A large majority of the universities I'm surrounded by offer journalism degrees - even mine! Awesome if you want to be a journalist right? Numerous topics are covered in order for one to gain the basic knowledge and understanding of journalism which is great, but depending on where exactly you are and what you know, I'd say it would be risky to leave college going straight into university with no journalism experience or pre-knowledge. Why? Because it will only ever turn out in two different ways:
1) You will study the degree, enjoy it, learn a lot, gain a lot of practicality skills and probably have a lot of deadlines to deal with. But what about the work experience and knowledge that you can gain from outside of your degree? What 99.9% of future employers will look at more than above else? W O R K E X P E R I E N C E
Examples; writing for online magazines, working for a local newspaper/radio station, something of yours to show what you do; a blog/wordpress/youtube page
Some even believe that because they are studying a journalism degree and doing nothing else, that's what will impress future employers into giving them that dream job. Yeah right! Every degree is completely different from one another. One thing a budding journalist knows inside out and is always on the hunt for is work experience, and a build up of practicality skills. Because that is what the employer will really want to hear about.
"You achieved a 1st/2:1? Great. Now, tell me about your work experience."
Don't panic. Begin gaining experience now! It all starts in a magical place called Google. ;)
2) Yes, you are studying a journalism degree and you're enjoying it, but because you're quite headstrong on your career, you are determined to find journalism-related places for work experience and you eventually do. You realise that you've learnt so much more during work experience than you did studying journalism.
From wise words of a friend; Nancy tweeted: "Most people's careers have nothing to do with their degrees. We're all just blindly following the system. Sheep."
I study Sociology combined with Media & Communications (had to have something journo-related in there, I couldn't help it) - I'm so happy studying this as it has taught me SO much on how I view the world, and it's really added to my journalistic character and beliefs. I love it.
My advice? Study a degree that you genuinely like, and get good grades in! A degree is not and never has been the only way to exercise your talents and strengths. Too late? It's never too late. It's time to be productive and really go out there and make things happen.
Do what you love. Love what you do.
1) You will study the degree, enjoy it, learn a lot, gain a lot of practicality skills and probably have a lot of deadlines to deal with. But what about the work experience and knowledge that you can gain from outside of your degree? What 99.9% of future employers will look at more than above else? W O R K E X P E R I E N C E
Examples; writing for online magazines, working for a local newspaper/radio station, something of yours to show what you do; a blog/wordpress/youtube page
Some even believe that because they are studying a journalism degree and doing nothing else, that's what will impress future employers into giving them that dream job. Yeah right! Every degree is completely different from one another. One thing a budding journalist knows inside out and is always on the hunt for is work experience, and a build up of practicality skills. Because that is what the employer will really want to hear about.
"You achieved a 1st/2:1? Great. Now, tell me about your work experience."
Don't panic. Begin gaining experience now! It all starts in a magical place called Google. ;)
2) Yes, you are studying a journalism degree and you're enjoying it, but because you're quite headstrong on your career, you are determined to find journalism-related places for work experience and you eventually do. You realise that you've learnt so much more during work experience than you did studying journalism.
From wise words of a friend; Nancy tweeted: "Most people's careers have nothing to do with their degrees. We're all just blindly following the system. Sheep."
I study Sociology combined with Media & Communications (had to have something journo-related in there, I couldn't help it) - I'm so happy studying this as it has taught me SO much on how I view the world, and it's really added to my journalistic character and beliefs. I love it.
My advice? Study a degree that you genuinely like, and get good grades in! A degree is not and never has been the only way to exercise your talents and strengths. Too late? It's never too late. It's time to be productive and really go out there and make things happen.
Do what you love. Love what you do.
