Optimistic Journalism students

The second-year students in the Red River College Creative Communications Journalism major are a bunch of optimists.

For their first blog posts of this semester I assigned them to write about the business of journalism, specifically the jobs available.

Their responses, which are linked on the right side of this page, are almost unanimously upbeat.

They do not subscribe to the journalism-is-dead school of thought that is so difficult to avoid, especially online.

They clearly see themselves finding paid employment in the field.  

Their writing can be testy, as is Meg Crane’s blog:

"But isn't that a dying profession?" is the response I most hate to hear (and most often get) from people I tell I'm majoring in journalism.

First of all, journalism isn't really a profession...

Second, this isn't the case at all and I'm getting a little tired of defending my career choice.

Crane is not just talking. She is editor-in-chief of The Projector, the college’s student newspaper. This year The Projector plans to publish more material than ever online.

Nearly all of last year’s Journalism majors are already working in the business – from Toronto to northern British Columbia.

Some even got jobs in Winnipeg!

Just as important, most of the young people laid off in 2012 by the Winnipeg Free Press are back working in the field, some of them right back at the paper.

So this year’s CreComm J majors have cause for optimism.