undergradly.
Major · Communication & Journalism

Tell the story, in a shrinking newsroom

Broadcast Journalism trains students to report, produce, and deliver news across television, radio, and digital video. About 672 degrees are awarded each year across 70 colleges, with five-year median earnings near $55,211. Top placement still flows from a handful of marquee programs — Syracuse Newhouse, Northwestern Medill, Missouri, Cronkite, Annenberg, Hussman — but the core occupations are contracting and the early-career pay is soft.

Schools offering
70
Annual completions
672
Typical degree level
Associate's + Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$55k

About this major

Broadcast Journalism is a craft-focused branch of the broader journalism family, organized around reporting, producing, and delivering news across television, radio, and increasingly streaming and digital video. Coursework starts with the journalism core — news writing, media law and ethics, reporting and source-building — and layers on broadcast-specific production: on-camera and on-mic technique, shooting and editing video packages, audio production, studio and field directing, and live-show producing. Most programs run a working campus newsroom or affiliate-quality studio, and students cycle through reporting, anchoring, and producing roles across four years while building a reel and an internship history at local affiliates, public radio stations, or digital newsrooms.

The major fits students who already produce media for fun rather than only consuming it — recording their own podcast, shooting and editing video, anchoring a high school broadcast, or freelancing for a community paper. Strong writers, comfortable on-camera presence, deadline tolerance, and a willingness to start in small markets and unglamorous shifts are the trait set that holds up against a contracting job market. Standout graduates from top programs — Syracuse Newhouse, Northwestern Medill, Missouri, USC Annenberg, ASU Cronkite, UNC Hussman — still place into network shows, major-market affiliates, and well-funded digital newsrooms; for the rest, the realistic on-ramp is a small-market reporting or producing job at $28,000 to $40,000 with the expectation of relocating two or three times in the first decade.

At national scale, this is a small and contracting niche: 672 degrees are awarded annually across 70 colleges, dwarfed by 8,274 in Journalism (the parent CIP), 6,797 in Mass Communication and Media Studies, and 29,295 in Speech Communication and Rhetoric. Top-completion programs in the data include Syracuse (80 bachelor's), Oklahoma (62), Northern Kentucky (39), North Texas (37), and South Carolina (36). Five-year median earnings of $55,211 sit below most career-track communications majors and reflect a labor market where both core BLS occupations are projected to lose jobs over the next decade — reporters at -3.9% and broadcast announcers at -5.5% — and where AI tools for transcription, B-roll generation, and synthetic anchors are absorbing routine production layers that once served as entry-level on-ramps.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
Writers and authors $72k +3.6% Bachelor's degree
Editors $75k +0.6% Bachelor's degree
News analysts, reporters, and journalists $60k -3.9% Bachelor's degree
Communications teachers, postsecondary $78k +2.1% Doctoral or professional degree
Broadcast announcers and radio disc jockeys $46k -5.5% Bachelor's degree
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$55k

Associate's vs Bachelor's — early-career earnings

Associate's

$48k

Bachelor's

$55k

Who this major is for

You may thrive here if you already produce news or video for fun and would do it whether or not you got paid — calling games, anchoring a campus newscast, recording a weekly podcast, cutting a documentary short, freelancing local stories. The major rewards students who treat reporting and broadcasting as crafts to be practiced — sources built, drafts revised, packages shot and recut, reels assembled and shared — and who accept that breaking in usually means moving to a small market on modest pay, working weekends and overnights, and earning the next move with a stronger tape. A genuine appetite for original reporting, on-camera presence under pressure, and deadline production is the combination most predictive of following through into the industry rather than peeling off into adjacent fields after graduation.

Think twice if your interest in broadcast media is mostly the polished on-air product without the daily reporting grind underneath. The contracting core job market deserves an honest look: reporters at -3.9% projected growth, broadcast announcers at -5.5%, local TV stations consolidating, AI eating routine transcription, B-roll generation, and synthetic-anchor explainers. The pivot lanes — corporate communications, content marketing, podcast production, sports media, video production inside non-media companies — are real and well-traveled, but they are also accessible from broader majors with more fallback options. If your goal is communications craft generally rather than news specifically, Radio and Television offers more portable production skills. If your goal is media-adjacent business or strategy, Mass Communication and Media Studies or Communication, General opens a wider hiring funnel. Choose Broadcast Journalism specifically when newsroom work, on-air reporting, or live broadcast producing is the actual draw and you are willing to do the small-market grind to get there.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Broadcast Journalism

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
Syracuse University Syracuse, NY 0 80 80
University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus Norman, OK 0 62 62
Northern Kentucky University Highland Heights, KY 0 39 39
University of North Texas Denton, TX 0 37 37
University of South Carolina-Columbia Columbia, SC 0 36 36
University of Central Oklahoma Edmond, OK 0 34 34
Chapman University Orange, CA 0 30 30
Washington State University Pullman, WA 0 29 29
Western Kentucky University Bowling Green, KY 0 29 29
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE 0 24 24
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Speech Communication and Rhetoric

29,295 completions/yr

Communication, General

9,537 completions/yr

Journalism

8,274 completions/yr

Mass Communication/Media Studies

6,797 completions/yr

Radio and Television

4,611 completions/yr

Creative Writing

3,403 completions/yr

Rhetoric and Composition

1,071 completions/yr

Sports Communication

766 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What do Broadcast Journalism majors actually study day-to-day?
Coursework starts with journalism foundations — news writing, media law, ethics, and reporting — and layers on the production craft that makes broadcast work different: on-camera and on-mic technique, video shooting and editing, audio production, studio and field directing, and live-show producing. Most programs require studio practicum every semester: shooting and editing packages on deadline, anchoring or producing campus newscasts, running live remotes, and assembling reels and resume tapes. Internships at local affiliates, public radio, and digital newsrooms are usually mandatory, and many students work at the campus station or NPR member station throughout junior and senior year. The work is public, the deadlines are tight, and your reel is being built whether you mean to or not.
What's a realistic earnings picture after a Broadcast Journalism degree?
Five-year median earnings sit near $55,211, with bachelor's completers around $55,282 and associate's completers around $48,497. The number is below the broader Communications and Journalism family and well below where a high-floor major like nursing or accounting starts. The named broadcast careers explain why: news analysts, reporters, and journalists post a median of $60,280 but show -3.9% projected growth, and broadcast announcers and radio disc jockeys earn $45,680 with -5.5% projected growth. Entry pay in small-market local TV is genuinely low — $28,000 to $40,000 in many DMA 100+ markets, with weekend shifts and overnight production. Graduates who climb the affiliate ladder or move into network and digital newsrooms can reach $70,000 to $100,000+ within seven to ten years, but the typical path is slow and depends on willingness to relocate repeatedly.
How competitive is the job market, and how is AI changing it?
The supply-demand math is unfavorable and getting worse. Both core occupations are projected to contract: news analysts, reporters, and journalists at -3.9% and broadcast announcers and radio disc jockeys at -5.5%. Local TV stations have consolidated under fewer ownership groups (Sinclair, Nexstar, Tegna, Gray) and trimmed mid-market staff. Print-to-digital migration is mostly complete, with the remaining digital newsrooms — NowThis, NBC News Now, ABC News Live, NYT Video, podcast networks — running with leaner production teams than their broadcast predecessors. AI is already absorbing routine layers of the workflow: automated transcription (Otter, Descript), AI-generated B-roll and stock visuals, synthetic-anchor and avatar tools (Synthesia, HeyGen) for explainer segments, and LLM summarization in breaking-news pipelines. The work that remains durable is original reporting, live event coverage, investigative longform, and on-camera presence under pressure. Production-only roles are most exposed.
Where do Broadcast Journalism graduates actually end up working?
The named destinations from the data span a wide pay and growth band. News analysts, reporters, and journalists ($60,280, -3.9% growth) is the on-the-nose path, alongside broadcast announcers and radio disc jockeys ($45,680, -5.5%) for those breaking into on-air work. Editors at $75,260 and writers and authors at $72,270 absorb many graduates who pivot into longform, digital, or corporate content within a few years. Beyond the data, the realistic five-year picture for many alumni is corporate communications and PR, content marketing at SaaS and consumer-brand companies, podcast production at media networks, video producer roles inside non-media companies (banks, hospitals, universities, sports teams), and digital editorial roles at newsletters and creator-led media. Standout graduates from Newhouse, Medill, Mizzou, Cronkite, Annenberg, and Hussman still place at network shows and major-market affiliates, but they are the visible top of a wider pyramid of less famous outcomes.
Do I need a bachelor's, or is an associate's enough?
The earnings gap is real: bachelor's completers earn about $55,282 at five years versus $48,497 for associate's completers, a difference near $6,800. The stronger reason to pursue the bachelor's is access. Every bachelor's-typical occupation in the data — reporters, broadcast announcers, editors, writers — lists a bachelor's as the standard entry credential, and the four-year programs that feed broadcast journalism (Syracuse Newhouse, Northwestern Medill, Missouri, USC Annenberg, ASU Cronkite, UNC Hussman) supply the internship pipelines, alumni networks, and on-campus broadcast facilities that the field hires through. An associate's can work as a transfer step into a four-year communications or journalism program, especially for students minimizing first-two-year cost, but it is not a terminal credential for newsroom roles in any meaningful market.
Is Broadcast Journalism the right fit, or should I consider a related major?
Three alternatives sit close enough to compare. Journalism (8,274 completions) is the broader parent CIP — same core skills, more flexibility across print, digital, and broadcast, and identical destinations on the reporting side. Mass Communication and Media Studies (6,797 completions) goes wider still, layering theory and audience research onto craft and producing graduates who land in PR, marketing, and digital strategy more readily than in newsrooms. Radio and Television (4,611 completions) emphasizes production craft — shooting, editing, directing — that is portable to corporate video, sports production, and entertainment without depending on the news job market. Pick Broadcast Journalism specifically if your goal is on-air or in-control-room news work and you are willing to start small-market and relocate. If your real interest is storytelling and video production without the newsroom contraction, Radio and Television offers a more portable craft. If it is communications generally with media as one option, Mass Communication or Communication, General widens the fallback set without giving up much in starting pay.