The University of Rhode Island’s Harrington School of Communication has seen a significant increase in first-year journalism students since the last academic year.
Last year, 85 students declared journalism as their major; this year, there are 135 students.
“The Harrington School saw a 46 percent increase in journalism majors as well as in communication studies, public relations and film media majors,” Adam Roth, director of the Harrington School said.
John Pantalone, the journalism department chair, said that the rise can be attributed to the combination of good promotional tactics from the school itself and the current political climate.
“As the president continues to attack news media and reporters, he unleashes a backlash among people who believe in the importance of journalism as a check on power and as a forum for information that leads to the public conversation about policy,” Pantalone said. “People seem more willing to pay for news reporting that they believe is important and will help them make decisions about voting and policies, everything from immigration to civil rights and foreign relations.”
URI is not the only school seeing a rise in the number of journalism students. Marketwatch reports that “Applications have jumped at journalism schools across the country.” For example, Marketwatch says that “After five years of ‘consistent’ application numbers, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism saw a 10 percent increase for the 2017-2018 school year.”
In recent years, graduate schools in the U.S. had only seen applications rise about one percent annually.
Although there is an increase in journalism students, the career outlook for journalists is declining. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the projected 10-year job outlook for reporters, correspondents and broadcast analysts, is down nine percent with approximately 4,500 jobs being lost.
However, Pantalone says he is more confident that journalism is making a comeback as the internet is starting to spawn more legitimate news sites. “This doesn’t necessarily guarantee anyone a job, but in terms of careers, journalism graduates possess skills that are favored by employers,” Pantalone said. “Journalism students know how to write well and to communicate effectively, they know how to find information and evaluate it, they know how to meet deadlines and more often today they possess technological skills that are important in all walks of life.”
Roth adds that a student’s major only accounts for 25 percent of the total credits they take at the University. “We are not training you for one career. If we did, we would be doing our students a disservice. We are training you to be employable and to live successful lives. Many of our students may not go into journalism, but they will still credit journalism as being important in their careers.”
For those who have strong dreams of being reporters or correspondents one day, Pantalone says that knowledge and aggressiveness makes someone more competitive. “Our most successful graduates have been our most aggressive students,” Pantalone said. “They were focused on what they wanted to do and prepared for it.”
At URI, the number of new journalism students is expected to rise due to new developments within the Harrington School. A new broadcasting studio is expected to open up this January, and Ranger Hall is undergoing a $3.5 million expansion of the Harrington Hub. The school, which launched a Sports Media minor this year, also plans on creating a Sports Media Major next year.
“All of that together means that we will continue to attract students to the Harrington School who will want to learn from our incredibly accomplished faculty and find a family of their own,” Roth said.