Can I get an English degree to be a journalist?

I’m applying for four University of California campuses around the LA area. One of them has a literary journalism degree which I was going to apply for, but the others don’t have specific Journalism degrees but they have English. Is this a good degree to get to become a Journalist? Also, I would either want to be a magazine Journalist, or maybe even Broadcast Journalist, I’d like the option to do both. Can I have an English or Literary Journalism degree and get a job in broadcast journalism? I picked these four campuses for several reasons, but mainly because I really want to live in the LA area, that’s where I want to go to school and that’s not changing. But I need to write about why I chose my degree in my essay, and I’m wondering if those three campuses are goinng to wonder why I picked their campuses if they don’t have a specific journalism degree, unless English is OK. Can someone please please help me?

Top 1 Answers

A few days ago

Anonymous

Favorite Answer

Yes, an English degree will be an asset in journalism. Literary journalism would work well. You’d be surprised how many journalists – especially in broadcasting – can’t write very well. Quite a few have English or History degrees. However…

…speaking from experience since I once worked in the news media…

Journalism – print, TV, radio – can be a very complicated world and there are a lot of nuances (like the AP writing style, inverted pyramid, etc), legalities, and technical issues that you will not learn from an English degree. You’ll need to intern at a newspaper or TV news room to learn these and develop some real-world industry credibility. Otherwise you’ll just be another poor, hungry writer looking for a job. Not trying to discourage you, that’s just the reality (or was when I was there).

Is there a community college with a journalism program or graduate program in journalism in the area? Maybe even a vo-tech program in broadcasting? These could be helpful additions to the bachelor degree.

Good luck in school.

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Can I get an English degree to be a journalist?

Can I get an English degree to be a journalist?

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