US: Attendance at journalism schools on the rise

Posted by John Burke on May 16, 2006 at 4:05 PM

Katharine Q. Seelye at The New York Times writes that despite falling newspaper circulations and lack of trust in the media, admissions to journalism schools across the country are on a steady rise, increasing 5.2% last year. Through various interviews with students and faculty, the article shows that this rise is a reflection of the revolution that new media are causing which is opening up opportunities for those with the proper skills. As for newspapers, journalism students have a positive outlook, as long as they adapt their business models.

One 22-year old student hinted that the newspaper industry is not going to disappear but that ""Newspaper people are too pessimistic. Part of the nature of journalism is to adapt to your surroundings. We can't all stay in our ruts. If you get into this whole spiral of, 'Woe is us, the industry is going down,' then it will go down."

Another student of the same age said, "I don't pick up a newspaper unless it's in front of me and it's free," and that he reads most of his news on the Internet.

One upbeat finding of Ms. Seelye is that journalism students still care deeply about the message. Lee B. Becker, a professor in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, said, "(Students are) interested in the broader sense of what the media are and what role they play in society, and those are the things that drive them, not hearing about Knight Ridder dealing with a stockholders' revolt."

A 29-year old student from Columbia University told Seelye, ""You don't go into this profession to get rich. There are financial sacrifices, it's a tough profession, you're under fire, and it's not necessarily the most popular thing to say you're a journalist. But it's a calling."

Source: The New York Times

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