I’m a Journalism Student, is This Career Still Right For Me?
Newspapers are out, and digital outlets are laying off tons of journalists…I’m scared.
Amidst an attack on journalism, and an ever-shrinking job market for journalists I’ve been forced to evaluate my future career path as a Journalism Major. Watching journalists being laid off from digital outlets I’ve looked up to for years is disheartening, to say the least. I’ve wanted to write for Condé Nast since I took my first solo international trip in 2017. I had the opportunity to volunteer in Bali, Indonesia for a month as an English as a Second Language teacher and I wrote every single day about what I experienced. Two years later, I started travel blogging and received great feedback from my Journalism Professors. My dreams suddenly seemed attainable. But the 2019 layoffs would be enough to scare any young journalist with dreams to write for a media company as big as Condé Nast.
I do still think I have a shot-I’ve never been a quitter, but I am a bit wary of becoming disposable. To combat this feeling of being replaceable or not important enough to keep around, I have a few backup plans. First, I’m never going to stop posting my own blogs. We all know the saying, “consistency is key,” so I’ll have to be really consistent with blogging to potentially make it on my own as a blogger. I’ve also always been fond of the idea of working for myself, so this could really work well for me. Next, I need to brand myself across social media as it’s the forefront of journalism these days. I’m a naturally outspoken, extremely opinionated, and empathetic individual and I want to be branded as such. I frequently teeter with the idea of becoming a social media influencer or working on the social media side of things. I can actually see myself working under a wide variety of media careers. Thankfully Long Island University has actually been preparing me for just that. In my Journalism classes, I’ve learned a whole lot about Marketing and Social Media. I’ve had the opportunity to attend speaker events and seminars on making the most out of your social media presence. I actually had a speaker come into my Blog Writing class and teach us all about using LinkedIn to find jobs. All in all, I know that even if traditional journalism is a dying field I’m prepared to do other things with the knowledge I’ve obtained as a journalism major at LIU.
