Economic downfall hits journalism students
James Baker
Issue date: 1/23/09 Section: News
"I never want to graduate," Rush said.
Tough economic times have made the job search "very dismal," Chad Golston, a journalism advertising and public relations major, said. "It makes life after graduation really scary."
Others have resorted to taking a wide array of classes.
"I started Ad/PR classes just to make sure I had job opportunities, in case something didn't pan out in broadcasting," junior Ramsay Fulbright said.
With job cuts come a much a more competitive job market, and the willingness to relocate and not be as picky when it comes to salaries would help immensely, Fulbright said.
Though broadcasting has seen a dip in employment, as well as radio, exemplified by the recent news of Clear Channel cutting 1,850 jobs, newspapers have the undivided attention of doomsday rhetoricians.
While the losses for newspapers thus far in the recession are on par with other industries, the constant decline in circulation for many national papers and complete uncertainty of the future have many scrambling to come up with an answer.
"We're operating in a medium that's 200 years old," UA journalism Professor Gerald Jordan said.
"It's good for familiarity, but bad in that we haven't caught up to the 21st century."
Costs like putting ink on paper and putting it on people's doorstep just scratch the surface of what goes into a daily paper.
"I'm not lobbying to get rid of jobs, but the people who have to look at money look at costs first," Jordan said. "The greatest is in staff."
Though people are flocking to Internet for news, the advertising business model for Internet has not been successful, and each day brings a new creation like the Web site Craigslist that changes the game again.
While newspapers like The Chicago Tribune and The New York Times are either bankrupt or close to it, what has not changed is the goal to objectively report what is relevant and useful, which can't always be said for a blog, which is to reporting what Wikipedia is to encyclopedias.
"Our charge is to watch government and stand in place of people in public meetings, and I don't think that's going away," Jordan said.
Our business will survive, Jordan said. "It could be print, online or something we haven't fathomed yet."
Tough economic times have made the job search "very dismal," Chad Golston, a journalism advertising and public relations major, said. "It makes life after graduation really scary."
Others have resorted to taking a wide array of classes.
"I started Ad/PR classes just to make sure I had job opportunities, in case something didn't pan out in broadcasting," junior Ramsay Fulbright said.
With job cuts come a much a more competitive job market, and the willingness to relocate and not be as picky when it comes to salaries would help immensely, Fulbright said.
Though broadcasting has seen a dip in employment, as well as radio, exemplified by the recent news of Clear Channel cutting 1,850 jobs, newspapers have the undivided attention of doomsday rhetoricians.
While the losses for newspapers thus far in the recession are on par with other industries, the constant decline in circulation for many national papers and complete uncertainty of the future have many scrambling to come up with an answer.
"We're operating in a medium that's 200 years old," UA journalism Professor Gerald Jordan said.
"It's good for familiarity, but bad in that we haven't caught up to the 21st century."
Costs like putting ink on paper and putting it on people's doorstep just scratch the surface of what goes into a daily paper.
"I'm not lobbying to get rid of jobs, but the people who have to look at money look at costs first," Jordan said. "The greatest is in staff."
Though people are flocking to Internet for news, the advertising business model for Internet has not been successful, and each day brings a new creation like the Web site Craigslist that changes the game again.
While newspapers like The Chicago Tribune and The New York Times are either bankrupt or close to it, what has not changed is the goal to objectively report what is relevant and useful, which can't always be said for a blog, which is to reporting what Wikipedia is to encyclopedias.
"Our charge is to watch government and stand in place of people in public meetings, and I don't think that's going away," Jordan said.
Our business will survive, Jordan said. "It could be print, online or something we haven't fathomed yet."
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