When I tell people I am a journalism major, I am often met with wary looks. I have had some people make statements about how much money I will make. Others have the completely wrong image of what I want to do.
I want to make it clear that being a journalism major does not mean I will be reporting in war zones or even on television at all. Sure, those are some journalists’ goals, but not everyone's. A journalist like me just wants to write and report. The field is broad, so get the image of a woman with perfectly combed hair with a monotone news voice out of your head. That is not the only form of a journalist.
The question that I get asked the most when I say I am a journalism major is the one that irks me the most: “Isn’t it a dying industry?” No. Absolutely not. The world will have journalism as long as people need information about the world around them. Print newspapers may be dying, but news is not and will not. It is just moving to the digital world like everything else.
I do not think people think of journalism as most journalists do. Without this field of work, people would be ill-informed. Journalism is the reason people know about the happenings of the world.
Without journalism, people would have little to no knowledge about political candidates. They wouldn’t have heard about the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, as promptly as they did. They surely wouldn’t know about crimes in their cities, bills being passed in the capital or all of the other things that people need to hear about as quickly as possible.
The field of reporting is for the people. Journalists are the watchdogs of this country. If there is a story that needs to be reported or a scandal that needs to be uncovered, journalists are here to do that. A journalist’s job is to inform the public in an accurate and prompt manner.
When talking about just how important journalism is, I like to bring up the fact that the Watergate scandal was uncovered by two young journalists for The Washington Post: Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. This changed the world’s view on journalism. The world saw just how powerful the media could be. Journalism keeps the government in check.
I know that journalism is an underrated, misunderstood major. People think it’s easy, and most do not even know what it actually entails.
When I say I am a journalism major, people often say something along the lines of, “Lucky, you don’t have to take hard classes.” Those people, dear reader, could not be more wrong.
Some of our classes are definitely more fun than organic chemistry, but some are the bane of our existence. Reporting at UF is the monster of all monsters, throwing students directly into the field. This major isn’t one where you simply take classes, but one where you dive head first into experiencing journalism. Right off the bat, students start working on assignments that are similar to what they will someday do in their careers. Everything is about building skills and a portfolio.
Next time you read a news article with important information, ask yourself if you would have gained that knowledge if journalism did not exist. Next time someone tells you they are a journalism major, know that they work just as hard as a STEM major does. Next time someone says newspapers are dying, hit them with the fact that news will never die out.
The world needs news, and the world needs journalists.
Kacey Finch is a UF journalism sophomore. Her column appears on Wednesdays.
