In a media-saturated world, journalism can be a heady career choice. Liberal Arts graduates from Mercer with experience writing for our award-winning College Voice sometimes transfer to a Journalism B.A. Others continue with an English, Creative Writing, or Communications B.A. and may then opt for a Master’s in Journalism.
Students interested in a specific kind of journalism—for instance, science writing, business journalism, political or legal analysis—should plan to double major in the field on which they wish to report along with gaining a degree in journalism. Most well-known science writers have a Ph.D. in science or an M.D., and most legal reporters have a J.D. in addition to their credentials in journalism, communications, or English.
With a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, graduates have many career choices:
Education: With additional education courses and teaching certification, graduates with a BA can teach journalism in high schools and coordinate the school newspaper or yearbook.
Publishing or Journalism: proofreader, copy-editor, manuscript reviewer, editorial assistant, junior reporter, fact-checker; video and photo production and editing specialist; magazine, newspaper, and online media writer.
Business: professional or technical writer, marketer, corporate communications specialist, executive assistant, marketing coordinator, publications editor, global publicity intern.
Government work: intelligence analyst, proofreader, copy-editor, strategic communications specialist, entry-level technical writer, speechwriter, public relations and media manager
Media: newscaster, media presenter and weather forecaster, along with all the behind-the-scenes jobs required to make broadcasts possible.
Creative Writing: writers of creative non-fiction, bloggers, online storytellers, and journalists sometimes pursue an MFA (Masters of Fine Arts).
A Master’s Degree in Journalism allows a journalism major to specialize in strategic communications, visual media, organizational communications, digital journalism, and media management. An M.A. can lead to higher-level employment in the above fields and qualifies graduates to teach at the community college level.
To teach at a college or university, a Ph.D. is required, along with a history of presentation and creative/scholarly publication.