With few jobs, why study journalism?

[Leer en español.]

The Spanish economic crisis has slammed the media.  5,000 journalists lost their jobs in 2011 in Spain.  Those losses are not even the most shocking in a country where unemployment is greater than 20 per cent. 

Without doubt, the notion that journalism is a source of dependable employment is in crisis not only in Spain, but all around the world.  Even established daily papers are closing, and once-fleeting uncertainties about the "most noble job in the world" -- as Nobel Prize-winning author and journalist Gabriel Garcia Marquez once described the profession --  have become permanent doubts. 

In Chile, other factors make the journalist's precarious existence even more dramatic.

Just five years ago, the Society of Professional Journalists of Chile ran an intense publicity campaign in all the country's major daily papers urging young people not to study journalism. 

Today, in 2012, after a year of profound structural crisis in Chile's educational system, especially higher education, the web portal Universite.cl published a study (Spanish) claiming that there were just 1,700 jobs in mass media for the 11,000 recently graduated journalists -- and their 8,000 comrades still studying the profession.

Chile's crisis of journalism has become a frequent topic of debate in social media, and the publication of these cruel and disheartening numbers only deepened the argument.  Adding to the angst was the unfortunate announcement that the country's 49th School of Journalism had opened in Purranque, a small community in the south of Chile with fewer than 30,000 residents.  More bad news.

Of course, many young people idealize the role of journalism and the possibility of appearing on television, and they harbor dreams of million-dollar salaries.  But the reality is very different.  A first-year journalist earns an average of US $1,000 each month.  With three years experience, this young reporter can expect to earn US $1,500 a month, if she is lucky. 

So then, why bother studying journalism?  A few weeks ago, I published on my Twitter feed (@mauroavila) a message to the young students who were preparing to sit for their university entrance exams, the outcome of which will determine the universities and majors they may choose. 

I argued that, no matter their result, they should not study journalism.  I got plenty of criticism for this proposal, and I want to clarify that I would allow for an exception - if you have an authentic passion for this profession.