A major choice: exploring the factors influencing undergraduate choices of Communication major

Abstract

This study explores the reasons behind the popularity of majoring in Public Relations as opposed to Journalism or Digital Media among mass communications undergraduates in Oman. It attempts to gain insight into the factors influencing students' decision-making process in selecting their major. It explores factors such as choice of major and sources of information that shape students' knowledge and perception of the majors, using variables such as knowledge of job market, knowledge of curriculum, information sources and personal influences shaping major choice and selection. The study confirms that perception of the job market is a crucial factor in the selection of the majors. It also reveals that family plays a crucial role in influencing students' decision-making process while choosing a major. The study concludes that strengthening the role of the academic advisor and educating students on course content and learning outcomes can increase the acceptance of less popular majors among communication undergraduates. The study is relevant in the context that the falling numbers of student enrolments in some areas of media studies could lead to a decline in teaching and research activities in those areas, in addition to a possible shortfall of specific skilled professionals in the national labour market pool.

Examining Career Prospects of Mobile Journalism amongst Journalism Students

“…Other factors included negative perception of journalism as a career due to low salaries, limited job opportunities and less glamour. Similar findings have been reported in other studies in more contemporary times even though the journalism profession has seen much improvement in modern times [4,12,14,15,17,18]. Other challenges persist particularly during this era of competition and advancement in technology and especially in mobile journalism which is why understanding the career decisions of university students is important.…”

“…Parallel to the use and adoption of smart phones devices and internet in conventional news practices, the journalism education sector has turned oriented its focus towards integrating mobile journalism into its curriculum [6,14,15,18]. All over the world, the proliferation of mobile journalism training including Ghana through the National Film and Television Institute suggest that there is a growing interest and need to prepare a new generation of mobile journalist for conventional and online news reporting careers.…”

“…Career development generally represents a lifelong process of engaging the work environment through the selection of employment opportunities made available to them. Each individual presented with the various life career development choices may be influenced by many factors including the socio economic factors such as family, friends and community [2,9,14]. A major turning point in the lives of young people pertains to career choices that are made whiles in University.…”

Discourse to the Factors of Decision-making of Students in Choosing a University Major

“…Across multiple studies that were made in different countries and circumstances, several factors remain unchangeable and might be considered pivotal. (Calkins & Welki, 2006;Mishra et al, 2017). We note the importance of the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations leading the decision-making process of the students.…”

The Student-to-Journalist Pipeline: Attitudes, Motivations, and Expressed Likelihood of Choosing a Journalism Career

“…Their input was incorporated into the final questionnaire in Qualtrics, approved by the institutional review board (IRB), and distributed online. Many of the survey questions were borrowed from the Journalism Degree Motivations scale (Carpenter et al, 2016), the News Media Skepticism measure (Maksl et al, 2015), Career Goals Scale of Seibert et al (2013), and the findings of Mishra et al (2017). Further details on these scales are described in the Analysis section.…”