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I am currently thinking of either a career in Media Communications or Journalism. What are these areas like? Do you enjoy it? How is the job market? any other useful information you might add?
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Journalism major and former reporter here. Job market is terrible. Job growth is negative and salaries are the same for entry-level as they were 15 years ago (except for the proliferation of unpaid internships). I enjoyed the work but not the poverty-level wages.
I really wouldn't recommend it as a major if you need a job after graduation.
Journalism is dead. The proof is that the National Enquirer has been scooping the major papers quite a bit lately.
There is no job growth, even in this period of history where something happens eavry day, because the "journalists" refuse to "report" the truth. This is why the papers are failing.
Case in point....Afghanistan just has its deadliest month for American service personell. Where's the headlines?
I work for a nonprofit social service agency, and my department of five has four ex-journalists in it. I got out of the newspaper biz 13 years ago because, after 17 years, I just wasn't enjoying it anymore. I'm an old-fashioned reporter who likes her news hard and fast, and got tired of my boss wanting me to write useless, meaningless feel-good drivel.
Journalism is a great major to prepare you to ask questions and write concisely. But it's a hell of a field to find jobs in these days. Community papers are doing better than larger dailies, but the pay is abysmal. But ... a journalism major can prepare you for a career in public relations, fundraising, publishing, etc.
If you do decide to go for it, be sure to memorize the number one, cardinal rule of news reporting---find out their age.
"We didn't know what was happening", said Maria Sanchez, 23.
If you want to be a journalist, you have to let your entire live be controlled by such silly, anachronistic trivialities.
Also, if you suspect that there is anything in your story that an intelligent person might need to know about in order to place it into a structural perspective, put it in Paragraph 23.
And don't forget to cover your ass.
"It rained yesterday", according to a person, 36, in the sheriff's department who asked, through a translator, not to be identified because he did not have authority to make statements about the incident.
If you can endure being forced to write this kind of crap day after day, maybe journalism is for you.
If you can endure being forced to write this kind of crap day after day, maybe journalism is for you.
But if you worked for me -- and I didn't have a boss wanting me to write stupid stuff -- you wouldn't have to endure reporting trivialities unless they were essential to understanding the story.
But I'm one of those old-fashioned, hard-news, ink-stained neanderthals. Think Lou Grant, but prettier.
More and more the Internet is killing the journalism.
the most important about journalism is covering the current news "beside another tasks as well," but you can get it now from many websites, everyone now can be a journalist through YouTube or Blogs, although this thing has negative point especially to journalists, but it has a great positive point in the repressive countries, because the governments lose the ability to hide the undesirable events "from its point of view," they can't do this any longer, sooner or later people know the truth.
More and more the Internet is killing the journalism.
the most important about journalism is covering the current news "beside another tasks as well," but you can get it now from many websites, everyone now can be a journalist through YouTube or Blogs, although this thing has negative point especially to journalists, but it has a great positive point in the repressive countries, because the governments lose the ability to hide the undesirable events "from its point of view," they can't do this any longer, sooner or later people know the truth.
Do you think in the USA, the orthodox mainstream media is not using selection of coverage as a means of slanting the news? Check out those end-of-year lists of news stories that the media did not report. You don't need to go to "repressive countries" to see how that works. Selective coverage, more than slanted writing, is the mode in American journalism. Nearly all Americans still get nearly all their news from mainstream TV outlets, which do not 'sooner or later' report the truth---they just ignore it.
Graduated with a Print Journalism major, Creative Writing minor, combined into a B.S. in Mass Communications. I did nothing with it. I went to school because I wanted to continue my education; not because I felt any particular need to seek out a career.
I've also returned to school since graduating in 1983. I took computer courses in Visual Basic, C++, advanced Visual Basic, and bench-tech instruction, and received my Computer Technician certification around 2002. I also went to Bartender school and got my certification, and achieved certification in Aromatherapy.
I dabbled in all of this stuff professionally, but mostly I did it because "learning stuff is fun."
Age is used in names as a means of positive identification. It is not used in all reports.
I worked on newspapers, as a reporter, for 12 years. Got out of it in 1997. Now I'm a writer and photographer for a major company.
Journalism pays poorly, has lousy hours, lots of stress and it's difficult to find a job.
I do not suggest it as a long-term career, but if you're young it can provide you with invaluable training. Much of what you learn in college, in any discipline, can't compare to the real-life experience you get after graduation. This is especially true of journalism.
Don't expect to be hired to a daily immediately from college. You'll likely have to start on a weekly paper but that's good because you'll learn your craft. On weeklies,, I covered everything from Girl Scout cookie sales to murder trials; you won't get that kind of experience on a daily, you'll be pigeonholed into a general area on a daily.
The most sought-after area on dailies is the "cop shop." Everyone wants to cover trials and crime. Start on a daily and you'll likely find yourself covering county fairs, art fairs, an occasional auto accident, etc.
On a weekly, because of a small staff, you'll get it all. You'll also get a meager paycheck and work long hours. It's the dues you pay to truly learn your craft.
Hollywood and TV portray journalism as glamorous, and reporters live in trendy little apartments or houses. The truth is, most journalists are well under 40 and have roommates in average apartments because that's all they can afford.
Most get out of the business by their early 30s and go into public relations for a big business, hospital or government agency.
A good writer will always be in demand, however. That means a writer who can spell, knows the actual definition of a word (ensure vs. insure, notoriety vs. fame, etc.), can create interesting copy and is accurate.
Accuracy is everything.
Objectivity -- being able to set aside your personal feelings to present the facts and let the reader decide -- is a skill lost on most of today's journalists. What I see in journalism today would have netted me a C or D in Newswriting 101 in the early 1980s when I attended school. My prof was STRICT on accuracy and objectivity, as he should have been.
He got out of teaching journalism years ago, disheartened by all the blogging, sensationalism, exaggeration and pettiness today.
If you seek journalism as a long-term career, you'll be in for a long, low-paying grind and subject to disdain equal to or lower than that reserved for lawyers. But if you decide to go into it for a few years, and truly learn how the craft, you can use those skills in other vocations.
There's a skill to writing headlines, cutlines (often incorrectly called "captions" under photos), interviewing, laying out pages, writing objectively and yet still keeping the report interesting.
The choice is yours. Were I you, I'd seek another major. Yet, some of our finest writers began as journalists: Poe, Hemingway, Kipling, H. Allen Smith and others.
You'll invest four or five years of college to graduate and begin making $1,200 to $1,500 a month on a daily, less on a weekly.
Sound so attractive now?
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