A Career in Media Studies: Is It For You?

One side effect of studying the media is that you might find that you love the subject and would like to study it as a major in college. While you are still a few years away from having to make that decision, knowing what this course can do for you and your future career can be helpful.

Even if you decide that media studies is not for you as a career, building your literacy and communication skills will definitely impact your fiction and poetry skills. Learning how to write journalistically can enhance your writing ability, not to mention your personal communication skills. Many publishers prefer the stark and clean journalistic writing style when buying manuscripts.

Today, let's focus on our future a moment. Use your journal/notebook/graphic organizer for this assignment. Check out the bulleted list below to see if a college program in Media might be something you'd like to pursue as a professional career. Click on and read the various college programs in Media Studies. What skills, topics, or subjects do these programs seem to cover? Focus on areas that these programs have in common.

Various College Programs in Journalism/Media Studies:

• University of Rochester
• SUNY Buffalo
• CUNY Queen's College
• MCC
• New York University
• Penn State University
• Vassar College

And, of course, there are many others.

Lab Task: Part II:

Now that you've seen a few examples of college programs in media studies, take the next 15-20 minutes to research college programs you might be interested in. What course content do these programs cover? What do these programs promise to do for a student? What makes the program unique?

Be prepared to share your findings with a partner or peer group.

NOTE: Revisit this project at any time during the year when you are wondering why you are studying this stuff. It may help get you back on track.