From a very young age, I knew journalism was what I wanted to do. I used to stand out in my front yard with a blowup microphone and have my mom record me while I “reported the news to her.” Now as a Junior in College I am three years into my Broadcast Journalism degree. With great power comes great responsibility.
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says “Congress shall make no law.... abridging (limiting) the freedom of speech, or of the press..."
I have had one goal in mind pursuing this degree which was to change the negative perception of journalism. How often in today’s society do you hear “Fake News?" I even have a hat that says it.
In my opinion, Journalism is one of the most made fun of majors. Every time I tell someone I’m getting a degree in Journalism I normally get the reply “Journalism isn’t even hard.” or that "Journalism is easy." Major shaming seems to be a thing around most universities. I think we all have to realize that no major is “easy.” We all have to study harder for certain things, we’ve all pulled all-nighters, we’ve all procrastinated on assignments.
What is true is that yes, most journalism people are terrible at math. We hate math in fact. But we love writing, communicating, and creating content. People often times think we're taking the easy way out.
Just because we're not taking chemistry, biology or even a math course doesn’t mean what we do isn’t hard.
Journalism is harder in different ways. We must learn to properly tell a story and we must be unbiased about it. So just imagine if your entire career was in the public eye and you couldn’t share your personal opinion.
If you’re a broadcast journalism major, you have to carry all the heavy equipment around by yourselves to interviews.
We have to find, research, and locate our next story ideas and most of the time interviewees don’t respond to you in time to cover the story. (Most of the time they never respond at all.) Which results in a last-minute story idea. Which is completely stressful.
We have deadlines. Not just for an assignment but for the news. Sometimes you have to travel to an interview location, shoot video b-roll, interview a couple people, edit on a software and upload everything in just a few short hours in time for the newscast.
The next struggle is interviewing. It can be very intimidating to interview someone you’ve never met especially if it’s a topic you aren’t familiar with. You must ask the right questions all while recording and taking notes during the interview. You definitely have to be a multitasker.
On top of all of this, journalists know they are going to school to make minimal money so most journalism majors are passionate about what they do. They want to make a difference.
Journalism is an ever-evolving thing with so many different aspects to it, whether its print, broadcast or online Journalism. I think it’s important not to “major shame” because you never know how much effort or workload comes with certain majors. All that matters is that people love what they’re doing.
