Was I just wasting my time in this class?

I suggest you do some volunteer work in the field to find out what courses would be best for you. The journalists and the on-air talent are two different things. The more the reporter sounds like they know about the subject, the better they will be received, so a broad background is best.

I feel like learning what you don’t like is as important as learning what you do like.

It depends on what it is you want to be involved in. News reporting and say, MTV are two very different categories in tv reporting. Undoubtedly, it’d be beneficial to have a broad background, especially when it comes to sociology and politics if you want to work as a journalist.
I’d suggest taking classes that genuinely interest you as opposed to taking ones that you think will be beneficial. We never know where we’re going to end up so I suppose it’s best to try to enjoy the journey as much as we can.

Try working on a Public Access channel and see if you like it… maybe you will get noticed and then you won’t need to go to classes that you don’t like

Yes, communications involves public speaking.

Broadcast Journalism is also a major at most schools that is more focused on televsion and radio. Is there a campus radio or television station?

@BarnacleBill Why,yes they do :-) But if you don’t mind me asking, is only new that involves broadcast journalism,what other types of television it’s involved in.And would the politics class be hard?(since one of the guests that came to class for winter registration was saying those are one of the classes I must take in order to do journalism as my course?

Communications covers a broader spectrum of subjects that just television and radio. It also encompasses written communciation programs for businesses, and touches upon public relations and marketing. With broadcast journalism, you are looking at how the story and message is both written and delivered to the audience.

It would be necessary to take politics classes, because a lot of the news has to do with politics. If you’re going to sound credible about what you’re saying in front of a camera, you need to understand the background. Likewise, if you’re writing about something that happened, you need to understand the background in order to summarize it correctly. Broadcast journalism would also lead to working on any sort of program where you’re delivering messaging, or working in all sorts of behind-the-scenes roles to get the program on the air.

YouTube and video channeling has sort of changed the game with respect to broadcast communications, like Happy Slip, which is more or less acting related.

First of all, your major isn’t really that important in the world of work. Everyone wants talented people, no matter what their major was. You simply don’t learn enough in a major in college to put you ahead in the competition.

Second, if you want to be on camera talent, public speaking is probably one of the most important classes you could take. What do people on camera do? They speak. To the public.

If you like journalism, don’t worry about the job situation. Journalists are all moving online and there will be plenty of work. More than you can possibly imagine. What the internet needs is content, content, content.

If you don’t enjoy writing,,, you’re in trouble. Who do you think writes the lines for on-camera talent? Sometimes it’s you. The most important thing you need to learn is how to think. If you can structure your thoughts, you can convey any idea you want to. If you can’t do that, you’ll look like an idiot.

Learn to write. Take journalism. Or take communications. If you have good teachers and these are serious programs, you’ll be well-prepared.

I hope you take a good look around, TV and journalism are dead and dying. The golden age of television was the 1960’s; back then TV was a promising career. Then it became terribly splintered as cable TV appeared. Now with the Internet thrown into the mix as well, TV on autopilot and is going nowhere. Many stations operate with no live person except the guy sweeping. A computer alternates the signal between rerun programming and commercials, and TV/radio/newspaper journalism is already dead. The major programs on TV, dancing with the stars, American Idol, etc, are “reality shows,” done without writers, without anyone with any significant communications talent. Where is the action today? The Web, bloggers, huffington post, Google, etc, and even here, the trend is toward crowdsourcing, with ordinary citizens instead of paid journalists providing content as they do through Youtube.