I have known that I wanted to be a journalist ever since I was 10 years old, I have been writing since I was 8 and taking photos since I was 13. And when I was looking at colleges for a journalism degree, none of them offered it online. And there was no way I could go to campus.
So my only choices were a degree in English or in Communications, so I chose Communication I felt it was the best choice for me. And I still do, I am a senior at ECU and I am happy that I'm a Comms major.
When I tell people what my major is, they think I took the easy way out and I chose this major because I couldn't do anything else. society stereotype people, groups and jobs, People assume that because my degree is not in medicine, engineering or IT, that my degree is not valid and is useless and I won't make any money.
People ask me what I'm going to do with it and what kind of job can I get with a communications degree? I tell them that I wanted to get a job as a journalist after graduation, Then they tell me that you are not going to make money as a journalist, you may start out at 30k a year.
These are some of the assumptions I got from people,
1. That I was not smart enough to get a degree in something like medicine
2. I chose communications because I wanted something easy
3. I was not serious about school
4. I don't care about a high paying job
5. I'm lazy
6. I don't work as hard as students in other fields like medicine
7. I must not want to be taken seriously or want a real job
I don't know why people assume these things about comms majors, is it because society believes we won't be happy unless we make a lot of money, Well I call BS on that, there are so many people out there that make tons of money but are in a job they hate.
I would rather be at a job that I love and work hard to move up and make more money. Money is not everything and does not validate your self-worth, I may not make over 80k when I graduate and I don't expect to. I wouldn't expect any newly college grad to make that much right out of college.
I am in my last year of college, and this is what I have learned being a comms major, My writing has gotten better, I have become more creative, I have learned about advertising and marketing, I have also gotten my minor in English. Communications major opens the doors in many fields such as Public Relations, marketing, journalism, advertising, ECT.
So to all the Comms Haters out there, please do your research on the topic and major and you can educate yourself on something that you assume you already know, and maybe you will learn something and have a different take on it.
