Cox Center Study Shows Weak Job Market for Journalism and Mass Communication Graduates
Graduates of journalism and mass communication programs in the United
States had difficulty finding work in 2003 and 2004, and those who did
find work received lower salaries and poorer benefits packages than did
graduates a year earlier.
Despite the weak market, or maybe because of it, those journalism and mass communication graduates who found work were relatively satisfied with what they were doing and committed to the organizations that employed them.
These are some of the key findings of the Annual Survey of Journalism & Mass Communication Graduates, housed in the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research at the University of Georgia. The Cox Center is a unit of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Cox Center Director Dr. Lee B. Becker and Assistant Director Dr. Tudor Vlad released the findings of the survey of journalism and mass communication graduates at the conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), meeting August 4-7 in Toronto, Canada.
Cox Center researchers also released the preliminary results of the Annual Surveys of Journalism & Mass Communication Enrollments, a companion survey to the graduate survey also conducted in the Cox Center. The survey found that the 463 journalism and mass communication programs around the country enrolled 204,268 students in the autumn of 2003, up 5% from a year earlier. The final report will be released in the autumn of 2004.
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Dr.
Vlad summarizes enrollment trends.
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The research team also released the findings of a separate study of enrollments in doctoral programs in the broad field of communication, showing an increase in enrollments of 18% from a year earlier, and a separate study assessing the impact of a video message designed to increase enrollments of racial and ethnic minorities in those doctoral programs.
In the keynote session of the conference, AEJMC President Dr. Jannette L. Dates, dean of the School of Communications at Howard University, acknowledged the contributions of the work of Dr. Becker to journalism education by giving him one of two presidential awards. The other was granted to Dr. Trevor Brown, dean of the School of Journalism at Indiana University. The awards acknowledge "unwavering dedication and outstanding service" to journalism and mass communication education.
Also during the Toronto conference, Drs. Becker and Vlad released the preliminary results of a study of the members of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication (ASJMC). That study, to be summarized in a full report later this year, is designed to help ASJMC leadership better understand member needs and assessment of services provided. ASJMC is made up of just under 200 programs of journalism and mass communication in the United States.
Assisting Drs. Becker and Vlad in the presentations in Toronto were Cox Center graduate research assistants Amy Jo Coffey and Noah Arceneaux.
Dr. Becker also participated in a session organized by the Minorities and Communication Division of AEJMC and the Internship and Career Interest Group focusing on the labor market for minority graduates of journalism and mass communication programs. In that session, Dr. Becker told the audience that though graduates of the nation's journalism and mass communication programs who were members of racial or ethnic minority groups continued in 2003 to have more difficulty finding work than did graduates who were not minorities, there was no difference between the two groups of in terms of the specializations in college, their participation in campus media, and their use of internships. These three characteristics–specialization, campus media participation, and completion of internships–have been found to be predictors of job market success of graduates in the past.
Dr. Becker also served as a discussant in a session on international journalism education organized by the Civic Journalism Interest Group and the International Communication Division.
In addition, Cox Center Graduate Research Assistant Amy Jo Coffey presented a research paper titled "In Search of a New Radio Market Definition: The Modified Metro" to a Law Division research session at the Toronto conference.
The Annual Surveys of Journalism & Mass Communication, which include both the graduates and enrollment surveys, are used extensively in Cox Center programming internationally. The surveys are sponsored by: American Society of Newspaper Editors, Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication; Association of Schools of Journalism & Mass Communication; Cox Newspapers Inc., The Freedom Forum, Gannett, Hearst Corporation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, National Association of Broadcasters, Newsletter & Electronic Publishers Foundation, The Newspaper Guild–CWA, Scripps Howard Foundation, and the Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Georgia.
Dr. Becker has directed the surveys since 1987.
Click here to learn more about the Annual Surveys of Journalism & Mass Communication.