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Given the tidal wave of bad news about the journalism industry, a story with the headline, “Surprise! J-school grads are finding jobs“, is bound to attract attention.
Best of all, the headline is not link bait. Instead the Daily Finance story reports on how journalism school graduates in the US are thriving.
It found that two-thirds of recent grads from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism report having jobs or other post-school plans, such as internships, fellowships or continuing education.
CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism reported similar numbers, with 60 per cent of recent grads in full-time jobs in journalism. Another 15 per cent have quasi-full-time internships or freelance gigs.
I don’t have stats for the recent grads from the UBC Graduate School of Journalism where I teach. But they have found positions in places as diverse as CBC, the Globe and Mail and the Walrus.
Some may be surprised that there are are opportunties for journalism students. But they should not be.
The abundance of news online means there is a greater need than ever for professionally-trained journalists to navigate and make sense of this ocean of information.
There are other reasons. Students should graduate from j-school the skills to practice journalism across all media platforms as newsrooms are looking for journalists who are flexible and adaptable.
The Daily Finance story also speculates there is a less noble explanation:
My guess is at least some of it is a direct result of the massive staff cutbacks just about every media organization has enacted in the past couple years. It’s a corporate cliche to lay people off and euphemize it as “restructuring,” but you can be sure that some of the companies that are letting go well-paid editors and writers in their 40s and 50s are quietly stocking up on fresh j-school grads whose lack of real-word experience is at least partly made up for by their effortless fluency in the ways of the web — and their willingness to work for $35,000 a year.
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Despite being trained across all platforms and being willing to leave the city to work in journalism, I made much less than $35,000. I’m still digging myself out of the debt leftover from j-school. I don’t see how I could afford to go to graduate school. And why does everyone need a Master’s degree anyway.
Hometowntimes.com has developed a new business model that affords journalists the opportunity to continue their profession while building their own business with a focus on community news. We already have over 500 community focused websites throughout the United States each one serves as a separate franchise with a focus on the specific community in question. journalists and freelance writers should check us out as possible way to work.
New media can only survive long-term if they find new ways to adapt to the changing marketplace. While the print media struggles, new media will also face serious challenges if it does not face up to the needs of local communities and national needs.
[...] same web publishing explosion that is devastating traditional, hard copy journalism is multiplying graduates’ opportunities to publish [...]
[...] How journalism school graduates are finding jobs (reportr.net) [...]
Thats great. I hope the website http://www.JournalismCrossing.com is an useful one to all students who seek journalism jobs since it is the only site which offers a huge number of journalism jobs online…
It is a good source of jobs because it shows you jobs from every employer website and every other job board out there it can find–and not just employers willing to pay to post on its site.
There you can have a numerous journalism job openings like Journalist Jobs, Broadcast Journalism Jobs, Sports Journalism Jobs, Photojournalist jobs etc.