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Is journalism really dying?

Hi,

I want to get into journalism when I am older but I am worried it is dying. Everytime I say to someone "I want to be a journalist" they either say, "Consider a different job, see it as a hobby" or "It's dying" or the most popular response "Enjoy **** pay".

I have tailored my whole academics around going into journalism and I am worried I am going to leave school and go and get a degree in something worthless.

Has anyone here graduated and got a good job or do you end up working for "Pipe Cleaner Weekly", "Polish Deli Review" or "The Weekly Nun Lifestyle Magazine".

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Reply 1
hey!
No journalism isn't dying, but the number of trashy newspapers and news channels is increasing. The broadcasting material out there isn't that great either (leaving aside BBC, world news, CNN etc)
If its your childhood dream, then go for it. Your degree will not be worthless, the world needs better and more ethical journalists.
As for the pay scale, I don't think that should be a problem. If you have the potential, they'll give you the money.
Example. Fareed Zakaria on GPS

Hope that helps... and never compromise on yourself for what people say.
It's not dying, just sleeping.
Reply 3
Original post by Chuck Norris
It's not dying, just sleeping.


Hopefully it's like a dormant volcano and it'll erupt by the time I finish my degree.
Reply 4
Original post by srao
hey!
No journalism isn't dying, but the number of trashy newspapers and news channels is increasing. The broadcasting material out there isn't that great either (leaving aside BBC, world news, CNN etc)
If its your childhood dream, then go for it. Your degree will not be worthless, the world needs better and more ethical journalists.
As for the pay scale, I don't think that should be a problem. If you have the potential, they'll give you the money.
Example. Fareed Zakaria on GPS

Hope that helps... and never compromise on yourself for what people say.


Yes, but Zakaria had a degree from Yale under his belt :wink: the 2nd best uni in the us
It's going to get more and more competitive because newspapers are eventually going to die out and replaced by the internet. Most newspapers are already seeing cuts of employees as their circulation drops. Plus, the rise in blogging community also poses a challenge. You shouldn't study journalism at university rather something else like History or English lit where you'd have other career options. Most universities which offer journalism aren't really that reputable and for the top companies (BBC, Guardian/Telegraph, the economist, Reuters etc etc ) they'll be fairly competitive and I'd wager that most entrants don't have a journalism degree.
Reply 6
ARGH!!!!!!!!!!! So many conflicting opinions...
Reply 7
Original post by Annoying-Mouse
It's going to get more and more competitive because newspapers are eventually going to die out and replaced by the internet. Most newspapers are already seeing cuts of employees as their circulation drops. Plus, the rise in blogging community also poses a challenge. You shouldn't study journalism at university rather something else like History or English lit where you'd have other career options. Most universities which offer journalism aren't really that reputable and for the top companies (BBC, Guardian/Telegraph, the economist, Reuters etc etc ) they'll be fairly competitive and I'd wager that most entrants don't have a journalism degree.


What about Nottingham Trent, Sheff and City? Aren't they the best j-schools in the UK.
Original post by GrantG
What about Nottingham Trent, Sheff and City? Aren't they the best j-schools in the UK.


Yeah but you have to question the value of a journalistic university course. Just like you have to question the value of a comedy university course. sheffield require AAB and city require AAA, if you're capable of getting AAB/AAA you're capable of getting A*AA in my opinion, if you put the work in. If you get A*AA, you have a chance to go to even more prestigious universities than Sheffield. At university, you could do some actual journalistic things like writing for the university paper. Journalism degree restricts your future career. Studying English lit/history/geography opens more doors and gives you the opportunity to study at more prestigious universities. You won't be at any sort of disadvantage studying English lit/history etc etc, so why not? Could even help with your journalistic career for subjects like history/geography.
(edited 12 years ago)
Maybe study English?
Would modern languages, by chance, allow one to go into (international) journalism? I'm applying to St Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow, primarily, for Italian/German and Spanish. :smile:
It's not dying, it's up to the new and internet savvy journalists to find ways of unlocking the potential of the internet as a way of making money. But jobs are harder to come by if that's what you're asking.
Reply 12
It's not dying. It's changing. Community and digital media is the future.
NO its not dying, its becoming multimedia even more so than ever. When your looking at doing a degree in it I would strongly recommed looking at one that encompasses all of the elements of Journalism - Radio, Print, ONLINE and Television.

Because of the expansion and transformation of Journalism from just print and some TV and Radio there are now more and more jobs becoming available because of the expansion of Journalism. We now want Journalism online and due to this demand more and more companies are branching out and new forms of communication are being forged. Think above the Horizon of print journalism and television presenting (its my guess that this is what everyone thinks Journalism is at first) and think about all the extra blogging out there on all the differnt opinion or review websites. Where previously you had to rely on the paper to get information about television guides and films coming out you can now look it up online. In addition to this you can then find dozens of articles about these films and programms. Thats just one example however.

Look at Journalism as a type of new degree in a way. Like how archeology had its biggest moments when they started to find all of the tombs in egypt in the 70s and when it started to make huge advances in recovering dinosaur bones (as you can tell I know little about archeology and palentology other than the fact that its what Ross Geller give all his boring speeches on). Journalism is beggining to reinvent itself like music when rock and roll took off and replaced the sugary sweet pop and jive before it.

It all depends with Journalism how committed you are and how much interest you have in the field to begin with. Its very competitive so if your sitting in the boardroom in the morning reviews and you cant generate any good ideas for stories then you wont have a job for long.

The advantages of doing Journalism over another degree then going into Journalism is that most degrees - the good ones anyway will make you take the NCTJ exams needed to qualify you as a Journalist so you can start off straight away.

I recently visited Kent and theres a student there whos completed work placements off her own back and time at various international papers and magazines such as The Independant and Grazia. So my advice from her to me, to you is that you make the most out of your degree in the time whilst your doing it and do extra things to stand out!

Longest reply ever... But as you can tell im passionate about the future of Journalism and im hoping that you will reply and let me know your thoughts on my points - have you agreed or disagreed, always up for discussion.

Thanks, meow,

Charlotte x :smile:
Reply 14
I don't think it's dying, but I think if you are going to go into journalism, you have to be prepared to deal with the constant changes in the media revolution. It's not just writing for newspapers and magazines any more, a lot of journalism is online and I think this will grow a lot in years to come.

:smile:
Reply 15
Original post by GrantG
Hi,

I want to get into journalism when I am older but I am worried it is dying. Everytime I say to someone "I want to be a journalist" they either say, "Consider a different job, see it as a hobby" or "It's dying" or the most popular response "Enjoy **** pay".

I have tailored my whole academics around going into journalism and I am worried I am going to leave school and go and get a degree in something worthless.

Has anyone here graduated and got a good job or do you end up working for "Pipe Cleaner Weekly", "Polish Deli Review" or "The Weekly Nun Lifestyle Magazine".


Listen, nowadays you are better with a joint honours degree in journalism, say with english or media studies, but some even say that is wasteful. What you really should look into are Multimedia Journalism degrees, I'm an aspiring journo and I'm looking into that. The difference with a multimedia degree and a box standard journo degree, its that the multimedia is tailored for new media. No longer are journalists only writing articles and broadcasting, they have to be multi skilled with camera skills, internet publishing/blogging for news and radio, TV etc.

Job prospects wise, journalism is just all about working your way up to the top, and yes it hasn't got the best start off salary, but what job nowadays does? Best thing for you to do is to get some work experience at your local newspaper or school newspaper/magazine. I done this and it's seriously help me so much and it opens your eyes so much into what the job is actually like (movies LOVE to fabricate the 'glamorous' career of journalism!)

I'm applying for uni in a less than a year, and the one thing I'm concerned about is finding a course which is nctj and bjtc accredited, these look great on your CV and can really help you nailing a great graduate job. There isn't much point doing a degree that ISN'T accredited. Lots of universities are acredited, some aren't; you just need to do a little research.

And lastly, journalism is not dying, just make sure you do a degree that is relevant to the major media changes that have happened over the past decade!
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 16
no, but journalism is changing.
Reply 17
Original post by GrantG
What about Nottingham Trent, Sheff and City? Aren't they the best j-schools in the UK.


Bournemouth's Multimedia degree is meant to be one of the best in the country, I'm applying for there next year!
Reply 18
As advised it's actually best to study a subject other than Journalism. Journalists very rarely write about journalism, which is why studying another subject you're passionate about would be more beneficial and could give you an advantage in a specific area of journalism i.e Sciences or technology.

My friend always wanted to become a journalist. She studied English Lit at a Russel Group Uni and came out with a first as well as squeezing some work experience during the holidays in broadsheets, magazine and tv journalism. After graduating she spent 1.5 years jumping from volunteering opportunity to volunteering opportunity with really well known publications, whilst all the time applying for entry level jobs. She made many connections and had really good references, but she just couldn't land that first position. She then took a paid job for 1/2 year to fund her Journalism diploma, which then took the following year to complete. It took her about 5 months after finishing her diploma to secure her first job writing for an online magazine. Again, another friend i knew studied English Literature (first class again) and then went straight on to the diploma course, whilst writing for the University paper and organising some work experience at the BBC. He managed to find a job in sports journalism pretty swiftly, but that was because he pursued a *comparatively* less popular area than magazine journalism.

I'm not trying to put you off, but you do need to be aware of exactly how much effort you have to put in to get there. Publications could not survive without the endless supply of volunteers, offering their services to gain experience. Obviously this is great as it means you can build a compelling list of work placements; however, the downside is that the industry has relatively few entry level jobs as these jobs can often be handled by interns for free. Entry level jobs also pay between the region of 13k - 21k (depending on location/publication). Journalism won't make you rich, but a lot of journalists do get some perks as part of their jobs as well as having what is regarded as an infinitely rewarding profession. Also, others often make the transistion into PR, which pays a lot better.

The more you tailor yourself towards a specific niche the better chances you'll have that your get there.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 19
Original post by Annoying-Mouse
You shouldn't study journalism at university rather something else like History or English lit where you'd have other career options. Most universities which offer journalism aren't really that reputable and for the top companies (BBC, Guardian/Telegraph, the economist, Reuters etc etc ) they'll be fairly competitive and I'd wager that most entrants don't have a journalism degree.


Seconded. A vital piece of advice, +rep.

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