The Daily Beast posted an article recently titled, “20 Most Useless College Majors.” The journalists who wrote the story concluded that a B.A. in journalism is the most useless degree of all.
According to the report, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics was reviewed to come up with the list, including starting- and mid-career salary levels, the expected change in the total number of jobs from 2008 to 2018 and the expected percentage change in available jobs from 2008 to 2018.
If someone goes into journalism today because he or she wants a high-paying job with lots of perks and long-term job security, he or she will be disappointed and his or her education will be, as the article declares, useless. But for those who want to provide a valuable service to a news-hungry public, their degree is of great value.
The Beast's conclusion does not bode well for news consumers, but it does open the door for the aggressive, well-trained and motivated citizen journalist. After all, the demand for fair and thorough reporting of news is not on the decline.
Transitional times in any industry are problematic but the transition going on in journalism is frightening. While the variety of platforms for news writing, news photography and news videography increases, the value of an education in journalism decreases.
This means that as never before when it comes to reading the news, caveat emptor – let the buyer beware!
Thomas L. Blair is a sociologist and political blogger on the Chronicleworld 'for creative renewal in Black Britain and Afro-Europe'. His work is honoured in the British Library's archive of "social, historic and culturally significant web-based material from the UK domain". He won top prize in the blogging competition on The-Latest.
Sumantra Maitra is a freelance journalist from Mumbai, India. He is a correspondent for All Sports magazine, and a foreign affairs blogger for the Washington Examiner. He has written articles for news website Merinews.com and other regional publications. Sumantra runs a blog at DailyWorldWatch.wordpress.com. He provided exclusive eyewitness reports for The-Latest on the Mumbai bombings of 2008.
Brian Usher is photography consultant for The-Latest.Com. He is a highly experienced editorial and commercial photographer whose work has been published throughout the world, appearing in many well known magazines and newspapers. Brian has featured in several books and has been a writer for the Royal Photographic Society magazine.
Heidi Kingstone has spent time in Afghanistan reporting for a number of publications. Her work has appeared in the Financial Times, The Spectator, The Sunday Times and other international journals. She has also reported from places like Iraq, Rwanda, Lebanon, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Kenya. Heidi is The-Latest's Editor at large.
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