In the age where the newspaper is slowly dying, it's hard for journalism students to think of this. We sometimes are worried about or potential careers. Will we be able to find jobs when a large portion of the career is dying? Sometimes we just have to think of the possibilities in other areas of the field, hoping that when we all graduate, there will be enough jobs. Personally, I do want to nor can ever see myself working for a newspaper. The structure of being assigned a story day after day does not excite me. When asked what I want to do with my degree, I always struggle to answer because I really don't know. There are so many different areas for prospective journalists.
If you are also a journalism student who is struggling to find their niche in the digital world, here are six jobs that aren't at a newspaper.
1. Public Relations
A different major in the journalism field, but PR still requires a lot of the same skills everyone else needs. PR jobs are mainly out of PR firms or large corporations. PR writers usually write speeches, press releases, social media promotions, and even marketing items for the company. Personally, I have chose to focus my studies on PR, in hopes of landing a job at a company that I am interested in.
2. Social Media
Within the digital age, it is very uncommon to see a journalists without any social media. Everyone uses at least one platform, and social media is now the fastest way to outsource information of any kind. It is quicker to find something on Twitter, than it is to look it up on the Internet. Most of us look at the news on social media, rather than watching the TV. Companies use journalists to run their social media accounts.
3. Marketing
Marketing is the most important in a business because they want to reach all of their customers and stand out from the competition. Someone is needed to come up with brand names, slogans, marketing strategies, etc. Marketing is really interesting to learn about, and overall interesting to design something that can be seen by many new customers.
4. Photojournalism
Photography is one thing that I absolutely love. It's the one art form that doesn't take too much skill and can still turn out great. Photojournalism is about telling the story in one single photograph. I believe that it is one of the hardest jobs in journalism, even if there is no writing involved. You have to capture that moment, and that moment isn't able to be put on reply. If you don't get it, you lose.
5. Multimedia
Journalists don't just write. They are trained in taking pictures, video, using social media, and so much more. In school I am taught how to use different cameras, edit photos and videos, work a teleprompter, etc.
6. Creative/Freelance Writing
Creative writing is a whole other field, but journalists can still write freely. It's what The Odyssey is; creative writing. I am allowed to write about whatever my heart desires. If I wanted to write weekly all about cats, I could. There are many freelance websites and blogs out on the Internet, whether they are for a job or just on the side.
