Collegemambo- I was struck by the same thing.
“Back in the day” a kid could major in journalism, do an internship or two at the college radio station, get some clips under his or her belt and “sally forth”. Never an easy path- but doable.
The last few kids I know who got themselves launched in journalism had degrees in history, political science, or economics, from elite universities with huge paper trails (digital of course) from first their college newspapers, then local and national blogs, a feature article or two in a national magazine, and several prestigious fellowships (one has already published a book about political corruption, a beat she covered in her college city). None of them studied journalism and frankly, even the most successful one of them benefited from a semester’s leave to volunteer for a political campaign which bolstered the Rolodex and the ability to get phone calls returned.
I fear for the low income kids banking on degrees in journalism and communications to get them where they think they are going. And the loans- ugh.
Nice kid in my neighborhood- degree in Mass Media from a non-flagship state college- waiting for Covid to end because he’s heading to Asia to teach English for two years. Just signed the contract. He pretty much did a fulltime job search for two years and after a string of unpaid internships concluded that journalism was not going to happen for him. Contracting industry- and the jobs aren’t where you think they are…