After witnessing and trying out the Journalism market during the Summer of 2011; I realize one thing that I’m firmly believing in.

Journalism majors should consider double majoring.

I received my first degree in Journalism the Summer of 2011 at Southern Oregon University and attempted here in Southern Oregon as well as in northern California.  I managed to gather two or three freelancing articles along the way, but I wasn’t sticking out as well.  Partly because of the economy and because I only had six months interning prior, and because everyone else out there had a bachelor’s degree in Journalism.

So I decided to go back to school to get a second degree, (in Health and PE), to help make me stick out from the crowd.

Here are the Why, what, who, when, where and how of my thinking.

Why?

Our field, Journalism or Communications with an emphasis in Journalism is a broad spectrum.  Unless you got a second degree or an advance degree somewhere along the line, then it is difficult for several reasons to get popular.

What?
Think about you as a person.  You’re already good at the journalistic skill, getting that second degree will help shrink that broad aspect of the degree.  Like a area of expertise, i.e. like a person who wants to be a doctor will go into medical school to become, say, a orthopedic doctor or what have you.  If you say your a doctor, I could ask “what do you got your training in?”  What are you good at?

Who?

Who will be your audience.  Obviously this is Journalism 101, but have a specific field of expertise like mention above will decide if this choice would be a good choice.  For example, how big of an audience would be there if you covered disco music compare to rap music?  Disco wouldn’t be a good choice because it is a dead music scene whereas rap is continuing to grow.

When?

When is just as important as anything else.  When to try out a area of expertise should start when you take your first journalism class.  This is because once you take a few classes in this area along with your journalism classes will help you decide if this route will be best for you to double major and/or minor down the line or if you should drop it for a back-up choice elsewhere.  Also too, start writing mock articles in your journalism classes to gain practice and experience so you can be prepared as possible as you head into a internship then into the workforce.

Where?  Location is important.  After you decided if you want to do, say, Journalism and Economic majors, or Journalism and Political Science; look in your area of where you are living in to see if this type of second major or minor will be appropriate.  You don’t want to do Economics if your area is economically stable, nor do you want to do a Political Science double major if your area isn’t too deeply involved in Politics.  Needless to say that you want to go elsewhere to give it a try because practice now is just as important for future development as no practice.  It’s more difficult to do so if your area of living isn’t lively with the area of interest of what you want to do.

How?  It starts the moment you want to become a journalism major, a journalist.  For me, it was junior year of high school and I knew I wanted to do sports- and health-related reporting because it is what I knew best growing up because I was around it here and there frequently. So I started to take health and pe courses and helped with the SOU football team to get a better understanding for what I wanted to do down the line as a reporter.  To, in a way, get inside the minds of these people who do the jobs related to this area.

I look at the “how” section of this particular idea, and in general journalism as the conclusion of everything, how is it going to affect me as a person going forward.  Concluding this, let me say this, start early, research constantly, and be willing to change with the flow.  That’s how you can help yourself become a better journalist.

And remember, a journalist is never perfect.  There’s always room for improvement.

Broadcast Piece (Check it out!):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad1oYXJf9mw&feature=plcp