Do you want to be the next great investigative reporter? Would you like to be the play-by-play voice for one of America’s great sports teams? Are you interested in documenting people and places with your camera? Perhaps you’re thinking about a job in marketing or public relations or corporate communications. Or maybe you’re unsure about your future career, but you know you want to develop communication and critical-thinking skills.

A journalism degree can get you moving down these paths (and countless others).

“Journalism degrees are in high demand, not only in traditional journalism industries but also in other fields,” says Melissa Tully, director of the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication. “The skills that you develop as a journalism student can really take you down a variety of career paths, in part because people are always looking for students who can write, who can clearly communicate, and who have good critical thinking skills and the ability to think on their feet. These are all hard skills and soft skills that translate to several fields.” 

As an aspiring journalist, you probably have a lot of questions about journalism degrees and the higher-education institutions that offer them — most people going into the field are curious by nature, after all.

Let’s dive in ...

What types of journalism degrees are there?

Many college and university journalism programs allow you to choose from a variety of degrees, concentrations, or tracks that enable you to create a more streamlined career path while acquiring knowledge and a companion set of skills to those in the main journalism curriculum. 

The type of journalism job you want will influence the type of degree you should pursue. 

Some common types of journalism degrees, concentrations, or tracks include:

Some journalism students also get a double major, minor, or certificate in a related or complementary field such as communications, business, political science, or sport and recreation management. In fact, depending on the type of journalism degree you are working toward, adding another major may make sense to break into the specific career in journalism or mass communication you want or potentially lead to more job opportunities or higher salaries.

What can you do with a journalism degree?

You may be pleasantly surprised by the many varied professional paths you can go down with a journalism degree. This is because journalism is a broad area of study that teaches skills valuable to many fields. 

“A journalism degree trains students to be adaptable,” says Tully. “Between day one of class and when they leave four years later, there will be jobs that exist that didn’t exist when they started. Students can go anywhere with the skills that they gain from a journalism and mass communication program.”

Careers you may consider if you get a journalism degree:

“The field of journalism and media is constantly evolving,” Tully says. “It’s important that you have a sense of adventure and willingness to experiment with the many opportunities that are going to become available.” 

What college has the best journalism program?

Nearly 1,400 colleges and universities in the United States offer some type of journalism degree. But which school is the best? 

Well, it depends on how you define “best.” Each student’s priorities are different, and the best journalism school for you may not be the best for someone else. This also goes for it you are looking for the best online colleges for journalism.

There are dozens of journalism school rankings available from a range of sources, each with its own ranking methodology. 

One tool you can use to help narrow down your search is the list of colleges and universities that are accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC). The ACEJMC does not rank programs. Instead, it evaluates journalism programs based on its established educational requirements and standards.  

When you begin to dig deep into the colleges and universities you’re especially interested in, you’ll want to evaluate some basic factors such as class sizes, faculty-to-student ratio, and tuition. But along with these statistics, you’ll also want to try to get a feel for the culture of the program, including the faculty, experiential learning opportunities available, and resources and technology available to students.

Do journalists make good money?

As you might suspect, putting a dollar amount on a journalist’s salary depends on certain circumstances. Experience, geography, and types of journalism are all variables. A New York Times journalist’s salary likely will be higher than that of someone working an entry-level job in a rural region. 

Below you’ll find salary ranges, categorized by the type of job often held by those with a journalism degree. The average annual salary is there, but we also want to show what an income looks like at various percentiles (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th). The lower points give you an idea of where entry-level jobs might land, or what you might be paid in certain geographic regions that aren’t major media markets. (It’s not impossible to make six figures right out of college, but it’s hardly common.)

^{(Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2023)}

The average journalist salary figure does differ by region — the best-paid journalists tend to find themselves working on the coasts, home to many major media markets. Those markets have greater demand for certain types of journalists — salary data show that, on average, major broadcast media markets pay more-competitive rates for producers, directors, and announcers. As a result, those positions in those regions often rank amongst the highest-paid journalism jobs.    

Below you’ll find a sampling of average salaries for popular jobs for journalism and mass communication grads, pulled from states located in various regions of the United States.

 ^{(Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2023)}

(If you are interested in numbers from other states, visit the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website and select the state you’re interested in. There’s a lot of data on each state’s page; searching the page for a specific job title is a quick way to find what you want.)  

Yes, certain regions have higher salaries. But it would be wise to plug numbers into a cost-of-living calculator to see how far a dollar in one region might stretch (or shrink) in a different ZIP code. There are many calculator options on the web; this one from SmartAsset has a broad selection of U.S. cities available for comparison. 

Are journalism degrees worth it?

A journalism degree can be the key to landing a job in numerous fields. An obvious outcome is in traditional journalism, where a journalism grad can carve out a role as a reporter, an editor, a proofreader, a photographer, a graphic designer, a video producer/editor, and so on. Aspiring journalists can pursue their passions in numerous types of journalism: politics, sports, health care, science/research, business, entertainment, etc.

Another common field for journalism grads is broadcasting. The field employs on-air broadcasters, along with producers, directors, film and video editors, and photographers, to name a few. 

A journalism grad’s job prospects are not limited to the field of journalism. Degree holders can find work in the fields of public relations, advertising, digital communication, fundraising, nonprofit communication, technical writing, narrative writing and storytelling, health education, publishing, and data analysis/audience research.

Bottom line: Opportunities to tell stories and deliver community journalism aren’t going away — and people with a journalism degree will be the ones best equipped to tell those stories.

“Storytelling and journalism is going to change, it’s going to shift,” says the University of Iowa’s Tully. “Having a journalism degree or being part of a journalism degree program provides the opportunity to be at the forefront of those changes.”

It’s important to understand that earning a journalism degree online — whether an associate, bachelor’s, or master’s degree, or a PhD — can look different from program to program.  

Some are 100% online, with no physical interaction with professors or other students. Others are hybrid programs, which combine some online classes with some in-person components — whether that is classes, labs, or experiential learning opportunities. You also may find degree programs that are largely in person but offer a class or two online. 

Online courses also can vary in format, with some being live lectures while others are recorded and can be watched at your convenience. 

Earning a journalism or communication degree is a significant investment of time and money, so it’s important to be sure that the journalism school you choose will meet your educational and career goals.  

Are journalists in high demand?

There are career opportunities in journalism for people with a degree; this is true whether you’re seeking an entry-level journalism job or a seasoned pro looking for your next challenge. And as mentioned above, the scope of journalism degree jobs isn’t limited to that specific arena: Numerous career fields have hiring managers who crave critical thinkers who can communicate.

There were hundreds, if not thousands, of postings for jobs in the United States across many types of journalism and related fields, and forecasts from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics through the year 2032 look strong for many disciplines.  

Traditional journalism and mass communication jobs, however, are projected to decline over the next few years, anywhere from 3% to 4%. That said, average annual openings certainly won’t run dry. The projected employment growth for digital communication, public relations, advertising, fundraising/development, and most broadcast fields is more positive.

^{(Sources: Job posting data from Chmura/JobsEQ; projected employment growth and average annual openings from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)}

OK, so how does one stand out in an applicant pool? 

The skills of a journalist fall into two categories: hard skills and soft skills. In terms of hard skills, employers want to know if you can use software and technology specific to the position. Do you know your way around Microsoft Office (or other brands’ equivalents)? Do you understand trends in social media? Are you proficient in audio and/or video editing? 

And don’t sleep on soft skills — hiring managers want people with outstanding communication skills, the ability to prioritize/manage their time, people who work well in teams ... and did we mention outstanding communication skills? The ability to communicate is vital to any industry, not just journalism/mass communication.

Communication matters. Your future boss says so.

When employers were asked to rate the importance of career-readiness competencies, communication ranked the highest.

* — 5-point scale, where 1=Not at all important, 2=Not very important, 3=Somewhat important, 4=Very important, and 5=Extremely important 

Source: National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Job Outlook 2024