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MEDIA BUST, J-SCHOOL BOOM
Rubin is an intern at CJR.
As advertising revenue decreased, as publications like the Dallas Times Herald, Connoisseur, and New York Woman were terminated, as layoffs and buy-outs became commonplace, the journalism job market became, as Professor Lee Brown of San Diego State University put it, "so tight it squeaks." The future has been looking so bleak for aspiring journalists that one might assume fewer students would want to study journalism.
The opposite appears to be true, however. School officials questioned in an informal CJR survey of twelve major journalism programs around the country describe a substantial increase in graduate applications. At Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, in Evanston, Illinois, 651 applications had been received by spring for the fall 1992 semester -- up from 535 last year. At Boston University's College of Communications, which includes programs in print and broadcast journalism as well as film and public relations, the number of applicants has jumped from 237 last year to 451 so far this year. At the University of Texas graduate journalism department in the College of Communication, applications climbed from about 150 to about 200 between 1991 and 1992. "It's been a tremendous increase. I can't fit all of them in the same drawer," says Beverly Williams, the department's graduate coordinator.
Undergraduate programs have not expanded significantly, but they have generally remained filled to capacity, feeding the rise in applications to graduate schools. Helen Aller of the University of Florida estimates that 30 to 35 percent of last year's journalism undergraduates from her school found a job, and that "more who have not found a job are applying to graduate school."
"In a market like this, an undergraduate senses that the master's degree takes on more importance," says Laird Anderson, a journalism professor at American University. One result is increased competition to get into graduate journalism programs. Another is increased competition for financial aid. "I bet 80 percent are applying for it," says Donna Krivis, director of graduate admissions to Boston University's College of Communication. "We don't have a large financial aid pool so it will become very competitive." Some schools, meanwhile, have recently added part-time graduate programs for journalism students who hold jobs.
To invest in a graduate journalism degree, of course, is to gamble that the media will be hiring again after graduation -- a risky gamble these days. As a holding action, many students are taking internships after graduation; others are settling for jobs on newsletters or small publications that they once might have spurned.
Still, for many students, graduate school seems a better bet than testing the market straight out of college. As Nancy Woodbury, a journalism graduate student at the University of Florida, says, "I now know a lot of waiters and waitresses."
