2008 Woodie Awards
Few Jobs Mean Print Journalists Are a Dying Breed
Nick Schimmer/Muleskinner
Issue date: 2/15/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
Tuesday's Career Expo is one of the many programs the Office of Career Services provides to UCM students as they prepare for life after college.
One of the biggest fears we have is whether or not we will find the job we have worked so hard to get. We have to validate the last four years of studying, tuition expense and final exams.
As I browsed the list of over 120 employers that were expected to attend the expo, I noticed that my field, print journalism, was not represented.
This is not to fault Career Services; instead, it coincides with what we, as journalism students, hear when we first declare our major: finding a job right out of college is nearly impossible.
This field of study is, in a sense, a dying craft. We are dinosaurs of the media industry, providing today's news tomorrow, while up-to-the-minute news can be found through a variety of broadcasting mediums.
The ability to tell a story through well-crafted writing has been replaced by pretty faces and teleprompters on television. Two-minute spurts of information is all one needs to get their news fix, which feeds right into the ever-decreasing American attention span.
Declining circulations have minimized the field, making the entry-level newspaper position one of the lowest paid in the modern-day workforce.
The average first-year reporter will make under $20,000 per year. We take these positions hoping to someday move to a major paper, such as the Kansas City Star, where we have the opportunity to make roughly $50,000 per year.
To "make it big," as they say in the industry, one of two things must happen. One, you must be a master at the craft, revolutionary in the art of storytelling. For an example of such skill, see The New Yorker.
Second, you must put yourself above the story, relying more on name recognition than skill, by spouting off opinions that are nothing more than mere banter. For an example of this, pick up today's Kansas City Star and read Jason Whitlock.
More times than not, the latter will occur.
Most of us will spend our lives working for small community papers, never having the opportunity to taste the big city, but providing a quality service in regions of the country that meet greater needs than CNN does.
One of the biggest fears we have is whether or not we will find the job we have worked so hard to get. We have to validate the last four years of studying, tuition expense and final exams.
As I browsed the list of over 120 employers that were expected to attend the expo, I noticed that my field, print journalism, was not represented.
This is not to fault Career Services; instead, it coincides with what we, as journalism students, hear when we first declare our major: finding a job right out of college is nearly impossible.
This field of study is, in a sense, a dying craft. We are dinosaurs of the media industry, providing today's news tomorrow, while up-to-the-minute news can be found through a variety of broadcasting mediums.
The ability to tell a story through well-crafted writing has been replaced by pretty faces and teleprompters on television. Two-minute spurts of information is all one needs to get their news fix, which feeds right into the ever-decreasing American attention span.
Declining circulations have minimized the field, making the entry-level newspaper position one of the lowest paid in the modern-day workforce.
The average first-year reporter will make under $20,000 per year. We take these positions hoping to someday move to a major paper, such as the Kansas City Star, where we have the opportunity to make roughly $50,000 per year.
To "make it big," as they say in the industry, one of two things must happen. One, you must be a master at the craft, revolutionary in the art of storytelling. For an example of such skill, see The New Yorker.
Second, you must put yourself above the story, relying more on name recognition than skill, by spouting off opinions that are nothing more than mere banter. For an example of this, pick up today's Kansas City Star and read Jason Whitlock.
More times than not, the latter will occur.
Most of us will spend our lives working for small community papers, never having the opportunity to taste the big city, but providing a quality service in regions of the country that meet greater needs than CNN does.
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