Student studying in the Fairbanks building. Photo by Ella Beu.
CHARLOTTE HARGROVE | OPINION COLUMNIST | chargrove@butler.edu
While communications students may have less numbers to crunch than those in other majors, the unwarranted hate they receive is likely due to the lack of general knowledge of the communications fields. While communications-based majors are over-generalized, that’s usually not the case at all. Many majors have concentrations and tracks that hone down a specific area or speciality like Creative Media and Entertainment, Film Studies, and more. With the recent rise of social media and content creation, the job opportunities in communications are endless.
Amanda Quilhot, a first-year strategic communications and sports media double major, discussed her interest in how social media is changing the game in the communications job market.
“I really like the social media aspect of communications,” Quilhot said. “I think that [it] would be super fun to be behind the marketing side of things.”
Majors like Creative Media and Entertainment have been growing exponentially in career opportunities.
Natalia Collazo, a first-year creative media and entertainment major, spoke on just how many opportunities there are within communications as a whole.
“It’s really been very cool to explore the different options that Butler has,” Collazo said. “Especially because I changed my major [from journalism]. I really took a deep look into CCOM and what they have to offer, and there is so much, I really felt connected.”
While most communications-based courses focus less on the typical testing standards, students are rather actively learning through hands-on courses. Some students even have the opportunity to focus more on hands-on work with industry-level equipment.
“We’ve been learning how to read off a teleprompter in my sports media classes,” Quilhot said. “Learning [to read off of the teleprompter] is definitely going to be helpful if I want to pursue being a sports reporter.”
Journalism is another big aspect of CCOM, and while it may be less equipment-based, journalism can provide students with the skill sets they need in order to excel in their future careers.
First-year journalism major Chase Mendygral discussed his beliefs that journalism is aiding in uniting people and bringing healthy discussion and debate to life.
“Something we’ve talked a lot about in some of the classes that I’ve taken is how [journalism] can be used to guide public conversation,” Mendygal said. “I think that [conversations] have generally strayed from that zone of healthy debate.”
One major aspect of the communications hate is the uneducated idea that students are provided with an easier work load due to the writing and creative-based courses.
“The actual writing of [the articles I write for my classes] is not particularly difficult,” Mendygral said. “The sourcing and finding people to interview and a lot of that I think can be a little bit time consuming.”
When it comes to homework and projects, CCOM students have to actually go out and do real in-person research for themselves rather than being able to look up information in text books or online. Take this article for example; while the writing itself may just take an hour or two, the researching, sourcing and interviewing process takes about a week of hard work and dedication. Some students noted that video and production courses take many hours just to produce one small clip or video.
“Editing takes a really long time depending on what your assignment is,” Collazo said. “I could take two hours working on part of a project if I’m editing sound and video together.”
So next time you find yourself thinking how easy it must be to be a communications student, try cold calling for an interview or finding a last minute source for a four-page article. You might change your mind.
