University Of Georgia Releases Annual Survey Of Journalism And Mass Communication Graduates

Are you interested in making money? Journalism might not be right for you.

The University of Georgia released its Annual Survey of Journalism and Mass Communication Graduates on Wednesday. According to the study, the median starting salary for journalism grads is just $30,000. In 2006, starting salary for journalism grads was also $30,000. This was the last year that starting salary ever improved.

But the news wasn't all glum. Apparently, journalism is recovering from the downturn of the last couple of years:

The 2010 graduates were more likely than graduates of 2009 to report having at least one job offer on graduation, more likely to report being employed at the benchmark date of the end of October of last year, and more likely to hold a full-time job six to eight months after completing university studies. The jobs the graduates held were more likely to be in the field of communication in 2010 than they were in 2009.

Is journalism worth it? Weigh in below!

Comments

[whitewater]

03:08 PM on 08/14/2011

It is rare to find credible journalists in the media any more. The on air models are even less believable. It might help if the majority did not try so hard to get jobs with the Democratic party to improve their careers and finances. The same holds for the few who cater to Republicans.

[littlechanges]

02:12 PM on 08/14/2011

There has never been any money in the profession of journalism, except in management and on-air talent, which long has been a bit of an oxymoron and now often means one is a personality, not a journalist. Having taught graduating seniors in j-school, one of my saddest duties was to be the first to inform my students: (a) it was a low paid profession, the hours long, benefits sketchy, holidays non-existent and the field highly competitive among the best from across the globe and top universities; (b) they really ought start reading a newspaper; and (c) yes, they actually did need to be able to read and write, even if their grandmother had always told them they were cute and belonged on television. Sigh. That "news" was inevitably met with wide eyes and dropped jaws; it was as if a roomful of urban middle school basketball players had been told the NBA only signed those who at least knew how to dribble and shoot. And so it goes. ;-)

[williamina]

02:45 PM on 08/14/2011

weird

[littlechanges]

03:03 PM on 08/14/2011

Not really. The result of creating the fake degree of Mass Communications in order to get more money out of starry-eyed kids who belonged in Drama class, and then gluing it to Journalism. Most everything these days that the public thinks is journalism is actually PR and marketing. Mass Comm won, the public lost.

[raker]

11:41 AM on 08/14/2011

Prostitution would be more lucrative than journalism and less degrading.

[JDShipley]

11:44 AM on 08/14/2011

Experienced?

[raker]

12:10 PM on 08/14/2011

Yes. I've watched TV news. There is nothing more degrading.

[anneeger]

11:15 PM on 08/13/2011

Paparazzi make money. People like Angela Jolie and Brad Pitt make money selling their baby pictures. The ones, who are good at tabloid stories will make some money. There are barely any real journalists left because nobody pays for research anymore.

[KKleine]

07:10 PM on 08/13/2011

I was a journalist for 15 years and climbed the ranks to an assistant news editor at a daily paper. My salary was a whopping $26,500 in 1999. I moved into graphic design and corporate communications where I'm bored with my job, but i was making almost 4 times what I made in journalism before my job was outsourced to Mexico — a direct result of Republican policies that reward corporations that send jobs overseas with huge tax breaks.

[WILLIEMOJORISIN]

12:32 PM on 08/14/2011

Bill Clinton signed "nafta" into law which sent thousands of jobs to Mex. both partys are corrupt ,self serving and inept , are those the Bush tax cuts to the rich that Obama just extended?

[williamina]

02:47 PM on 08/14/2011

Well you touched all the bases there, except Halliburton.

[Thumbody]

04:04 PM on 08/13/2011

To much, there is no such thing as professional journalism anymore. Simply create a story regardless of facts for sensationalism and ratings. They should replace journalism schools with "school of storytelling."

[MayorsRevenge]

10:41 AM on 08/13/2011

There is a hug oversupply of qualified grads. And it is increasing. This is the worst time to go to college and to go deeply into debt to do so is a very bad idea. It sucks but it is the situation we are in.

[CVales]

01:31 AM on 08/13/2011

As the cracked out history of media as shown us in the last decade, we need more journalists. It was a terrible thing that so many chased the dollar at Goldman Sachs. Let's hope Gen Y recovers from the avarice and restores some integrity to the public discourse. Go indie media!

[Joemmm]

08:36 PM on 08/12/2011

Yes they should but with the caveat they have responsibility to provide for themselves and their family. I am sure my Dad wasn't too interested at working at the rubber plant for 37 years. But he did it to live. That doesn't mean he did a bad job there, he did a good job. If you do something yo like but can provide for the type of life you want for yourself and your family by doing something you love but you can with something you are indifferent to it may be better to do the latter so your kids can have a better chance of doing something they love.

[piggles]

02:53 PM on 08/12/2011

I would like to add that the entire industry is under an economic shift because of the internet. It's really broadcast that is dying: the older generations are the ones that rely on TV for their news. As for traditional print, its shifting entirely online. The newspapers that charge for their online editions are doing it to subsidize their printed versions because that market share is dropping off as population is getting older and the newer, younger customers are using the internet instead.

The future of journalism is all about credibility -- the internet provides almost unlimited space for sourcing facts, like through footnoting. It'll be through these new means of backing up facts that will kill the pundit industry. As for the survival of television itself, it's going to come down to making programs available online for viewers to watch on-demand, like Viacom has done with Comedy Central's Daily Show and Colbert Report.

[The Notorious PDF]

12:02 PM on 08/12/2011

A lot of these journalism grads are going to have to get into something like court reporting on the side (you can make decent money getting law firms to pay you to do depositions and the like), or maybe even as their primary source of income. It will likely be years before they're lucky enough to get the opportunity to make real money just being a journalist.

[armstrong st]

10:28 AM on 08/12/2011

I was very surprised to see this statistics. Journalists, in my opinion, should be paid more.

Steve from www.essaytask.com

[littlechanges]

02:22 PM on 08/14/2011

For decades, U.S. corporations have made a killing paying high school grad wages for the glut of journalism school grads, whom the corporations actually didn't want covering the news, at least not the news that affected government and finance. Once it became impossible for the average citizen to start their own newspaper or radio/tv station (@ 1980) , the information flow changed - and not for the better. I wish more Americans understood the history of media in this country; they'd be surprised. They'd also probably quit carping about the micro and look to the macro. The Big Picture isn't exactly an American strong suit.

[armstrong st]

09:22 AM on 08/15/2011

Thank you for your comment!

Steve from www.essaytask.com

[Seafarer61]

05:09 AM on 08/12/2011

I see things haven't changed since 1979 when I began my young adulthood pursuing a journalism education. A decade later, I finally woke up and decided the career choice had run its course. I was tired of eating mac and cheese every other night.

Low pay but rewarding doesn't trump high pay and rewarding.

[NoSandwiches]

11:45 PM on 08/11/2011

Are there still journalists around? Where?

[Joemmm]

08:57 PM on 08/11/2011

They are also not going into graduate schools in Engineering. If there were more US citizens applying for study of advanced degrees int engineering an science then there would not be as many foreign graduates being trained.

[mlaiuppa]

09:48 PM on 08/11/2011

Shouldn't people do what they love, not just what makes money? I'm not sure I'd want an engineer who hates his job designing a bridge, or a surgeon who hates his job operating on me.

[realorpretend]

02:52 AM on 08/12/2011

I'm guessing that there is a much higher demand for jobs people love than the realistic supply.

Just a guess.