Why It's a Great Time to Be a Journalism Major

I'm acquired my bachelor's degree in journalism and broadcasting from North Dakota State University in 2007. Since then, I've worked a few odd jobs at newspapers, and that's about it. The other jobs I've held have been utterly unrelated to my field. Everyone shakes their head pityingly at me when I say I'm a majored in journalism; it's evident that they automatically assume I'm gunning for print media, which they've heard is going extinct. But my passion is travel writing (and it's a deep, hot passion, trust me). There's many, many markets for that, both in print and online. My travels thus far have been limited by educational demands and financial inconveniences, but I've already published several articles with online travel magazines. There are about eighteen million travel magazines on the Internet. It's simple for a fresh-out-of-college wannabe travel journalist to get published, as long as he/she can write a descriptive piece with clear focus (and pitch it well to the editors in a query e-mail).

Long story short, I was on the verge of giving up hope, of listening to the Debbie Downers. Even despite my limited success online I half-believed that, as a journalist, my hopes were few. The journalists-old-enough-to-be-my-parents, whom I do respect, were sticking their hands in their pockets, sighing, and ruing the end of the Golden Age of journalism. I too was resistant to change at first, but this Internet thing ain't bad. Not when you consider that I found the e-zines I was published in via Google.

Like you said, journalism is alive and kicking, it's just different. Thanks for the revelation.

A.T. Post of CA 7:37PM December 22, 2010