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Lisette Santana

ENG 1201- 203

Dr. Cassel

19 April 2018

Studying Communications Major

Fat question: Why people should consider communication major a serious career?

Now that I am in college and trying to focus and succeed in my academics. I have had

many ups and downs along my college path so far but it has gotten to the point that I have to

know exactly what career I would like to pursue so I don’t waste time or money. Many have

asked what I am studying and for the first two years I have said, “I am not sure yet.” People

would suggest that I study something medical, but I do not like being in hospitals. They would

say that that the easiest field to find a job. Although they tell me these things there is still

something that interest me about communications. I like knowing what going on in the world and

I am always on top of the latest events happening. There is a program in Spanish that is called

Despierta America which in English it is translated to “wake up America”. I have seen this show

since I was little it has always been a dream of me being a part of this awesome program

someday. It is a goal I would like to reach someday. I like the idea of being in front of the

camera and delivering some type of message to the world.

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Not so long ago I didn’t know what I wanted to study, but now I think I have a good

direction on what I would maybe like to study. Communications for the moment is the field that

interests me. Now when people know I am studying Communications they look at me and say

that I am not going to find a job because this is not a good job field. It has made me question if

communications is a serious career? Research has been made to analyze if it an actual serious

career. Communicating is a key way to life.

Communications Media is a plural form of medium. Newspapers are one medium,

magazines are another, and television and radio are two more. Online journalism makes up the

fifth main medium (Bureau of Labor Statistics). 75% of a person’s day is spent communicating

in some way. The mediums that came up were journalism and Television in communications.

Many companies now use more than one medium. It is not like the old days where they would

stick to only using one specific medium to communicate to their audience. Since the

development of electronic devices throughout the years, many things have been changed. Media

companies are beginning to want their journalists to be comfortable working in several media.

The journalist of the future may well be writing a text report for a print publication, adapting it

for a website, doing a voice piece for radio and a piece-to-camera for television (Bull).

It is happening now even though this fact was said about eleven years ago this is what has

happened with many companies especially news or entertainment medias. They make sure they

have all their information in the most recent social media platforms like websites, applications in

(android or iOS). So they can send their information out to everyone that is interested. Now to be

a Journalist they 6must be flexible in ways to getting the information out.

News media played an important role in the founding of the United States, and the

freedom of the press remains a central ideal of the American identity. Until the twentieth
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century, Americans primarily received their news from newspapers. Newspaper circulation,

however, has experienced a steady decline since the 1990s. The emergence of television, radio,

and the Internet has changed the way Americans receive their news and how journalists report it.

Technological advances, from the printing press to blogging platforms, have provided aspiring

journalists with the tools and conditions to reach wider audiences (Bull).

When studying journalism or communications, people might comment that it is a field for

only people that are daring to ask questions. That are willing to take risks and outgoing. which is

not true because not everyone works the same or has the same styles in doing work. If that was

the case then we would receive the same information everywhere and there wouldn’t be different

places to search information. In journalism an important key must be how to communicate with

your audience. One thing all successful journalists have in common is a well-developed

understanding of who their reader, listener or viewer is, what they are interested in and how to

talk to them. (Bull).

Many people think that this career is not as serious as studying to be a nurse or a doctor,

but that is not true. Every career deserves respect. Students take time and dedication in

developing their career, and they deserve the credit for their hard work no matter their field of

choice. People might think that journalists just play when working and that it must be a piece of

cake of a job, but there are many skills that they need. Any business has a communication

department because it is important for the business to communicate to their audience so they

know about their business. Communication skills, computer skills, interpersonal skills,

persistence and stamina. Stamina might be a difficult one because they must work fast paced if

working in a current report and, they must be able to work past their typical hours because when

covering a topic many unexpected things can come up. Journalist sometimes must cover stories
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that are in natural disaster or even war zones putting their life at risk to have the best stories and

information. Not all in the job is easy. According to (Bureau of Labor Statistics) journalist made

about $40,910 in 2017.

When studying communication, communicators must be able to read and write

effectively. For some it is a developing skill because not everyone grows with skill. Everyone

has the skill to communicate but some are better and more open than others but with practice you

can develop this skill. Also, you must be an effective public speaker. You must release the fear

of talking in public because that is a big part of this career. The advantage of just studying

communications is that it’s a umbrella that can fall to many different areas like business,

education, law, social media and many more areas. Any business has a communication

department because it is important for the business to communicate to their audience so they

know about their business. Overall employment of reporters, correspondents, and broadcast news

analysts is projected to decline 9 percent from 2016 to 2026. (Bureau of Labor Statistics). This

can be a problem when choosing this as a career. It means that people can be watching tv less

and that can affect many possible future jobs because it can be good at this moment but soon this

can affect your job.

Broadcasting television is one of the many mediums. In this medium you should be a

good story teller, be comfortable at talking in front of the camera and microphone. In TV,

deadlines are different then journalism, they are sometimes due hourly or every thirty minutes

depending on the information given. Since there is less time to get all the information together to

broadcast. The information can be simpler. Not like journalism, it must be more in depth so you

can send the same information out. Tv Journalist must be able to work as a team. There are many

other journalistic tasks, including presenting story ideas, monitoring news wire services for
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breaking stories and updates to items already on the schedule, supervising the editing of reports,

preparing scripts for presenters, deciding on the best order for stories in a bulletin, and presenting

itself. (Bull). Bureau of Labor Statistics says in 2017 broadcasters get payed $19.67 per hours.

The median annual wage for broadcast news analysts was $62,910 in May 2017. A bachelor

degree is the typical requirement to enter to a broadcasting job. Broadcasting Television has

helped us in many ways, the media helps us be informed about everything that is happening

around us in businesses, the social value system and all aspects of life. Without broadcasters we

wouldn’t know that the weather might be like the next day, this is a very important resource for

us to have. Even though recorded, on demand shows are beating us because its more convenient

for people to watch at any time.

Most of the people that are interested in journalism range more through the ages of

twenty-five to thirty-four. This could be reasonable because that’s around the age students in

college finish with their education and start getting work experience. Most efforts to silence the

college media, however, come from students, not administrators. While college populations have

become more racially and ethnically diverse, the campus media, like their real-world

counterparts, have not reflected those changes. “On so many campuses, student newspaper staffs

have continued to be almost entirely Caucasian,” Goodman says. “That alone perpetuates the

impression that sometimes they don't understand the perspective of minority students.” (Philips).

The image below shows that the interest in journalism has decreased in the past 10 years.

It has decreased less than half. This information helps because we can see that because of new

developments it has changed and now the main journalism area is digital journalism.
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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, careers in journalism will decrease

-9%. This career is declining because people do not have time to watch the televised programs

live anymore. They would rather recruit to recorded or on demand. But this can lead to other jobs

such as digital journalism, also known as online journalism. This department will give more job

opportunities because customers want to have all the information at just a touch of a finger. They

also like the choice of where they want to read the information from. More and more people in

the United States and around the world are getting their news online instead of in print or via

radio or television — the so-called legacy media. Digital news sites allow news to be continually

updated, with few if any of the space or other constraints that apply to print publications or radio

and television newscasts (Jost).

This major is just like any other. It requires a lot of focus and dedication. People will

always want their information given to them so there is a low chance that this career can go away
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forever. Major newspapers are redesigning their websites to tailor them for mobile devices, just

as the industry is reporting an increase in digital revenue that is helping to slow the bottom-line

slide of the past decade. The Los Angeles Times is touting a website redesign announced on May

6 that promises to be user-friendly on all devices: desktop, tablet or smartphone. Meanwhile, top

editors at The New York Times are studying a specially commissioned internal report that sets out

a five-step plan to what the report's authors call a “digital-first transition” (Jost). Statistics show

that this career declines but there is always another way to keep this career striving even if it was

at one by newspapers and now that it has moved on to digitally delivering information.

There are not any interviews talking about people’s experience and stories in

communications major or what they like about this field? One article that a student from Carroll

University wrote talking about here experience on why she chooses communications as her

degree. “Being a Communication major, I get asked a lot of questions about my major. "Oh

you're a communication major, so you learn to talk to people?" "So what do you want to do with

that degree?" "Oh you're lucky that major sounds soooo easy. Do you even have to study?"

These are the questions Communication majors are tired of hearing.” (Gigl). This is exactly what

is happening to many students who are asked what they are studying and people act like it is not

a serious career. She chooses to ask her professors Carroll University and two of her professors

had a different point of view on why they choose that degree. They both agreed that with a

communication major you can branch out into many different areas when searching for a job. It

is a good field because you will always keep on upscaling into different areas of that business

they do not have to stay in one specific area forever when working in this field. Communications

is an umbrella that can fall to many different areas like business, education, law, social media

and many more areas. “The United States is no longer investing in the production of goods, but
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rather the production of intellectual property. Someone has to create these information products

and get that information out to the world, which is why communication skills are in such high

demand.” (Gigl). This is the why now is a good time to study communications.

This degree is a very competitive area to find a job but it is also an interesting career

because there will always be stories to tell and information to give to the audience.

Communications is a serious career because it talks dedication like all the other careers. Find a

career that will be interesting and that you would like to do the rest of your life. Always follow

your desired career path and do not let anyone bring you down.
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Working Bibliography

"Journalism." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, 2017. Opposing Viewpoints In Context,

Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.

Bull, Andy. The NCTJ Essential Guide to Careers in Journalism. SAGE Publications Ltd, 2007.

EBSCOhost.

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Reporters,

Correspondents, and Broadcast News Analysts, on the Internet at

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/reporters-correspondents-and-broadcast-

news-analysts.htm (visited April 12, 2018).

Gigl, Taylor. “Benefits of Being A Communications Major.” The Odyssey Online, Oct 10, 2016,

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/. Accessed 1 May 2018.

Jost, Kenneth. "Digital Journalism." CQ Researcher, 30 May 2014, pp. 457-80,

Philips, Susan. "Student Journalism." CQ Researcher, 5 June 1998, pp. 481-504,