Entry-Level Hires in Daily Newspapers, Television Newsrooms Overwhelmingly Come from University Journalism Programs

Journalism and mass communication graduates made up 85% of those hired directly from college by the daily newspaper industry in 2005 and 92% of those hired directly from college for work in television newsrooms.

The percentage of entry-level hires by the daily newspaper industry that had graduated from the nation’s journalism and mass communication programs in 2005 was up from 78% five years ago and nearly as high as it has been back through 1970. The 92% figure for television newsrooms has not varied in any significant way since 1990.

Dr. Lee B. Becker and Dr. Tudor Vlad, director and assistant director respectively of the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research at the University of Georgia, released these and other research findings at the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication on August 4 in San Francisco.

The two researchers also reported that graduates of U.S. journalism and mass communication programs entered an improving job market in 2005. Bachelor’s degree recipients were more likely to have at least one in-person job interview, had more job offers on graduation, and were more likely to actually land a full-time job than were 2004 graduates.

In addition, the team reported that the number of students studying for careers in journalism and mass communication continued to increase.

These findings come from the Annual Surveys of Journalism & Mass Communication, housed in the Cox Center at the University of Georgia and funded by media organizations, associations and foundations. Dr. Becker has been directing these surveys for nearly 20 years.

The Cox Center is a unit of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

The findings on daily newspaper hiring come from a survey conducted every five years by Dr. Becker and his colleagues. The data on hiring in the television industry come from the Radio-Television News Directors Association Women & Minorities Survey conducted every year by Robert A. Papper, a faculty member in the Department of Telecommunications at Ball State University in Indiana.

Papper also participated in the session in San Francisco at which the results of the surveys were released.

The findings on the job market experiences of graduates come from the Annual Survey of Journalism & Mass Communication Graduates, while the findings on the continued growth in enrollments come from the Annual Survey of Journalism and Mass Communication Enrollments.

“Job prospects for journalism and mass communication graduates are up for the second straight year,” Dr. Becker said. “We saw improvement not only for bachelor’s degree recipients but also for those who earned a master’s degree from journalism and mass communication programs.”

Undergraduate enrollments in journalism and mass communication programs have grown every year since 1993, but the rate of growth from 2004 to 2005 was lower than the rate of growth in any of the previous 12 years. Enrollment in master’s degree programs also increased.

The research team at the Cox Center also has been monitoring doctoral programs in the broad field of communication, which includes those doctoral programs in journalism and mass communication units, and found that the number of programs and number of degrees granted continue to grow.

Every year the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication sets aside one session for the results of the Annual Surveys of Journalism & Mass Communication.

Dr. Becker also participated in a session at the conference for students and new faculty on how to be successful in getting published in the scholarly journals of the field.

The conference was held from August 2-5 at the Marriott Hotel in San Francisco.