In our COMM 146 discussion, we go through deep discussions about classic, academic theories, the works of our UCSD Communications professors, and even current issues today. One issue is that students and others from different occupations tend to think that majoring in Communications is "easy", "can't be taken seriously", and "a joke". As Communications students, we don't feel much better hearing these comments and feeling the pressure. Our class read an article, "
Who Needs the Humanities at 'Start-Up U'?", from the Stanford Magazine, and it focuses on the reality of students competing over and choosing majors such as Computer Science, Engineering, Economics, Biology, and those over the studies of humanities and social sciences. Simply because...they are more profitable.
Even such a prestigious university like Stanford surely struggles the balance of interests among their students and attempts to find solutions for students to feel more comfortable in studying classes they are interested in and not those to just obtain a high salary in the future.
But there is a reason why we are all still here as Comm majors....
WE find it useful and very interesting. It may be true that the Communications major does not directly to a specific field or certain career path, and its even truer that we can apply our studies to almost everything!
There has also been points brought up of how we do not learn practical skills, such as knowing how to write a press release, working a camera, or basic public speaking. We learn different theories though and gain intuition on special subjects, global/social issues, and these practices allow us to perceive the situations and things around the world differently, which will definitely boost our tactic when out in the "real world". Personally, I have found it easier to pick up on doing different tasks when at an internship or job. Thus, we can not exactly say we learn valuable skills, but we sure have gained a
valuable mindset.
Of course, even looking through our alumni database and what they are involved in now, many are working in occupations that aren't even related to marketing, public relations, media, and the more expected areas of communications. Still, many students are interested in the marketing/ social media aspect, and they must feel proud because those jobs aren't easy! Apparently, "
PR manager is the 5th-most-stressful job in America"....yup, you read it!
We do not always learn about the "how" about things work, but we expertise in "why".
