Posted on 05/03/2011 11:01:06 AM PDT by Academiadotorg
More bad news for those budding Ernie Pyles of the world as The Daily Beast ranks journalism at the top of its most useless degree list.
1. Journalism
Median starting salary: $35,800
Median mid-career salary: $66,600
Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -4,400
Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -6.32
Undergraduate field of study: Communications
Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009: 78,009
When those now-degreed students entered college, journalism was still doing fine, though beginning to feel the first effects of the Internet. But by the 2008-2009 period, the landscape had radically changed and anyone actually able to find a job of any kind was considered lucky.
Journalism schools are trying to adapt to survive. But in a world where traditional journalism is dying, students seeking a j-school degree are doing so at their own risk.
Don Irvine is the chairman of both Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
If you would like to comment on this article, e-mail mal.kline@academia.org
I worked in printing for many years. Specifically, pre-press. Computers, especially the Macintosh, hit that industry in the mid-late 1980s. By the middle 1990s most of the high-paying jobs in pre-press were obsolete.
Then the internet kicked-in, and demolished what was left of the entire industry.
Journalism is a crappy field to try to get into, but the same source, the Daily Beast, regards as “useless degrees” Chemistry, and Mechanical Engineering.
But there is always room for some more Walter Durantys in the MSM.
The list:
1. Journalism
2. Horticulture
3. Agriculture
4. Advertising
5. Fashion Design
6. Child and Family Studies
7. Music
8. Mechanical Engineering Technology
9. Chemistry
10. Nutrition
11. Human Resource
12. Theater
13. Art History
14. Photography
15. Literature
16. Art
17. Fine Arts
18. Psychology
19. English
20. Animal Science
Yet the MSM tells us that internet and it’s ragtag band of renegade bloggers and other “alternative media” aren’t able to match their standards of “professionalism”.
It seems the market if voting differently.
What no “Community Organizer”?
Photography is 14th?
Why is it that the demand for my work has tripled since my clients have introduced their higher end web sites.
You think someone with an iPhone takes those pictures?
Idiots.
(And median income for journalist making $66k? That is probably the “mean.” Because my wife was a broadcast journalist for 25 years, and a damned good one—and she never came close to that. 3 years into the PR business and she is almost there.)
They destroyed the newspaper industry. I know I was one of millions of people who used to enjoy reading newspapers.
And they are destroying the major TV news networks.
We need the Pyles of the world as much as we need the shingles.
other than Journalism its a BS list.
Can a client tell the difference between a photo taken by someone with a college degree in photography vs. someone without and are they willing to pay extra for it?
Actually they list mechanical engineering technology and not mechanical engineering. They are very different animals, just the same color.
Actually, I misread the link. I thought they were looking at careers. Not degrees.
Actually, the biggest complaint I get from my clients is that other shooters think they are “artists” and do not understand the needs of the business.
I worked in business for 20 years, and then went back to my first love: Photography. I see the work as more of a commodity, and I keep the art for my wall.
That’s why I make money, and they don’t.
So, you are correct sir....the degree is nice...but it doesn’t mean squat.
If this guy has the top worst then what are the top best?
Having been the producer/director/project manager of many ad campaigns and corporate multimedia projects . . . yes and yes. However not all amazing photographers have a 'college degree.' Many that work and get paid have had foundational training of some sort and like many jobs in the arts there is the gift for either the art or a very smart eye for what sells. those aspects and instincts can't always be taught.
Having been trained in photography as a young director and in just photography, most photos lack a level of art and or intrigue that a trained person or someone with a very intuitive eye could make amazing. People are often worse photographers than they think. A training eye can tell the junk. Which is ALOT and all over the place.
My guess is you either took a few classes or read books/manuals and trained yourself on the fundamentals of photography. Still what you have learned combined and your gifts in this area are a valuable asset--literally. :-).
I don't know about chemistry but mechanical engineering has changed drastically since I got my degree in 1967. The US auto industry was riding high, aerospace was a hot job market and the race to the moon was in full swing. Computers were moving out of the "ivory tower" and showing up on desk tops, supplanting bamboo slide-rules and drafting boards.
By 1970, MBAs had replaced the individual entrepreneurs who started many of the key industries that were the core of American enterprise. So the Harvard crowd took over with no understanding of the businesses they were managing, because after all management is management, whatever. So if you can run a textile factory, you can run a steel mill, right?
Merger mania followed soon after because corporate goals established a demand for exponential growth. Growing at 12% is easy when you go from a million in net billed sales to two million in eight years. It's easy to do with internal expansion, not possible when you are trying to go from 100 million to 200 million in the same eight years. So the MBAs decide to buy out the smaller fish. Any smaller fish, it doesn't what they manufacture as long as they make money. They fund the acquisitions by milking their "cash cows" dry. (the businesses they started with in the first place...) This results in conglomerates that combine anything from making airplanes to baking white bread.
The next step is to start reducing investment by leasing property, buildings, and capital equipment. Staffing with temp service people cuts costs to the bone and completely destroys any hope of a resident knowledge base in the context of just what the hell are we doing here. Then we farm out the design function to hired guns who are expert in nothing but are expected to design your product line to meet Marketing goals established by more consultants. The availability of computer aided design tools like finite element analysis applied (or miss-applied), enabled these consultants to whip out designs without R&D or prototype testing. (cutting time to market and leaving NO room for error.) We all know how well that worked for the crew of the Enterprise, remember those 'o' ring failures?
What happened next is inevitable as corporations grow to leviathan sized enterprises that have outstripped even government entities. They go international and take the core of the economy with them when they depart.
You don't need engineers in a society of consumers. That's all that's left in the US. Oh yeah, there are bankers and lawyers left too, G_d help us all.
Regards,
GtG
PS Bitter, me? No, I'm retired.
You want fries with that?
For an obsolete career path, try my old one: Teletype operator...
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