<p>Hi CC parents, I need your advice/comments on this -</p>
<p>I will be a HS junior, think about college majors. Eventually I'd like to be a journalist. I love to write and I love to make movies, website, etc. People told me there is no money in this business. newspapers are running out of business, too many writers... </p>
<p>I know money is not the only thing that I think about. but I don't like to be poor and worry about money too much. In fact I hate that. (I remember a line - ask your waiter about his English major in college...)
I also know in every career, the top ones are never poor. But I'm not confident I can make it to the top. I am willing to work hard and I'm reasonably smart. Yet success depends on chance a great deal. Realistically, I assume I'll be in the middle. Someone who does engineering in the middle can still have a good life. How about a middle ranked journalist? What kind of jobs do they get if they can't make it to CNN, ABC, Wall Street Journal, etc.? </p>
<p>Some of you might be willing to share your wisdom with me. Thanks!</p>
<p>Don’t worry too much right now about picking a college major. Try lots of things and find out what your talents are, what interests you and what makes you happy.</p>
<p>I started college as a journalism major and worked at the school paper. I saw the very best seniors at the paper struggle to get low-paid jobs in small corners of the country. I decided that the reality of being a journalist did not match with my (romantic) notion of it. I switched to accounting as a major and career and have been happy.</p>
<p>My dear friend is a sports editor of a major newpaper. He said that whereas there used to be 4 people doing page layout, there is now one, and therefore, the graphics aren’t as fancy, etc. The biggest problem is lack of advertisers for the print media. He also informed us that he will know within the next year or so if his job has been eliminated or if he will have to move to another city, since the paper wants to merge its offices into one location, not the few cities where everything is located currently. There will be some local reporters left, but he says if you want to be a journalist, be one for the internet or TV.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that, while the journalism business (aka, newspapers) are suffering right now due to increased reliance on technology, someone still has to write the news, even if it’s only used electronically. </p>
<p>Definitely use your high school years to pump up your resume for college applications so that you can go to a place that’s well known for its journalism school and/or communications department if it still continues to hold your interest.</p>
<p>You could go to college and study journalism, and you could also study similar areas to give yourself an even broader education and experience. You might even like those subjects too! Programs like print and web journalism, broadcasting, public relations, advertising (I was told my first semester to never do any kind of communication/broadcasting program without taking at least one advertising class). It would definitely be a good idea to get a lot of experience with online and electronic journalism, but that shouldn’t be a problem since a lot of the programs I’ve seen require those classes. Even if you choose a print journalism concentration you can still take electives in other areas that will give you that experience. Make sure you look into a lot of internships and try to get as much experience in school as you can.</p>
<p>What I’ve learned with this kind of career is that you’ve got to be prepared to search high and low, near and far, for a job, and sometimes you’ve even got to be pretty flexible about what you want to do. Maybe you’ll start out at a local place in advertising or editing or whatever, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t move up in the company or keep searching.</p>
<p>Communication and writing has been with us for many, many ages. We will always need a way to spread news and people to communicate that news to us. Journalism might be an evolving field- maybe there won’t be as much newspapers or radio news stations- but no matter how the news gets across you are still telling the same type of stories, and we need people to tell them.</p>
<p>Older D graduated a few years ago with a degree in Magazines, of all things. She was one of the lucky ones who did get a job right away, working for a small magazine publisher as an associate editor. After a couple of years, she moved on to a fairly large corporation, where she is an editor in the human resources department. She writes the human resources news magazine for employees and other related stuff. There are so many opportunities if you have developed good writing skills. Be creative in where you can apply your talents.</p>
<p>October has some solid ideas. I’d like to expand on one of them. You’re going to make yourself more marketable if you double major, more likely in an area that you think you’d like to write about. If international news is your passion, then double major in international studies (or whatever equivalent the college offers). D1 started out as a double journalism/public policies major, and ended up only minoring in public studies, but even that has been a boon to her resume. In fact, I think at Syracuse (one of the tops in the nation) they require journalism students to minor in something, and strongly encourage double majors.</p>
<p>I went to journalism school long ago, and I’ve been a writer and editor most of my professional life; now I publish books and online magazines. </p>
<p>There will always be a demand for people who can do careful and accurate research and craft that into well-written pieces. It is a marketable skill… maybe not at a newspaper now, because they’re dying, but many magazines are going strong, and digital media will continue to morph and grow.</p>
<p>Yes, it helps if you have an area of focus-- I used to do a lot of health journalism, for instance, and there’s still a demand for writers who can tell health/science stories for the lay reader. So a focus/minor helps. But mostly getting TONS of experience helps-- I don’t care how much of a natural writer you are, it takes a lot of experience to be good. And if you are good, you will find work.</p>
<p>That said, make sure any journalism program isn’t too old-school. There must be a strong new-media focus and a sense of creativity.</p>
<p>Some students find that extracurricular and work experiences related to journalism are a big help in developing their skills and in preparing them for a job after graduation – regardless of whether they major in journalism or major in something else and take communications/journalism courses on the side.</p>
<p>Working for the college newspaper can be very time consuming, but it provides a lot of practical experience, especially for those who do it all four years and become familiar enough with the workings of the publication to move into responsible editorial positions as upperclassmen. Part-time or summer jobs or internships at any sort of publication could also be valuable, but there can be a great deal of competition for these positions.</p>
<p>Double major is a good idea. ECs are also important. If you have the right personality, you’re on. I have two nieces who did journalism in college and are both having good jobs.</p>
<p>I wanted to be a sports journalist when I was in middle school. Went to Northwestern because, if I changed my mind, they had a lot of other choices. I ended up majoring in Communication Studies (intimidated by Medill!) and have worked in public relations since I graduated (my own business for the past 17 years). I started in sports PR (literally fell into it - it was fun but definitely not all it was cracked up to be), but ended up specializing in healthcare PR. You cannot overestimate the value of a good, smart writer!</p>
<p>I would recommend trying to get a variety of writing experiences during college (work experience/internships), trying to network with people in journalism/communications and staying up-to-date on the changing field. NU has a relatively new integrated marketing masters program that looks awesome (wish I lived closer).</p>
<p>You are young. Use this time to explore your opportunities and investigate the avenues where your skills and interest could fit. You may be surprised. Good luck!</p>
<p>Make sure you get internships. I spent 15 years in broadcasting, and never did any potential employer ask me about my college classes, they only wanted to know what I did as an intern.
Internships will show you what real world skills you need to make it. You need a thick skin, ability to work crazy hours, to work quickly, and to be curious. You’ll also have to be willing to live in a rural area ,as the field is a little like minor league baseball, you have to work the farm leagues before you get into the majors. Be prepared to learn about agriculture, and to cover things like car accidents when you are starting out. There won’t be much “news”.
There is a great article on the future of journalism in this past weekends NY Times Magazine. It echos what people are telling you here. There will always be a need for content, so make sure you can write well.
If journalism is what you want to do, go for it! It is so fun, and what other field allows you to constantly learn new things every day?</p>
<p>OP… does your high school offer any journalism electives? Also, start building your portfolio now for college applications by working on the school newspaper. Hopefully you have a supportive faculty mentor for this.</p>
<p>Unless you absolutely have to spend your whole summer working for money, investigate high school internships that require you to write. They can be with any large corporation, such a hospital, local daily paper, etc. Those kinds of things on your resume will put you ahead of other students applying to journalism schools. </p>
<p>Also, does your school offer any kind of broadcasting/TV classes or opportunities? Those are great learning opportunities, too. Or what about a video yearbook? If they don’t have one, perhaps there is a faculty member who is willing to help get that kind of project off the ground.</p>
<p>I recently spoke with a former colleague, a TV journalist, who told me that these days, the business is called “20-20-20:” you hire 20 year olds, you pay them $20,000/year and you work them 20 hours a day. </p>
<p>That said, journalism is good preparation for many fields: a lot of lawyers, PR and advertising executives are former journalists.</p>
<p>luv2skate - I will probably get flamed for this, but if you are seriously considering a job in written communications, one of the smartest things you can do at this age is to become diligent and almost borderline obsessed with anything you write for public eyes. I think one of the disservices of IM/texting/internet usage these days is the shorthand that gets ingrained into ones mind, to the point it becomes almost rote-like. </p>
<p>A good exercise would be for you to go through forums on CC and mentally edit them, meaning, look for spelling and punctuation errors. Now, don’t take them seriously (people making typos on forums are a dime a dozen), but use an ‘editing eye’ to pick out mistakes. Then use that eye to review your own posts; it is more difficult to edit your own material, but it’s an excellent skill to have. Being a good writer doesn’t mean you have to know every rule, but that you know where your weaknesses are and when to look things up. Sometimes the word processing programs can be your worst enemy, giving you a false sense of security - i.e. too, two and to.</p>
<p>That being said, what would you change differently in your post #13?</p>
<p>The reason I say this is because, when I was in high school, I developed a pretty keen eye for this kind of written scrutiny. My teachers noticed it and were the ones who encouraged me to do something with my writing skills in college. Being polished is a skill you need to develop before you learn the basics of telling a story. The most professional written media outlets rarely run copy that has any of these kinds of errors. The lower on the totem pole you get, the more likely you are to see simple errors have been overlooked, or not properly edited.</p>