Journalism is undergoing a period of major change. Print readership is steadily declining, newspapers have been closing. Newspapers have tried to appeal to readers by shortening stories and using social media more extensively. People consume news in different ways now. The growth of online publishing means that news media is always on. Reports are sourced, written and broadcast almost in real time.

Journalists need to know how to work across all platforms, from print to broadcast to online. There has also been a growth in freelance journalism, although at the moment this tends to be more prevalent among experienced journalists.

There are a number of routes into journalism. These may vary slightly depending on what sort of journalism you want to do. However, the main entry points are pre-entry and direct entry.

• Pre-entry is where you undertake training/qualifications before finding a job
• Direct entry is where you are taken on by an employer and train on the job

The majority of journalists now take the pre-entry route, as fewer employers run direct entry schemes.

Both the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) and Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BJTC) offer training options for multi-platform journalism, including broadcast, online and digital production.

Journalists produce content for magazines, newspapers, radio, television, and online publications. As well as producing written content, journalists can be employed to produce other forms of content, for instance data-sets, images, videos, etc.

Shortly after graduating, Sussex alumni have gone on to work in the following jobs  

• Junior Journalist at The Big Issue (Studied History)
• Junior Journalist at The Surrey Mirror (Studied English)
• Journalist at Strategy 1 (Studied Oral History)
• Freelance Writer and Researcher (Studied English)
• Researcher at The Guardian (studied Media Studies)

The following fields also have work for people with skills in writing, marketing, research, etc