An Examination of Job Skills Required by Top U.S. Broadcast News Companies and Potential Impact on Journalism Curricula

Abstract

Journalism programs in America’s colleges and universities are seeing record enrollments, despite dire predictions that journalism may be a dying industry and that jobs are scarce and getting scarcer. In order to prepare broadcast journalism students for the dynamic nature of the industry, it has become more important than ever for educators to stay abreast of the evolution of skills and attributes that are most important for employment and success in the journalism profession today. For the third consecutive year, a content analysis was conducted over a period of 3 months in 2008, 2009, and 2010 for all the employment opportunities posted by the top 10 broadcast journalism companies in the United States. The researchers identified several important findings over the 3-year period, including a significant increase in multimedia skills required by employers. In addition, findings consistent from year to year may boost educator confidence in using the results as a guide to specific curricular reforms. For example, the need for students to work in teams and for educators to create or simulate deadline pressure in assignments is critical. The ability to post content to the web, to write for the web, to shoot video and still photos and to work within the mobile and social media spaces seem to be essential.