Journalism Degree or English for a possible want to be writer?

[debbiec]

As some of you may have already read, we are just getting serious about narrowing down majors for DS, so we can narrow down schools.

 

I'm going to through this out there and you guys who are informed about these paths can chime in:

 

DS enjoys learning about people, learning their stories, and then retelling them in his own words.

He likes the idea of adapting a book to a screenplay.

He is not interested in being in front of a camera (currently)

He is not interested in radio, though he does enjoy the longer interviews on NPR with various personalities and sees that as really interesting.

He is not interested in just reporting news stories. He wants to write about things more in-depth.

He is very observant about people and circumstances (he went to a writing workshop with an investigative journalist/writer and was very intrigued with this path.

 

We have looked on-line at Journalism programs at Ohio, Western Kentucky and Missouri. They seem very "news" oriented in the courses which is something he is not interested in at all, though will likely have to begin there. Though many of the ethics, law, editing classes would be worthwhile.

 

The question (finally): Can you be a journalist for a magazine or elsewhere with just an English degree? From what we gathered, most of the journalism programs are geared toward working for news publications or news organizations (print, radio or TV). If you are just starting out and wanted to work for a paper, could you get a staff writing position without that journalism degree, assuming you were a worthy writer?

 

We were looking at schools today and trying to decide if we really need to be looking at journalism programs or not. Or if English will suffice. We are clueless. I have a fine arts degree and hubby an engineering degree. This is out of both of our realms of experience.

 

Thanks in advance!

Edited June 21, 2011 by debbiec