Six Things You Should Expect as a Journalism Major

Six Things You Should Expect as a Journalism Major Courtesy: etsy.com When you’re a journalism student, writing and studying your craft can be intimidating. Professors are often critical of your work, editors never want to take what you’ve written at face value, and you almost always feel like you’re falling behind in the latest software updates. You should be prepared for these things when you go into school. Journalism is a unique and difficult major, one that can send a lot of kids packing if they don’t follow general rules and fix their work where necessary. You have to be able to take criticism while still holding your ground and being a respected figure. It’s an interesting balance. But, before you make the decision to jump into the journalism major, there are six things you need to know. 1. Your professors will be harder on you than anyone else. If you’re a journalism student enrolled in an English course, expect your writing to be looked at more critically than the rest of your class. Because you already know how to research and you have a knack for writing interesting content, your professor will have more to say about how it’s been completed. You’re giving them more material to work with. They know your potential, and they know you’re capable of writing a great piece. That means you’re doing to have to do exactly that. Every single time. 2. Youll be expected to consistently interview strangers. Even if you don’t want to go into the reporting portion of the field, you need to be prepared to get uncomfortably close to strangers. Your journalism professors will expect you to cover stories (and they can’t be people you know, or organizations in which you’re a member), and those stories will usually involve meeting with a group of people that you’ve never met before. If you have social anxiety, this isn’t the career for you. If you don’t have the means of conducting interviews, you need to obtain those means, or choose a more reasonable major.