The Field
Journalists find out and tell the public about important issues and events. They gather information through research, firsthand experience and talking to people who know what’s going on. Then they take that information and decide what the story is and how it should be told. Finally, they write or produce, edit and present it to the public. (More often than not instantly, through digital media.) Most importantly, they play a vital role in American democracy.
They also spend a lot of time outside the office, doing work that can be pretty fast-paced.
The Outlook
CCC journalism alum have gone on to do Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage; work for major newspapers like The Washington Post, Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch and Las Vegas Review-Journal; serve as President of the USA Today Sports Media Group; even become Editor-in-Chief of PCWorld and MacWorld magazines. Others have gone into public relations and work for organizations like LEGOLAND and UC Berkeley. One recently became press secretary for the Governor of Oregon.
If you want to know more about entry-level jobs in the field, like how much they pay and how many are available, check out the Reporter and Correspondent and Photographer pages in our online Career Coach. You can also use that to get more information about jobs you can qualify for later in your career, like Editor or Program Director.
To succeed as a journalist, you need to be a dedicated, strong communicator and able to think on your feet. You’ll also need a solid background in the skills, ethics and practical realities of professional journalism.
Our Program
If you’re looking for a great way to start your career in journalism, we’ve got you.
Every student in CCC’s journalism program gets hands-on experience at our student-run weekly newspaper, The Advocate, and its web companion, cccadvocate.com. So when you’re a journalism student at CCC, you work in a real newsroom, where students cover events, take photos, write and edit stories, manage social media, create audio and video content for the website and do everything else that other news outlets do. And, you’re taught by Pulitzer-finalist faculty.
The Advocate is a 19-time winner of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges’ Pacesetter Award (most recently in 2017); a seven-time winner of and eight-time second place finisher for the California Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspapers Contest’s General Excellence Award; and a 15-time winner of college media’s most prestigious award, the Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker (most recently in 2015).
And when it comes to academics, CCC is serious, too. Back in the classroom, accomplished faculty teach our journalism students how to manage the legal, creative, editorial and ethical challenges that journalists face every day.
Our Associate in Arts for Transfer degree in Journalism means guaranteed admission into a similar program at a CSU school. But we also offer a traditional associate degree and certificate of achievement, in case you already have a four-year degree or have another transfer strategy in mind.
So, why not check out the program, see if we can help you pay for school or even get the ball rolling and apply now?