Dear colleges and universities,
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, journalism is defined as "the collection and editing of news for presentation through the media, the public press and an academic study concerned with the collection and editing of news or the management of a news medium." They also say journalism is the "writing designed for publication in a newspaper or magazine, writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation, writing designed to appeal to current popular taste or public interest."
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So in a summary, journalism is basically all writing. So why on earth do journalism majors have to take math classes?
I, a journalism major, chose this major to avoid math at all costs. One of the reasons why I decided to major in journalism is because I am awful at math. Math was my enemy throughout grade school and high school. I could only pull off a B, and that is when I was truly trying to do well. It sure did not change as I took a math class in college. It was even worst in college because my professor was hard to understand and follow as she taught. And we did zero writing. So how is this math class going to help me in my future journalism career?
Wait, I do recall letters being mixed in with numbers for some dumb reason. Who's idea was that? They are not journalistic letters. Those are math letters. So don't expect me to do any better when the alphabet is thrown into an equation.
I feel like I am wasting space in my brain as I am learning math too. Because I do not need to learn all of this to be successful in my major, I think. I could be wrong. I am only a freshman. But so far as I write for the college paper and the Odyssey Online, I have not needed to use the Central Limit Formula or Continuous Distributions. I could use that brain space for grammar rules instead of formulas.
I will admit that there will be a little bit of math. For example, I will have to count how many words I have in an article. Oh wait, the computer does that for me. And I learned how to count before I even started school. Maybe I will need some math to make a page layout. But none of those random formulas I learned are going to help me with that.
If you are a journalism major reading this and you are actually good at math, I applaud you.
To all colleges and universities in the United States of America, please eliminate the math requirement from the journalism major. It will greatly relieve a bit of stress and improve our GPAs. Rant over.
Sincerely,
Journalism majors
