Will Journalism Pay My Bills?

Crap! I have no money. I mean, I kind of do, but I won’t once I start working.

Ironic, right?

Hi! I’m Samira, a maybe-journalist at Middlesex University, Dubai.

As journalism dives into the modern world, traditional writings slowly mould into glorified records or entirely disperse into letters from the past. Blogging and other writing jobs are created in order to target the social media addicted millennials craving fresh gossip to feed their bottomless, prying minds.

How do I see myself through the eyes of today?

A modern woman seeking independence. No longer do I look towards a future living off glorious, green scraps of paper the local rich guy uses as bait. I am that rich guy. Or in a sense, I hope to be.

So, why choose journalism if it’s low paid?

According to 2015 employment projections by the Department of Employment, there were 27,500 people employed as journalists or writers, and a growth of 10% to 30,300 was expected by 2020 (The Conversation, 2017).

As stated in the “Journo Salary Sharer” survey conducted by Julia Haslanger, a graduate student at City University of New York, in 2015, the median salary for first-year reporters was $36,000. Web-reporters’ salaries averaged at $50,000. Of the 3,400 responses, 21 identified themselves as editors-in-chief at small-scale publications banking just over $100,000 on average (Medium, 2015).

Data collected in 2017 showed journalists earning a median salary of $39,370. The lowest ten per cent earned less than $22,970, and the highest ten per cent earned more than $90,540 (Chron, 2019).

Salaries have a starting point – contracts. More freelance journalists are being employed instead of more experienced journalists in long-term positions. “Casual” journalists work under short-term rolling agreements which include subcontracted work, casual work, temporary work and freelance work (Cushion, S., 2007) – which put smiles on the big men’s faces as they stare into their filled safes.

Additionally, the 2019 Industry Employment Projections report featured “Information Media and Telecommunications” as one of the three industries with negative projected employment growth in the next five years (Labour Market Information Portal, 2019).

However, in 2014, a study based on answers to questionnaires given out to students from 10 Australian universities revealed this:

The three most heavily communicated motivations for choosing journalism as a degree/career – the ability to be creative, the chance of meeting different people, and the varied and lively work.

Earning money, having a secure job or becoming famous, although important (not the fame, unless you spend nights obsessively scrolling through celebrity gossip sites), was the least important criteria when the students decided on a journalism degree (Hanusch, F, et al., 2016).

Maybe that answers the question: Why choose journalism if it’s low paid? I’m inquisitive, passionate, analytical. I, too, have a bottomless pit for a mind, constantly searching for answers and knowledge. I am a journalist, maybe not yet professionally, but definitely one at heart.

References:

1. Cushion, S. (2007) 'Rich Media, Poor Journalists', Journalism Practice, 1(1), pp.120-129.

Hanusch, F, et al. (2016) 'For the lifestyle and a love of creativity: Australian journalism students' motivations for becoming journalists', Media International Australia, 160(1), pp.101-113.

2. Lmip.gov.au. (2015). Welcome to the Labour Market Information Portal. [online] Available at: http://lmip.gov.au/default.aspx?LMIP/EmploymentProjections .

3. The Conversation. (2017). There are jobs in journalism, just not traditional ones. [online] Available at: https://theconversation.com/there-are-jobs-in-journalism-just-not-traditional-ones-77622 .

4. Work.chron.com. (2019). Starting Salary for a Journalist. [online] Available at: https://work.chron.com/starting-salary-journalist-10809.html .