Journalism Offers Rewarding Career Opportunites

Every journalist, teacher and friend can give you advice about going into journalism as a career.

Usually, people translate "journalism" to mean newspaper or news service work. It is much broader than that, however. The field also includes magazines, television news, radio news, newsletters and the new online publications distributed over the Internet.

The New Jersey Collegiate Press Association has prepared four articles about journalism careers and has included a New Jersey spin on the topic. The first such article is about media salaries.

The second article offers a description of the range of experiences offered by a daily newspaper and a weekly newspaper. This article is designed to help applicants to the New Jersey Press Foundation's Internship/Scholarship Program as they choose a newspaper for their internships.

Two others look into the future of newspapers, beyond the days of ink on paper, and into the rewarding aspects of working as a journalist.

Others will follow.

Finding straightforward and authoritative information to add to that advice is at your fingertips with this New Jersey Collegiate Press Association Web page.

There are two recognized national sources for journalism career information. They are:

• Dow Jones News Fund, located in Princeton, N.J., has been working for more than 40 years to give college and high school students timely information about ways to approach a journalism career, scholarships for college study and newspaper internships offered nationwide. The Fund's career information, The Journalist's Road To Success, is a comprehensive source of journalism career information: https://www.newsfund.org/PageText/JournRoad.aspx?Page_ID=JrRd
   
• The U.S. Department of Labor publishes Occupational Outlook Handbook which contains useful career information. This book, available at www.bls.gov/ooh , is used extensively by career counselors at colleges, high schools and employment agencies.
   
• Accredited Online Colleges offers information to students who interested in writing careers on its Life Between the Lines: A Career as an Author, Writer, or Editor webpage: http://www.accreditedonlinecolleges.org/resources/life-between-the-lines-a-career-as-an-author-writer-or-editor/

If you have a question about how to best approach your future career in the media, feel free to click the Feedback button below and ask NJCPA questions about anything from selecting a college or graduate school to getting a job in the news business.

Updated March 2003