Having been an avid editor on my school newspaper so far in high school, I’ve never been very much interested in computers, nevertheless computer science. Instead, I always craved a career in journalism. But recently, I got into the “creative” aspect of newspapers. Specifically, presenting stories in different web mediums, such as interactive graphics, accompanying illustrations, etc. Immediately, a future in this field became more appealing than a beat reporter. For the most part, math has always been an easy subject for me. Likewise, art has always been a part of my life. As a rising high school junior, is it possible for me to double major in Computer Science and Journalism in college, even if I have NO background in programming languages?
Yes, colleges offer entry level CS courses that do not assume previous experience.
However, if your high school offers AP CS principles, you may want to take that course to see how interested you are in CS.
Agree, certainly not too late to start in CS. But there are also other majors or concentrations that might match your interests. Things like digital arts, interactive studies, and such. I know Miami OH has a big program in that stuff (don’t know how they compare to other schools, just saw that a while back when looking at other stuff there). CS is fine, those other programs are just other options to consider.
That’s graphic design, not computer science. There is a HUMONGOUS difference between the two.
I’m an artist, and I’m married to a computer scientist. I can’t even begin to tell you how important it is that you be very clear about whether you want to pursue CS (and whether you want to come at it from the science or engineering perspective) or pursue graphic design. They are fundamentally different.
Spend some time on codeacademy.com to see what it’s like to program. If you don’t have adobe’s CC, or any experience working with that software, familiarize yourself with that as well. It’ll give you a better idea of which path you want to pursue.
http://cs10.org may be worth going through to get an idea of what CS is about.
This sounds less like you want a future in computer science than a future in new-media/multimedia journalism. There may be some coding involved in presenting stories that way, but generally not anything that would necessitate a computer science major. (Some of the larger papers have built their own custom platforms for certain major stories, but that is the exception to the rule. Generally they are releasing multimedia stories on established platforms that enable them to construct a story with a minimum of custom coding required.)
I’d suggest you look for a journalism program with a strong digital focus, and perhaps minor in computer science with a focus on taking courses that teach skills relevant to the platforms you are using in your major (probably things like Javascript, HTML, CSS, PHP, etc.)
These two sites are a good starting point:
http://www.journalismdegree.com/5-great-digital-journalism-programs-in-the-us/
Echoing what @MotherOfDragons said. The two are completely different.
@optimism129, what you want is not computer science. Moreover, CS is not a coding degree, it’s essentially a degree in applied math. Unless you’re interested in algorithms, data structures, and the fundamentals of computing and computer architectures, you should look elsewhere. As others have said, look into graphic design or digital graphics, art, etc. and learn a little bit of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc. like @DreamSchlDropout suggested.