Journalism graduates are finding jobs in journalism!

Elizabeth Weinreb Fishman, the school's associate dean for communications said, "Many of our students have gotten job offers in the last couple weeks, so 64 percent is lower than the actual number now employed."

Likewise, former students at CUNY's Graduate School of Journalism are enjoying relative success, in at least obtaining jobs in the world of words. The last class to graduate did so in December 2008, and of the 45 hopefuls, 60 per cent have full time jobs in journalism, while another 15 per cent are pursing internship style activities or freelancing.  

It is strange, as Editor&Publisher comments, that these young, inexperienced aspirants are finding jobs when their fully fledged counterparts are very publicly being laid off.  Indeed, a number of the said Columbian class have actually found work at prestigious establishments attracting the most attention for their recent spate of redundancies, notably, The New York Times, NPR, CNN.  

The reasons for this are up for debate. Jeff Bercovici, of the Daily Finance illustrates the process in the unforgiving glare of the business context:

"It's a corporate cliche to lay people off and euphemize it as "restructuring," but you can be sure that some of the companies that are letting go well-paid editors and writers in their 40s and 50s are quietly stocking up on fresh j-school grads whose lack of real-word experience is at least partly made up for by their effortless fluency in the ways of the web -- and their willingness to work for $35,000 a year".

This reasoning points to a current of change running deeper than the current bouts of economisation enacted to accommodate for the unfavourable financial climate; the inexorable modernisation of media. Stephen B. Shepard, dean of CUNY School of Journalism believes that his students are employable thanks to the cutting edge training they receive in the programme, which teaches the art of journalism through a multimedia perspective.  On the other hand, it would not do to underestimate the importance of the institution.  Fisher maintains that her students are snapped up due to the continued prestige of the Columbia badge and "the truly prodigious efforts of our career services team".

Of course, institutional reputation is of paramount importance in the world of work, particularly in the media industry where contacts and networking are often crucial.  Therefore, given that Columbia is one of the best journalism schools in the country, it is still perhaps worrying that a rough 35 per cent of its latest batch of budding journalist have yet to find a job in their desired field.  The fate of graduates of lesser-known schools must be considered.  However, there has not been any relevant and sustained country-wide research from which definite conclusions can be drawn.  

It is interesting, nontheless, that the interviewed journalism schools are generally optimistic in their outlook for future employment.  It should serve to further the inform those debating with perplexity the Forbes Spring report which showed that enrolment in US journalism schools was at an all time high, despite the well documented uncertainty shrouding the news industry.  In fact, the debates have served to underline the impressive feats of innovation and adaptation performed by the news media and its educational bodies alike, which account for their continued desirability.  

Source:  Daily Finance ,
             Editor&Publisher