I am a freshman at NYU who’s thinking about majoring in journalism. However, I really need some advice on some things:
-Is it a waste of time to major in journalism? I really like journalism, but it seems the career is on the decline and I don’t want to spend years competing for a bare minimum salary. Basically, I want a more stable career. Also, I’m not really a “people person” which might hinder my career.
-However as it is my passion, I’ve been thinking about combining the major with computer science to give me a competitive edge. How feasible is this for someone who’s never programmed anything before, and is not necessarily a “math” person?
-What are other good majors for someone who is logical, more on the introverted side, yet not totally 100% attracted to a stem career?
OK, don’t think of your life/career as a straight line path from major to jobs/career. Think instead of yourself building skills and knowledge that will be an asset to you in a field of careers that you may enter later…or several different fields of careers. When I majored in psychology, I never imagined that I’d be working in a tech company ten years later. But the skills I developed in my seemingly unrelated major - plus other skills I learned simply because I was interested in them - were an asset to the company I work for now.
Journalism is a major in which you learn many things - how to write, how to communicate well verbally and in written form, how to tell a story, how to conduct research and turn out a well-supported argument, etc. You can parlay those skills into lots of different kinds of careers and jobs that aren’t just being a straight-up newspaper reporter. You’re right in that the traditional job of reporters, correspondents, and broadcast analysts is declining, as print media is dying and advertising revenues are difficult to come by for online periodicals. But there are still SOME jobs in that field; they are just different from the way we would envision a reporter in 1988.
If you like computer science, then computer science can potentially give you a competitive advantage in many fields/jobs. But there are caveats. One, computer science is about a whole lot more than just programming. So yes, you can be successful if you’ve never programmed anything (lots of CS majors haven’t before coming to college), but also realize that you’ll be learning a lot more than just how to code. If you like logic, then CS may appeal to you. The second caveat, though, is that quantity of career options isn’t equivalent to quality. CS may open a lot of doors…that you don’t want to go through!
Thirdly is that we can’t predict the future. I say this all the time, but in 2004 real estate, financial services, and law were three ironclad careers that promised stability and a lot of money. In 2008, the world changed practically overnight; banks that people thought were too big to fail collapsed, and lots of friends who went into financial services lost their jobs. Now you’ll see adults telling kids not to go to law school. That was anathema when I was a college freshman! (On the other hand, tech had just come out of a bubble, and few people were thinking that tech was going to take off the way it has. When I was a college freshman, many of the biggest companies in my field didn’t even exist yet.) Who knows what’ll happen to tech in the next couple years? Who knows if someone will invent some technology or knowledge that makes journalism take off again?
You have to pursue your own interests and talents. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t build skills with an eye to the market, but those skills have to be chosen with both your own interests and the needs of the job market in mind. And you can always learn new skills, but the major you select is the foundation from which you learn them.
The CS major at NYU looks pretty light on math. Just a warning though, Discrete Math which is a CS requirement
is a hard course.
https://cs.nyu.edu/home/undergrad/major_programs.html
That said, businesses love having IT people who can write.
I’m in journalism (PR) and while newspaper print journalism is on the decline, there is a strong upward tick in digital marketing type careers - think about journalists using social media to push their message through the use of influencers.
So, rather than choosing between journalism and CS, I would suggest - based on your interests - to try digital marketing with a minor in public relations. You’ll gain the computer courses and the writing/reporting classes you want. You’ll be writing more blog posts than investigative stories, but it’s something that you can do anywhere and by yourself if you want.
ETA: Journalism schools/departments tend to be located in either business or arts colleges. Go with a business degree - it’s more versatile.