Journalism is a path most people are familiar with—writing for a website, newspaper or magazine. Yet, as popular as journalism has been in recent years, is it still popular today?
In recent years, journalism majors have struggled as not many jobs are available to them, and, since 1980 there’s been a steady decline in job opportunities in major publishers. The employment rate for journalists has dropped more than 57%. So what caused this decline in journalism? This is a complicated question, as journalism’s decline can be attributed to many factors. However, the advent of the internet is the most significant.
Since the 1980s, access to information through the internet became quickly available. This decreased interest in newspapers, as people could search for news on their computer. With how much digital media has evolved, this issue has become more prevalent, and many subscription-based news websites are losing money due to competition from other free websites reporting on the same story. Many news websites have started to bombard their websites with large amounts of ads, due to losing money from the decrease in subscriptions.
In the past few years another competitor has risen, AI. Artificial intelligence is one of the biggest competitors to journalists. AI such as ChatGPT all source their information from other websites on the internet. These news websites are having their articles and data used without their permission. With how much easier it is to ask an AI to find information for you, many people no longer see the point of reading the news themselves when they can have it quickly summarized by an AI. These both contributed to the current struggle of journalism majors, the lack of openings in jobs. This is very problematic because if you are interested, you have to accept lower pay. Not only do you have to sacrifice on pay, but you will lose out on other things as well.
The lack of jobs is not the only thing that is declining in journalism, the average salary has also been decreasing, currently the average salary being $57 thousand per year, lower than the average salary of $66 thousand. This lower salary is a direct result of the dying industry, and companies are no longer able to pay their starting journalists what they deserve. This decreased salary is a dealbreaker for many considering pursuing journalism in college.
So can journalism come back? While it is possible, there would have to be an increased desire to read and interest in journalism would have to return to its original popularity. Someone who disagrees that journalism is declining could state that it has evolved into news websites and blogs, and while the career path may be declining journalism is still going well digitally. It’s decline began in the 1980s; with the invention of the internet, in the 1990s many newspapers created websites for their brand leading to decreased revenue, the job market became smaller leading to decreased salaries for many new graduates, causing less interest in pursuing the career, and in the 2020s artificial intelligence started to gain popularity slowly becoming a more convenient source of information. Through those 40 years journalism went from a relatively well paying and decent career path to one that rarely has job opportunities and has a less than average salary.
All in all, journalism is a hard major to select. Not only is there a need to write tedious essays on a daily basis, but journalism majors must also put up with abhorred pay and little recognition. ChatGPT does not help. Soon organizations may be able to use ChatGPT to write detailed covers on topics which further reduces the need for high quality journalists. The only necessary qualification may become basic internet querying, even while audiences lose interest in produced news articles. Besides AI overviews as new, other social media has filled the informational void. According to a 2024 study by Pew Research, over 50% of American adults have used social media as a source of new, and the numbers have been rising. All is not lost, however, and an inspired new generation of journalists could invigorate a declining industry. Ink and paper will persist, despite the advances of code and circuitry.