Why Print Journalism Isn't Just A "Fun" Major

Christmas always comes with gifts you never asked for; sometimes, it’s socks. Other times, it’s “do you have a significant other?” and the age-old “what are you going to do with your degree?”

For this, I picked the best concentration: print journalism.

Photo courtesy of nyfa.edu.

Buzzfeed beat me to writing an article about what it’s like being a print journalism major; however, I’d like to expand on numbers two, 17 and 30 since I’ve heard all of them a lot in the last two weeks.

The largest skill that comes with the holiday season — aside from learning to duck and weave through a Black Friday crowd — is feigning glee at one of these unwanted remarks or tube sock bundle packs. For me, Christmas came early at my part-time retail job when ringing up a chemistry major. When asked, I told her I’m a print journalism major who hopes to double major with Spanish.

To this, she replied “Oh, I wish. That sounds like so much fun.”

And this reaction, while seemingly harmless, struck a chord with me throughout my finals week and the intense study sessions beforehand. Of course, I may have put too much weight on a five-minute interaction and a $136 transaction; however, telling people you’re a journalism major always evokes that “must be fun” knee-jerk response.

Print journalism is a lot of fun for me because I love what I do, and I’m happy to know I love doing it as a second-semester sophomore when some alumni have switched to the major halfway through their college careers. Some days, it’s interviewing a band that just performed for the student body or writing a satirical article hoping that the humor gods and goddesses notice my (hopefully The Onion-caliber) wit. It’s getting to constantly tap into the human — and in my case, college — experience.

But that experience is also scribbling notes and asking personal information right after a student has died, or digging up the nitty-gritty details of an audit—all of which may place a target on the author’s back.

Detail reigns supreme in all of these subject matters; however, putting your pen to paper is an excruciating, never-ending process of assessing yourself and your own writing abilities — or, perhaps, lack thereof. In this profession, you need to know yourself well enough before you can even pretend to know anything about the job, the story being covered and more.

Print journalism isn’t just “fun;” it’s a commitment, lifestyle and — before everything else — a job. If you don’t have at least a little bit of fun in your career path — whether STEM or sociology — then why are you still there?