I was recently talking with my advisor. I was discussing the possibility of me enrolling in a journalism school and whether it’d help my career or would a Bachelor’s be just fine. We spoke and that night I took to the internet and found an article posted on EditorsWebLog.Org that answered all of my questions – hopefully it might answer some of yours.
A Forbes article recently released states that journalism school enrollments are at a high, despite the current state of the news media. The Pew Research Center estimates that 2008 saw a loss of 5,000 newspaper jobs. According to Erica Smith’s layoff tracker, Paper Cuts, there are nearly 7,500 news job losses in 2009 alone.
“Expect trade publications, freelance work and digital media to supply the bulk of jobs,” says the article. And apparently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that in 2016 positions for reporter will increase: 2% for entry-level and 10% for experienced writers and editors. Another growing area includes journalism professors as experienced media people are turning to universities. Neil Henry, interim dean and professor at the Berkeley School of Journalism says, “it’s becoming increasingly common and it is difficult emotionally to deal with.”
In a response to the Forbes article, Sarah Lacy wrote in a TechCrunch blog, “I know people do crazy things in a recession, but taking out a student loan for a degree that won’t give an edge in a wheezing industry actually makes getting an MBA look smart.” Lacy never got a degree in journalism, but is still successful in the field. She questions whether learning traditional journalism skills will help students at all as the media evolves exponentially online.
Along the same lines, j-schools are now adapting to the changing media, and are discussing and anticipating what new digital jobs lay ahead. Classes even include blog writing and how to use twitter effectively. While some traditional forms of news media are getting taken over by the Internet, enrolling in a journalism school may seem ironic right now. However, just as the media does, schools have already started to evolve with the times.
The article states that top j-schools like Columbia, Stanford and NYU had increases of 38%, 20% and 6% since last year. People wonder why this is happening and want to know where it is these future journalists will be working.
