Q. Your column has been of immense help to me. I get the right answer whenever I need it most. I'm working as a reporter with a reputed newspaper in India. I cover the health beat and am doing reasonably well with that.
I did my journalism at a prestigious college here. I'm two years into my career and now I want to get back to my studies. I've always wanted to do travel journalism. But from what I heard, there aren't any universities in the U.S. offering a course in travel journalism. So I'm planning to pursue medical journalism.
Still, I'm in a dilemma. Should I opt for studies when my career growth is stable?
Also, please let me know if there are any U.S. universities that offer a course in travel journalism.
Never Stand StillA. Journalists should budget their time and money every year for their development.
However, I do not recommend that you go to college to study travel journalism.
One reason is that it should not take you that many academic hours to learn travel writing. Plus, I just don't think there is a demand for people with travel-writing degrees. A course or two, a mentorship and some on-the-job learning are all good. I would also spend some time learning to market yourself and handle finances.
You can find some books and online programs that include many of those elements. That should be sufficient. I would sign on to take them one at a time, rather than make an up-front commitment to a whole program, so you can take just the courses you want. I do not know enough to recommend any of these courses.
I do notice that, perhaps because of the glut of people who would like to combine their loves of travel and writing, there are a number of options online. Sometimes, it appears that enterprising travel writers have added teaching to their portfolios. One course that caught my eye was
the Travel Channel Academy's course in shooting video. I would recommend you add multimedia to your bag of tricks.
Medical journalism studies make more sense to me as a course of study, provided that's something that could be fulfilling for you.
Do I recommend you study even while your career is enjoying good growth? Absolutely. For most journalists, though, it makes more sense to study and work simultaneously, rather than jump back and forth, as difficult as that is.
Coming Friday: She is two years into her first job out of school and has started to put out feelers for a new job. She wonders how to trim her resume.
I think the headline of your post is quite misleading......
