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This is where fields like Journalism, Psychology, Fashion, and Design come in. These might not cater to the best paying jobs and insurances but they make it up with the thrill and subsequent job satisfaction that comes with them while not compromising with the social respect of other ‘established’ fields.
What Is Journalism Exactly?
What Is Journalism Exactly?
There is something new happening every minute, every second around the globe whether it is in politics, sports, technology, cinema, fashion, trade, or any other genre one can think of. Gathering, assessing, analyzing, and finally presenting of these new developments to an audience is what constitutes Journalism and these presenters are thus called Journalists.
Journalism’s role is to inform, educate, and to empower. Journalism and media shed light on the dark, provide a voice to voiceless, and also check and balance the power in the country. The values of democracy are time and again judged by the independence of its press and it is the Media which is often considered as the 4th pillar of Indian democracy.
What It Requires to Be a Journalist?
Aptitude can always be developed with interest and passion. To be a Journalist, first of all you need to be a good communicator – lucidity in writing and articulation in oratory are the underpinnings of a good journalist. These are not ready-made skills; they develop with practice and can be mastered over time with adequate hard work.
Other than these, if you have the willingness to talk and interact with people and have the curiosity to understand their pulse at the moment then everything else is a technicality.
Every University offering Journalism in India requires you to be 10+2 pass out and there are various courses after 12th. Although there are 1-year diploma courses available, the best and most common way to pursue Journalism is to get a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and/or Mass Communication, apply for internships in breaks and vacations and then go for a Master’s degree if required.
Various courses available today include:-
1. BA in Media and Communication (UG, 3 years)
2. BA in Journalism (UG, 3 years)
3. Bachelor of Mass Media and Journalism (UG, 3 years)
4. Bachelor of Communication and Journalism (UG, 3 years)
5. B.Sc. in Journalism and Mass Communication (UG, 3 years)
6. BBA in Journalism and Mass Communication (UG, 3 years)
7. BA in Script Writing (UG, 3 years)
8. MA in Journalism and Mass Communication (PG, 2 years)
9. M.Sc. in Mass Communication (PG, 2 years)
10. Diploma in Journalism (1 year)
11. Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication (2 years)
The Scope in Journalism
The Scope in Journalism
India encompasses one of the biggest media industries in the world providing millions of jobs to journalists. Traditional Journalism is broadly divided into two categories - Print and Electronic. Journalism in print media involves newspapers, journals, magazines, and books. On the other hand, journalism through the electronic medium consists of television and radio.
These are together known as the Old Media and provide an assortment of opportunities in the field of Journalism in Hindi, English and almost every vernacular language, these include:
In Print Media:
Reporter: As a reporter your job will be to report quickly with clarity and accuracy. Objectivity and the intellect to distinguish a story will be very important in this role.
Correspondent/Special Reporter: These are reporters for a particular purpose. You must possess thorough knowledge in a particular field like politics and sports etc.
Feature Writer: A feature writer’s job involves writing in-depth stories and observations on specific topics.
Leader Writer: These are concerned with putting across their views on the day to day topics through editorials and columns.
Proof Reader: Proof Reader’s job is to assess and compare proofs with the edited copy. For this job one must possess skills in grammar and punctuation.
Editor: Editor is the key head whose main responsibility is to ensure uniformity and continuity of the media with the beliefs and principles of the organization. He/she presents the newspaper in an eye-catching fashion.
Columnist: As a columnist, you will write for a specific segment in the newspaper or magazine. Your column would highlight your viewpoint concerning any topic like fashion, politics or films and the like.
Other profiles include of Critics, Photo Journalists, and Cartoonists.
In Electronic Media:
Researchers: Researchers' jobs are self-explanatory. To be a researcher, one must be creative and inquisitive.
Broadcast Reporters: To be a broadcast reporter you must have good communication and presentation skills along with a nose for news.
Presenters: A presenter should possess good communication skills, command over speech, general knowledge, intelligence and the tranquillity to be composed in stressful conditions. Additionally, the presenter must also have a good quality of facial expression to convey the right tone of the information.
The above-mentioned job profiles are mostly formal, salaried, and are stable jobs which together form the wheels of a news or media organization which include newspaper publishers, press agencies and television, radio channels, etc. Other than these freelancers are informal employees who provide content to their agencies and are paid accordingly.
Are There Enough Jobs?
Are There Enough Jobs?
Even though the reports of job declines and layoffs from western countries are not promising but Indian studies display a different picture. India has nevertheless seen a secure growth in profits of the media companies while even the archaic newspaper industry is also reporting a steady increase in demand and readership amidst growing literacy rates.
What is more tangible still is the shift of audience towards digital platforms and media houses have done seemingly well to adapt to this change with almost every newspaper today publishing its online editions and fancying its websites and apps.
A few years back the advent of the internet and smartphones heralded a new age of media that uses computers to disseminate information with its audience even more interactively and in real-time. This new form of media is called the New-media which has eventually given birth to what we today commonly renounce as Social Media and has opened various new opportunities in media.
The New Media includes modern platforms like Blogs, YouTube, E-Books, and various other online streaming applications which provide an eclectic choice of stages to talented individuals or groups to showcase their creative abilities and also earn substantially with advertising and sponsorships.
On the other hand Social media involves platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Tik-Tok which not only have provided business opportunities for new-age content writers and influencers but have also opened up a new form of journalism known as Citizen Journalism.
Other than these fields you can also pursue MBA in Media and Communications and enhance your employment opportunities. You can also pursue courses in advertising, corporate communication and Public relations to explore many other opportunities.
The Pay Scale
Even though interest and passion draw the youth towards Journalism more than its monetary benefits but for most of us a stable financial career holds equal importance if not more. So how well does Journalism pay?
Every website, every data, every graph shows variable projections but one thing is common – it does not pay much to be a journalist in India or most countries around the world.
Here are the specifics:
According to payscale.com total salaries (including tips, bonuses, and overtime pay) in the field range from ₹292,332 of an entry-level Journalist with less than 1-year experience to ₹479,616 for an experienced Journalist with 10-19 years of experience.
According to glassdoor.co.in, a journalist at The Times of India gets paid between ₹233K - ₹958K annually while a senior reporter at The Hindu is paid up to ₹730K annually.
Where a Social Media manager earns in the range of ₹600,000, the average annual salary of a Senior News Editor at News 18 network is ₹10, 52,825. These tend to differ with the experience and needs of various media houses.
The pay-scales are highly variable around mediums of Journalism as well, for instance a senior journalist in television media is paid higher than a journalist with similar experience in radio and newspaper because of the higher advertising revenue it gathers.
Also salaries vary across different states and cities with Kolkata and Bangalore paying ballpark 30% more than the national average to its journalists whereas Chennai pays 15% less than the national mean.
These salaries are no way near to the pay-scales of Chartered Accountants and Data Analysts of the modern era and the pay-scale of a Journalist depends greatly on the individual skills and specializations and these tend to change with experience and popularity as well.
Celebrity journalists and those who stick to the field long enough to write books and become producers and chairpersons of their organization tend to have their earnings comparable to films stars and sportspersons.
To conclude, there would be nothing more appropriate than the adage about the might of the pen because irrespective of the pay, a journalist carries the unmatchable power to shape democracies, to shake the governors and to affect politics, economics and everything else that matters to the governed and with this unparalleled power comes similar responsibility and respect.
Written by - Rudransh Khurana
Edited by - Arnav Mehra
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