Advice on entering the Journalism field

There is absolutely nothing wrong with going to Cal State Fullerton.

Going to college -- any college -- is what you make of it. You will get out of it whatever you put into it.

My advice would be to get into broadcast journalism, and make sure you enroll yourself in digital/electronic/multimedia-related classes galore.

 

I agree with Petty on don't major in anything with pre- attached. You just need good grades and a good LSAT for law school. Even medical school doesn't have a requirement to major in anything, you just need the prereqs.

Pharmacy is a good field right now and takes six years from the start of college to a Pharm.D degree. I thought about going back for that.

 

Fuckin' A, man.

 

You seem to get it a lot better than most the newbies that come around. We all think we are different to some extent. Maybe that's why we all gave it a shot. Maybe you need to because you'll never know what would have happened if you don't try. But it would behoove you to double major, in something you can fall back on. But plan for it now, you will save a lot of time and money. I wish I would have double-majored now, instead of taking extra journalism credits and sports studies courses. A lot of good those things are going to do me in a few years or months, when I'm out of the business.

 

Also, don't major in English unless you plan to go to grad school. A friend of mine majored in English and graduated two years ago. She's struggling to make ends meet while working two jobs (one at Borders, one at a call center for cable customers...she's the person who has to talk people through their issues with their TVs) and about once a month, I have to have the discussion with her about what she should do because she doesn't like where she is and she can't do anything with her degree that doesn't involve teaching.

I would do the double-major thing and as soon as you get on campus, go find the paper, literary magazine, yearbook, SOMETHING and start writing and compiling clips. Not only will you start to put together a portfolio, you'll meet people in the industry who might be able to help you later on. Do a lot of work and don't just corner yourself into being a straight-sports writer. Go write for the news side (I know the one semester I did, I learned more about writing than I did in any of my classes I took.)

Also, you will get out of college what you want to, no matter if you're at UCLA or Bumfuck Community College. Don't enter college with the idea that you're above it because you couldn't afford to go to NYU or Columbia. You're going to have great professors and meet incredibly intelligent people no matter where you go. Accept where you're going and make the most out of it.

 

I think I just threw up in my mouth.

 

Just to reiterate what has been said countless times...don't major in journalism. I've been in the business for roughly one year, and am already headed for the escape hatch. It's impossible to make a good living right now and don't be fooled into thinking it's just the economy. If the economy shapes up in a couple years, that won't be enough to save newspapers. I have loved my experiences in journalism and will hopefully continue to freelance. I wouldn't change the things I've done (working for the student paper, internships, current job, etc.) except for choosing a different major. That way, maybe I wouldn't have to go back to grad school. So if you want to try the world of journalism, fine. But don't expect a wonderful career. So with that in mind, have a fallback option via a degree in business or whatever you choose. It won't be long before it becomes Plan A.

 

You're kidding right? How is that possible? "Ahh yes, I can't get a good job in journalism so I'll go back and drop 100K to get a master's degree. Then I'll strike gold and get that 35K a year job in no time!"

Ah Dios Mio

 

I know we can be difficult when we say DON'T get into it. But that's the best advice. The parties over. We have no idea what skills are going to be required of journalists. All this blog, facebook, twitter, myspace and video is killing writing. It's evolving and the journalists have essentially lost control of the press. Very alarming.

Does anyone find that current journalism programs are colleges are doing a disservice to their students? I don't know how in good conscience we can keep churning out journalism majors. Do tech schools still teach people to make typewriters?

From my experience journalism programs are not preparing journalists for the realities of the market, business side of things. Writing and reporting they can teach and build you up.

But, why would anyone want to be a journalist now?

 

My advice would be a repeat of what pretty much everyone else has already said...find something else.

I graduated last May and I've had one interview for what used to be considered an entry level job, until they found a guy with 30 years experience as a writer/editor to fill it instead. Now all I'm doing in the field is writing for a website that pays me $0.01 per page view.

Getting a job after college is 100% luck. If you are in the right place at the right time you might get something, if not you are screwed.

Sports is especially hard to get into because there are so many people who love to do it, and the job really isn't hard at all. Pretty much any educated person can do at least an adequate job, regardless of their degree.

I just wish I had someone to tell me this before I went to school for it. Now I'm $30K in the hole and have a useless degree while I watch, read, and listen to a bunch of people in sports media who aren't any better at it than I am (Ex. WEEI Radio in Boston). It is extremely frustrating.

 

I agree, the schools aren't helping the kids at all. Part of it is because I think I may have went to a bad school (hard to say for sure, since I haven't experienced other programs), but my coursework has pretty much limited me to print media. I can do some web work, but that is mostly from things I've learned outside of the classroom.

And when I came out almost a year ago I had no idea that it was this bad. I knew the field was tough, but I didn't know it was impossible. None of my teachers ever even mentioned the possibility of not being able to find work.

And to answer your other question, I wanted to be a journalist because writing has always come easy to me. Combine that with my love of sports and my deep understanding of the games and it seemed like a no-brainer. Seems like I was wrong.

 

Vehemently disagree.