Sunday, November 23, 2008
Are we screwed?
Steve Smith, a former editor for newspapers such as The Spokesman Review, came into class last week to discuss with us the current state and future of the newspaper journalist. I was very grateful to have him in class. I feel that was an opportunity that many people may never have in a journalism class. His speech, although quite interesting and enlightening, was extremely depressing for me. For most of the class period which he had to talk with us, he discussed how the current state of the newspaper industry is declining drastically and there is no end quite in sight just yet. The television news was following it and was not far behind. Newspapers are struggling to keep readers and maintain a profit and have been forced to lay off many good journalists because of budget cuts. He also said that the radio news business was almost completely dead by now. The fact that he was telling all of this to a group of many potential journalism degree recipients was quite overwhelming. The entire time I was thinking about what major I might be able to switch to and how soon I could get that done. The information and the way he portrayed this information was quite frightening. Thankfully, at the end of the class, he said to us that he was quite confident that we would all have great opportunities for jobs by the time we graduated. He said that the economy would bounce back as it always does and the bottom would be found for the newspaper industry. This was a little bit encouraging, but I was still left with uncertainty for my future in journalism. Will we all be able to get a job in journalism, or are we screwed?
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2 comments:
I just finished a blog that sounds a lot like this one. The next day, in my other journalism class, an editor at the Oregonian came and spoke with us, and his presentation had a lot of likenesses to that of Mr. Smith. I am a sophomore, and I know that I really love journalistic work, but more so the photography and design aspects of it. Lately, I've been thinking about majoring in int'l studies and minoring in communication studies or graphic arts so that I would have a major in a solid field and then could still have journalism to fulfill my greater interests. I mean...if I could get a job with National Geographic or something, that would be like a dream come true, but if not...this plan has given me a little more assurance and security. I feel like you can gain quite a bit of credibility as a journalist through experience and dont necessarily need a degree in it to be successful at it, but I could be wrong.
I wrote on the very same topics and I agree completely with all of your ideas and content, I found myself a little upset by the speech as well, but towards the end more hopeful!
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