5 great careers for journalism majors

A degree in journalism is a practical and versatile major -- a degree that can get you a job just about anywhere.

A student holding a TV camera, wearing a headset and smiling.

With her journalism degree, alumna Alexa Ard became a foreign video editor at the Washington Post.

5 great careers for journalism majors

A degree in journalism is a practical and versatile major -- a degree that can get you a job just about anywhere.

With her journalism degree, alumna Alexa Ard became a foreign video editor at the Washington Post.

A student holding a TV camera, wearing a headset and smiling.

With her journalism degree, alumna Alexa Ard became a foreign video editor at the Washington Post.

At the Reynolds School of Journalism, you’ll learn to think about democracy, information and media as well as produce powerful stories using video, audio, words and graphics.

Here are five careers our journalism graduates are succeeding in (and the emphasis you can choose to prepare for this career):  

  1. Journalist (News & broadcasting emphasis)
    Journalists have some of the most interesting jobs in the world. Every day is different. You’ll meet fascinating people – from mechanics to CEOs and passionate activists to gifted artists. You’ll interview, research and analyze information then create multimedia stories on wide-ranging topics. And you’ll have opportunities to work for nonprofit news orgs, podcasts, magazines, public media, newspapers and international agencies.
  2. Copywriter (Public relations & advertising emphasis)
    Everyone loves to watch the latest ads. And who writes those clever advertisements? Copywriters. You’ll learn to take a complex product or issue and tell a compelling story about it in seconds. You’ll use language and images to capture attention and bring a product, a company or a cause to life. You’ll help companies and nonprofits identify what’s most important about their work and communicate it to the public.

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  1. Filmmaker (Film & media production emphasis)
    Creating a movie is a dream job, but it takes focused planning, teamwork and vision to actually produce a film. You’ll learn about the process and work on teams to develop story ideas. You’ll also hone your writing, filming, recording, designing and producing experience. You’ll go on to create your own documentaries, work for streaming companies, join film crews or do in-house videography.
  2. Graphic designer (Visual communication emphasis)
    Visual images are embedded everywhere, from social media to the brands on clothing to the maps, charts and graphs that fill the news. You’ll learn the principles of visual communication and work at our student-run design agency, Alpha Design, collaborating with clients and producing professional designs for web, print and video. You’ll find design jobs as a freelancer, in-house designer as well as opportunities at ad agencies, news organizations and more.
  3. Lawyer (Media studies emphasis)
    Becoming a lawyer might seem unrelated to a journalism major, but a journalism degree is actually an excellent pre-law program. A journalism degree teaches you to write quickly and concisely, to research and evaluate credibility of evidence and to appreciate the scope of the First Amendment. These abilities will serve you well in law school and while practicing law as many of our successful alumni have discovered.

And, if you speak Spanish, you can apply your bilingual talents to any of these emphases to make you an even more valuable media professional. Double major in Spanish and journalism or follow our Spanish-language media emphasis, and you will have a wide range of interesting careers open to you when you graduate.


Donica MensingDonica Mensing is a professor at the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her education includes degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and the University of Nevada, Reno. She has taught media ethics, basic reporting and graduate seminars in engagement and published articles and an edited volume on journalism education. Her research interests focus on changes to journalism, democracy and community in the evolution from mass media to networked media.