For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a journalist. I’ve had a lifelong love of writing, and when I learned what journalism was, something just clicked. The allure of chasing the news and reporting on what was happening in the world just made my little writer’s heart happy, and that’s what I’ve been working towards ever since.
When adults would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would chirp happily, “A journalist!” They would look at me puzzled, borderline worried, and say something along the lines of how newspapers don’t exist anymore, publications are going out of business, and how overall it is a dying industry. So obviously, like all well-adjusted 11-year-olds, this led me to conduct anxiety-induced middle-of-the-night Google searches about the job trajectory of journalists. What was even worse was that I found out they were right.
From 2008 to 2021, newsroom employment in the U.S. decreased by 26% according to the Pew Research Center, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that there will be a 3% decline in job outlook for journalists in about the next 10 years. New Jersey Globe reported in 2022 that 30 years ago, the state had 23 daily newspapers but now only has 17. To put this in a broader perspective, the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University found that in 2023, an average of 2.5 local newspapers across the country were closing down. This left more than half of all U.S. counties with limited access to local news.
Now in my third year of college devoting nearly all of my time to a “dying” industry, I am painfully aware of the lack of local news organizations and the way communities suffer because of that. Residents of smaller communities lose the right and opportunity to understand how local government and events affect them, their families, and their neighbors.
While this data is no doubt concerning, it is also indicative of our changing times. People may not want to read newspapers anymore, but that’s because they have portable computers in their pockets where they can read, watch, or listen to the news as it is happening. People now have the option to consume their news in various forms of media, and that media is still being created by journalists.
As someone incredibly early in their career and still trying to complete their degree, I know being able to write is not enough to land me a job. I have to show employers that I can record and edit audio and video, take decent photos, use social media, creatively tell stories, and be able to keep up with the ever-changing landscape that is journalism. The field is not what it used to be, and although losses come with that, there is also room for immense growth.
I only have one year left of college, and then I will be thrust into the real world where I will submit application after application and interview after interview. And so will everyone else who I will graduate with, and those who have come before me and those who will come after me.
For anyone who wants to be a journalist in this modern, growing landscape, I encourage you to think beyond the initial skills you thought you needed to enter the field and be willing to learn something new. Even more, open yourself up to be bad at something. I’ve always stayed away from audio and video because I’m not naturally adept in those areas, but this semester I’ve started to work more with those mediums. While I’m definitely not a pro, I’ve realized it is just another avenue for storytelling and one that is truly enjoyable when you get the hang of it. To be a journalist in today’s world, you need to be able to tell stories across all formats for people from all walks of life to consume and understand.
When people ask me now what I’m in school for, I quietly prepare myself for a slightly disapproving look or an underlying confusion about why I would go into what they see as a dwindling profession. The little girl in me responds confidently, “Journalism,” knowing that I am equipped with the tools I need to tell the stories of a changing world in an ever-evolving field.
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