When I first decided to become a journalist, everybody had something to say about it. At family gatherings, people would always talk down on journalism. It hurt because it felt like they were talking about me. If they dislike journalists so much, what do they think of me?
During my first college tour at Franklin College, my tour guide went on and on about how her friend was a journalism major, and how cool it was that she got to go around taking pictures and learning about social media. “Don’t even worry about your classes, journalism is going to be so easy,” the guide told me.
The best part? Until my tour, the guide had never been in the journalism building.
I’ve experienced so many other similar interactions, so I decided to see if this was a common thought among students. Through online articles via PrepScholar.com, CollegeVine.com and OwnYourOwnFuture.com, I found that there are six or seven majors that are universally considered easy. I picked four, including journalism, and made a poll asking students to pick which is the easiest. This poll was sent to random students at Franklin College.
There were 170 students who answered the poll, and 42% picked communications degrees involving sports communication, journalism and public relations.
I was not surprised by this.
Not even a little bit.
What gets me so upset is not that journalism is considered easy, it’s that it’s considered easy by people who aren’t involved with it. Calling something easy takes away it’s value, and I’d argue that any profession can be valuable.
Erica Irish, a recent Franklin College grad, said that journalism looks easy from an outside perspective because people don’t get to see all the work behind getting stories together.
“People see the swans gliding on this beautiful lake, it looks picturesque,” Irish said “You never see their little legs working hard to swim. People see the picturesque part of it, but they don’t see all the strategy put in. They don’t see the late nights you pull.”
Irish started participating in journalism in high school. She said it served as an outlet for her, and she enjoyed how she got to see her writing make an immediate impact. After becoming an editor for her high school’s newspaper, she decided to go to Franklin College and study journalism.
One of the biggest struggles Irish faced at Franklin College was her self confidence. She said that though she received awards and scholarships for her writing, she still struggled to be confident in her work.
Another tough part of journalism is that you’re working with more people than just yourself.
“You’re dealing with humans, and that’s a messy process,” Irish said.
Colleen Steffen, FC alumna and executive editor of The Statehouse File has been a journalist since 1994. She believes that it is unfair to call journalism, or any profession, easy without being involved with the occupation.
“If you’re good at what you do, you make it look easy,” said Steffen. “I wish it was easy.”
Steffen believes people tend to think communications majors have it easy because of social media. “A lot of people get news from sharing on social media. Because media consumption has skyrocketed, but also media production, it’s so easy to look legitimate. It cheapens what a professional journalist does.”
Reese Otis, a first-year biology major, picked communications on the poll I created. She said she thinks most people picked communications for more than just the journalism aspect, though Otis said, “the concept of journalism looks easy.”
Otis said that she doesn’t think any major is the easiest, because there are different classes and requirements for each of them. If someone were to tell her biology was an easy major, she said she would be very confused, especially if they weren’t a biology major themselves. “How would they know it’s easy if they haven’t taken it?” Otis said.
We can’t assume anything about areas of life that we aren’t involved with. It’s easy to assume that the journalist taking photos at a football game is living the easy life, but have you considered how many calls they have to make just to get onto the field? Or how many big men do they have to dodge on the sidelines?
Trust me, I’m so glad that I don’t have to dissect animals in my interviewing class. However, I instead dissect press releases and question strangers as part of my daily routine.
Each major has tedious practices that make them time-consuming and frustrating, whether it be writing n entire script for a play as a theater major, or student-teaching as an education major.
No matter our majors, we all have classes that stress us out, cry during finals week and deserve to make it to graduation.
"easy" - Google News
October 08, 2021 at 08:53PM
https://ift.tt/2WTB5pk
There is no easy major | Opinion | thefranklinnews.com - The Franklin News
"easy" - Google News
https://ift.tt/38z63U6
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "There is no easy major | Opinion | thefranklinnews.com - The Franklin News"
Post a Comment