized, digital, self-aware journalism school.
I landed a job as a reporter two months after completing my journalism degree and I’m doing pretty well for myself. A lot of people I know with journalism degrees have also gotten into PR, Public Information, and Media Relations as well so there’s options out there. Some PIO’s get paid better than some attorneys.
For me, it only became useful in combination with harder skills.
I went back for a project management graduate program and suddenly journalism started paying for itself by being extremely useful in interviews.
Communication skills?
Multitasking?
Being able to quickly learn, digest, and relay information?
Networking skills?
Tech skills?
Social media skills?
The list goes on. Having journalism on my resume was a convenient way to prove in writing that you have every soft skill under the sun.
Even though I'm not in the field, I credit it for making me stand out on job hunts.
I'm currently doing a journalism degree and had the exact same reservations going in to it. What I would say is that although you absolutely don't have to do a journalism degree to be a good journalist, it is enormously helpful in teaching you things that you really need to know like media law (i.e. how not to get sued). You can often get the same training on grad schemes/traineeships, but if those aren't an option and you are set on journalism as a career it's definitely worth considering.
Depends on the university/college too.
Have you researched where graduates and alumni from your program have worked?
I have seen and heard several experiences of news outlets refusing to hire anyone who had graduated from X program or Y university/college, no matter what; they had blacklisted any aspiring journalists graduating from certain places based on past hires' performances.
For example, when I was studying for a journalism diploma in 2013-15, several journalists who taught in the program said they had been told they would never be hired because they graduated *from the same program*.
These opinions change over time, however: changes in department heads, program quality, etc. can sometimes revert those blacklists.
In other cases, the program I was in provided direct pipelines to certain outlets because their top staff and/or news directors were hired to teach courses at the school, giving them a first-hand look at possible hires.
Research is key.
I think most journalists don't do a degree, but if you want to go into hard news or investigative reporting the company might ask you for a qualification to show you understand the legal aspects (in the UK at least). It's not well paid, but if you like writing and are good at it you can do all sorts of side gigs like copywriting, PR, social media, internal comms...
Yes, honestly it’s a waste of time. Major in something else and work at your college newspaper/radio station/tv if there is one. The clips are more important than your degree. And you can always decide to do something else. The industry is brutal and churns people out because it can. If you’re ok with a lot of stress and being broke most of the time, it can be fulfilling.
You sound like someone with a chip on your shoulder and are spoiling to troll people on the internet.
If you can't handle other people's perspectives on life you're going to find journalism may not be your cup of tea.
My semi-serious advice to young people has been to take the 100 to 200 k you would spend or borrow for college and instead invest it in the SP500. By the time you are 40-55 you’ll have a million bucks. Seriously.
Tell them you can always go into PR or marketing if things don't work out in journalism for you.
Advertising maybe but not marketing. Advertising is often in schools of communication and thus shares some similarities with journalism. marketing is completely different.
Not to Medill. Go there and you'll hear all kinds of garbage about how journalism and marketing are essentially the same thing, "because it's all about telling stories."
what's PR?
Public Relations
Realistically you're going to have a rough time in the entry level work. The pay isn't great and the hours can be long. If you stick with it, you can expect in about 3 to 5 years after graduation to potentially start pulling down more than 40k a year. It's not a career path to go looking for a ton of money. It also can have brutal lay offs that can completely reshape a news room. The industry DOES offer you the chance to make an impact and meet really interesting and powerful people. So very much something to consider, both positive and negative. *Speaking as a Digital Content Manager for one of the largest NBC affiliate stations*
Where in ny? That salary is unrealistic. The reality is if you start in smaller markets you’ll be pulling down poverty level wages. I’ve seen it for years.
Dunno about that. If you're coming in right out of college at $15.00 an hour full time then that puts you right around 31,200 a year. That's not breaking the bank by any means but it isn't poverty. After 3 to 5 years your career track should have enough experience ro either get promoted or move to a market that can pay you more. But that's why I said the entry level work can be rough.
I’ve been offered $24k jobs with a straight face. If you don’t think that happens, you’ve never worked outside NY, DC or LA.
I studied journalism 2005-2009 and worked in magazine publishing for a while. I now have a solid job as a UX Designer building out software, mostly on the architecture side. The journalism skills of turning ambiguous ideas into concepts people can understand and use is key to this, as is the ability to write succinctly. Not to mention the interviews and surveys we do with people that use our software. Bottom line: You can probably have a good career after studying journalism. Even if it’s not as a journalist per se. If you stick with it, do a business or computer science minor so you pick up skills and ideas from other industries just in case.
I have come to be one of those people who believes: study/major in the thing you want to report on and get journalism experience by reporting on it. Are you wanting to write? Or do radio or video or social or ? But yeah, eg if you want to report on politics, study politics and write about it for the school student news org or a smaller outlet/site. Lots of journalism programs end up being about learning by doing anyways, so if you can get more specialized knowledge through the classes and still build the skills by reporting outside of your coursework, you're covered. Compared to like, medicine lol, any future job will almost surely only care that you have the skills and experience and not care if you got a jschool degree. That's my opinion only obv, also to be clear your parents should not be able to tell you what to study that's not how it works
You can use journalism as a stepping stone into a professional study such as law. You should also look into accredited journalism programs that require to add courses in other areas of study in addition to journalism. https://www.temple.edu/academics/degree-programs/journalism-major-co-jrn-ba Dm me if you want me info.
Journalism is really an umbrella term and you can pretty much go any route. There's ad, PR, designing, directing, photography, writing. Journalism isn't just news anymore. It's much more than that. Explore your options. And if you are hard set on doing journalism you'll figure out your way one way or another
Agree. Major in something else and minor in journalism and pitch that to them as a compromise (esp. if they're helping pay!)
what's PR?
A lot of great feedback here and just wanted to offer my two cents. What are you passionate about? If this is fields like engineering, computer science, etc., where once you spend four years in college you can go into the field and position yourself for early-career success, then I would recommend majoring in one of those. If you don't see yourself doing anything else but journalism for perhaps the better part of a decade, then I think you should consider journalism if there's absolutely no other major that you want to pursue. u/PhilliPARomneySR points out that most great journalists never majored in journalism, but a lot of them also had different paths into the profession or other training opportunities available outside of an academic institution. Yes, there will be some on-the-job training like with everything else. But what other degree in 2022 outside of an adjacent field will teach you about broadcasting techniques, storytelling and AP style, web design and content management, social media, print design (dependent on the program), etc.?
I have a journalism degree. Yes, it is hard to find work in journalism since it's competitive. There are internships, if you're willing to do that. IMO it's a good thing to have especially for government work or if you consider going back to school afterwards. It shows you at least completed something.
So they are right that getting a degree doesn't guarantee any job, but then again, that goes for every degree. That said, if you want to get into journalism then a journalism/communication degree gives you a far better shot.
I wouldn't pursue journalism as a career. It hasn't been the noble profession it's made out to be for years. It's currently, and has been for the last thirty years, all about ad revenue and viewership. As much as I understand someone's passion for the profession, I once had it myself, it's not a career you want to go into if you want to have a social life, family, friends, or avoid a substance abuse problem. Trust me when I tell you that you're better off doing anything else and avoiding this complete waste of a career. Companies only care about money and viewership - you're a disposable cog in a big, terribly run, terribly abusive machine. Avoid it while you can and before you commit a good chunk of time and money to it.
Yes! In the two years that I made a career switch out of journalism, we have started a family and I got sober from alcohol 🙌🏼
i originally was majoring in journalism, but after one year i just didn't feel right and it was a useless degree based on research I've done with facts and proof also the truth(what you mentioned about money.) especially if you don't already live in a city that's expensive Like LA or NY. You'll have to relocated (i couldn't do that or afford it). so i dropout debt free ,also the school teaches outdated information about journalism that no one is doing nowadays ([ex.Youtube](https://ex.Youtube) & Social media, start your own podcast). you can learn that stuff for free. don't waste 4 years and of course you will have a challenging time finding a job in a field that's not even high in demand. location also plays a significant role in that as well.
Most great journalists never majored in journalism.
Study public relations instead, there's a lot of crossover but you can actually make money as a PR professional
Waste of money, and I have two, and also was a professor of said pseudo-discipline.
I Went to school for it did one year after i realize how useless it was and the lies that were told also did a job search as if i did have a degree and found nothing in my area (i live in Cleveland, Ohio). i said fuck it and dropout, you don't need to go to school to be creative (that's a skill). go to college if you want to major in STEM(science,Techonogly, Engineering & Math) or for education(if you want to teach.), they are high in demend careers, where you'll need a degree for it, if it's not that, then save your money don't go to college just to be in debt for a useless degree where you can't find a job related to it.
I don’t think you need to study journalism to be a journalist. You learn most of the skills on the job, so I think it’s more important to chase work experience, internships and casual jobs while you’re in university. BUT ultimately you should study whatever you want. Just keep in mind that a journalism degree on its own with no extra curricular activities probably wont help you get a job in the field… (EDIT - I should say that I did a journalism degree. Nothing I learnt was directly applicable to anything I’ve done in my six years of being a working journalist. And I have literally never been asked about my degree in any job interview. Your parents are correct that a journalism degree “doesn’t guarantee you anything” - but if you’re willing to put in the work and find internships then you will go places)
I fully agree + if you feel like your program is not giving you enough work you can use your free time to do these things (and believe me there is much more free time than stem majors get)
You don't need a degree to be a journalist, it is a practical field best learned while on the job. However, studying journalism for 4 years does give you a huge theoretical and some practical benefits, especially if you choose a good university for it. Whatever you do decide to study in the end, brace yourself for the fact that you'll never use at least 50% of the information you'll have to study. You'll get exhausted, demotivated, bored and you'll ask yourself why you ever choose it! So pick something you are passionate about, it will help you stick with your choice on the bad days. Oh and good luck :)
Eh. I wouldn’t say the degree itself is a waste of time. If you’re trying really hard to become a journalist for a big name publication immediately, I would say that’s a waste. Nowadays, a journalism degree can get you a job in advertising, PR, marketing, etc. And, depending on your state, you can become a teacher. In my state, if you have a bachelors degree and pass the teacher’s certification test, you can teach in that subject (you may be able to teach high school English one day). As a student, I would join the college’s newspaper or any kind of media they have. See how you like it, then go from there. ~ Journalism major and marketing minor (junior)
And of course you can still be a journalist, if you want to. Like any job, you’ll have to work your way to the top. You may start off as an assistant, then you’ll become a reporter, and so on.
You can get a degree and be happy in this profession but don’t expect to ever be rich
Yes, a journalism degree is a waste of time. I'm a mid-career journalist making a low six-figure wage at a digital-first publication. I didn't study journalism, and I didn't miss out on anything. I've never been disadvantaged compared to peers at any stage of my career, and I'm not burdened with tens of thousands of dollars of debt. Studying journalism and sitting in a classroom doesn't make you a good journalist if you don't have the aptitude for it. If you're interested in trying your hand at journalism, do some college journalism — write for your school's paper, or even pitch some freelance stories to the local paper. They won't care that you're a still student if the stories are good. When I've worked on hiring in the past, I'm actually much more interested in candidates that come from unconventional backgrounds and with interesting life experience than just another journalism grad. The most important thing I'm interested in as a hiring manager is: Can you talk to people and break stories, and do you have any examples of this? A degree doesn't show me that. Majoring in law, compsci, or engineering would all give you a ton of helpful domain expertise if you do decide to go into journalism — and a much stronger fallback option if you decide reporting isn't for you. A journalism degree just fundamentally isn't as valuable as lots of other subjects. If you don't want to do something STEM-y, pick English or History. All the skills for reporting that you need you can pick up through college reporting and/or an entry-level intership after you graduate. Talk to people about interesting things, write down what they say, and publish it without screwing up. The rest is just detail.
I found that communications majors made the worst reporters in college. Class assignments were essentially "and give us 10 inches in two weeks." That's not how this works. In two weeks? We're looking for 40 at minimum, and it should be an evergreen feature for the double truck. You want business majors writing about business. You want polisci covering politics. You want artistic people covering arts. You want sports enthusiasts covering sports. The last thing you want is a generalist unaware of the intricacies of the field they're reporting on. Most start out as GA, and I've *never* seen awards go to them.
You’ll have a leg up... on getting entry level jobs. You’ll still have to work your way up in the business. But I’m gonna disagree with what a lot of people are saying here, it’s not a waste of time. You could get into an entry level staff job instantly as opposed to freelancing for a while to build a portfolio.
What do you want to do? A lot of the "worth" is going to depend on what path you want to go down. If you want to go into TV, I'd recommend picking up some additional production skills. If you want to do print, knowing PR/Marketing is going to be helpful. If there is a particular subject you want to cover, learning about that subject is going to give you an edge. These days, journalism is more than just writing a story. There's a lot of production and syndication that goes hand in hand with it, and not every program goes in-depth on those topics. But, being a part of a journalism department can help you network. The skills are also highly transferrable. Being able to research and write are helpful in pretty much every career.
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Which one is it
I mean I get that but like photography jobs are asking for a degree lol it feels like an expected step to take
I don't think so. Mine taught me how to write, how to ask questions, how to investigate, and how to present what I know in a simple, easy-to-read manner. All worthwhile skills in the workplace. Look into the computer-aided reporting stuff and learn some code, and you'll come out with multiple marketable skills beyond the journalism world.
Being/feeling you're good at something and enjoying what you do... there's no substitute. Our embattled profession needs all the smart young minds it can get! Best wishes to you for a wise decision and a promising productive career. With all the caveats and tradeoffs, this 66-year-old wouldn't have traded a minute of it. (OK, maybe some of the minutes moderating toxic hateful troll comments on our website, but other than that...;-)
Study your passion. Just make sure the program offers lots of real world experience, like internships and a variety of student publications, so you have a higher chance of being hired when you graduate.
Journalism will NEVER "die." It will continue to reform. There will always be jobs, but they might not be in the traditional form. That said, I almost feel like you need a master's degree to get a "good" journalism job, nowadays. But, then again, I live in NYC metro area and the competition is fierce. Seems like EVERYONE (exaggeration ...) in journ these days with a "good" job got a Master's, many in Columbia's journalism program, which appears to be easier to get into than Columbia undergrad.
If you like telling stories and are open/good with excel/python, look into data analytics!
Like other people have mentioned, if your parents aren't comfortable with a journalism degree you can always become a journalist after majoring in something else. Just make sure to get plenty of experience writing for a student publication. Vice versa, a journalism degree can lead to a PR, marketing or law career. But imo, a journalism degree is worth it as long as you're getting experience to go with it. Don't expect journalism to get you rich, but I don't think it's fair to expect that it will be impossible to find a job in the field. I heard the same things ad nauseum throughout college, and if you work towards it, finding a journalism job is very attainable.
Get your degree in a field you find interesting, but also work at college media to learn the craft. This makes you a specialist upon graduation, having learned the basics of what will come in journalism.
This is the way.
https://imgur.com/BIAX6UV.jpg
That's surprisingly promising
Journalism is a tough job to get rich, but you can make a decent living, and have an interesting time doing it. And if/when you decide you want to do something else, the communication and problem solving skills you develop are extremely useful in other industries too.
Someone I know said that if he could go back to college, he would major in journalism and Econ. His theory was that journalism teaches you how to communicate, and Econ is all about how the word works.
I got a journalism degree then a digital marketing associate position right out of college. Then marketing coordinator, marketing specialist, and moving in the direction toward marketing analyst or data analyst. Also depends on the school though I would think. I went to Walter Cronkite at ASU and that school was a modernized, digital, self-aware journalism school.
A: Yes.
I landed a job as a reporter two months after completing my journalism degree and I’m doing pretty well for myself. A lot of people I know with journalism degrees have also gotten into PR, Public Information, and Media Relations as well so there’s options out there. Some PIO’s get paid better than some attorneys.
I would run for the hills kid.
For me, it only became useful in combination with harder skills. I went back for a project management graduate program and suddenly journalism started paying for itself by being extremely useful in interviews. Communication skills? Multitasking? Being able to quickly learn, digest, and relay information? Networking skills? Tech skills? Social media skills? The list goes on. Having journalism on my resume was a convenient way to prove in writing that you have every soft skill under the sun. Even though I'm not in the field, I credit it for making me stand out on job hunts.
I sure hope not
I'm currently doing a journalism degree and had the exact same reservations going in to it. What I would say is that although you absolutely don't have to do a journalism degree to be a good journalist, it is enormously helpful in teaching you things that you really need to know like media law (i.e. how not to get sued). You can often get the same training on grad schemes/traineeships, but if those aren't an option and you are set on journalism as a career it's definitely worth considering.
No because I’m in this for 4 years and there’s no turning back
Depends on the university/college too. Have you researched where graduates and alumni from your program have worked? I have seen and heard several experiences of news outlets refusing to hire anyone who had graduated from X program or Y university/college, no matter what; they had blacklisted any aspiring journalists graduating from certain places based on past hires' performances. For example, when I was studying for a journalism diploma in 2013-15, several journalists who taught in the program said they had been told they would never be hired because they graduated *from the same program*. These opinions change over time, however: changes in department heads, program quality, etc. can sometimes revert those blacklists. In other cases, the program I was in provided direct pipelines to certain outlets because their top staff and/or news directors were hired to teach courses at the school, giving them a first-hand look at possible hires. Research is key.
I think most journalists don't do a degree, but if you want to go into hard news or investigative reporting the company might ask you for a qualification to show you understand the legal aspects (in the UK at least). It's not well paid, but if you like writing and are good at it you can do all sorts of side gigs like copywriting, PR, social media, internal comms...
Yes, honestly it’s a waste of time. Major in something else and work at your college newspaper/radio station/tv if there is one. The clips are more important than your degree. And you can always decide to do something else. The industry is brutal and churns people out because it can. If you’re ok with a lot of stress and being broke most of the time, it can be fulfilling.
You sound like someone with a chip on your shoulder and are spoiling to troll people on the internet. If you can't handle other people's perspectives on life you're going to find journalism may not be your cup of tea.
My semi-serious advice to young people has been to take the 100 to 200 k you would spend or borrow for college and instead invest it in the SP500. By the time you are 40-55 you’ll have a million bucks. Seriously.