IF YOU ARE AN ASPIRING journalist, and you want a 60 second synopsis of the state of journalism, click here for Gawker.com's analysis.Here is a sample:
The outlook is grim. If you're just getting into journalism, the job market is already flooded with people with far more experience than you who've been laid off, and are competing for the same jobs. If you're employed, moving up is treacherous—you never know when the new job you just took could disappear for reasons unrelated to anything you did personally.
But there's still a huge news hole to be filled with crap. Somebody has to do it. It might as well be you.
Thoughts?
14 comments:
Start a blog.
I personally have no profound interest in writing in the field of journalism, however, I've always given it some thought. I've heard this kind of news about journalism before, and that's why I don't plan on majoring in it. I feel like it would be a better idea to hone one's writing skills in a language based major such as philosophy or English, and then pursue journalistic endeavors on the side. But I guess that depends on your interest level...
The job market for journalism is difficult, and your solution is to major in philosophy or English?
Have you studied the employment prospects of philosophy majors? Or English majors?
- George (the teacher who believes it's better to be a journalism major than a philosophy major ... or any other major for that matter. Journalism is big fun.)
There is going to be competition in every market. Wall street is collapsing, and as a result, business majors are probably going to have an extremely hard time finding work after school because of a lack of experience.
Film majors are at a disadvantage if they have no experience before college even starts!
My point is that the American philosophy is hard work gets you what you want in more cases than not, and if people are passionate about journalism or even interested, they need to get started and get ahead of the game. Stories like this that try to scare people away from it causes unnecessary stress because there is heavy competition in just about anything anymore.
Well I assume by "Crap" he refers to all the magazines and special niches that each person can relate to. Like a logging magazine or the stupid tabloids that people with boring lives obsess about.
And unfortunately its true, people will always find complete crap and turn it into entertainment.. reality TV's popularity while not Journalism shows people love whatever entertains the uneducated mind.
[changing my major as we speak..]
Funny, I've heard from numerous journalists that the future of the profession is grim, but it still hasn't deterred my interest in writing articles (maybe not for a paper, but an established website). Two of those journalists are my teachers. Whats the deal with that? Little more encouragement, guys!
I hope it's not unwarranted optimism, but I feel pretty confident my writing skills, and will hopefully learn enough about reporting and business in classes
I think
A. if you have enough love for it you'll keep going (perhaps without any hope) Look at Broadway actors. The employment rate for actors on Broadway is 1%. Youd think given those odds no one would try it, people do however. There are thousands of waiters who are serving you in NY thinking "i should be at a rehearsal right now not serving these people"
B. If you dont have that kind of love for the job, find something else.
it's cliche but my mom always said, "do what you love or you won't get up in the morning" what do i love to do? write; therefore, journalism is for me. i am completely aware of the extreme difficulty i am going to face, but whatever. my mom's a social worker, i am used to being poor. haha.
The way I see it is if that you love journalism and that is what will make you happy, you cannot worry about what might happen. Work that much harder to make yourself a great journalist. Hardly any job is garaunteed these days, my parents have degrees in business, accounting and computer sciences and they have both been laid off at some point. If you major in something else which 'garauntees' you a job and money, it will be a long life if you're unhappy.
Reading that was depressing but I think no matter what, everone is going to be faced with challenges landing their "dream job". If opportunity doesn't come knocking, go find it! Deep, I know...
Reading that was depressing but I think no matter what, everone is going to be faced with challenges landing their "dream job". If opportunity doesn't come knocking, go find it! Deep, I know...
I personally am scared to death that a job won't be there for me after I graduate school. I'm scared that all my hard work will leave me writing soft core porn or for some trash tabloid magazine. I'm scared that I'll be broke my entire life and be living off of cheerios and ssips ice tea box drinks. However, this is what I love. I breathe through writing, and I live through other people when listening to them speak about the wonderful things they have seen and the heart breaks they have experienced. It is scary to know that you are studying to go into a trade that is sinking, but I have my life jacket ready and I'm going to fight my way up to stay above the water.
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