Media & Communication
How to become a Journalist
Also known as Reporter, Correspondent, News Editor. Everything below comes from the same database our assessment scores against.
The route in
1. Undergraduate
3 years- Qualifications:
- B.A. Journalism & Mass Communication, B.A. English, BJMC
- Entrance exams:
- CUET, IIMC entrance, University merit
- Typical cost:
- ₹60,000 to ₹9 lakh
What does a Journalist earn in India?
Entry level
₹1.8 lakh – ₹5 lakh
per year
Mid career
₹6 lakh – ₹25 lakh
per year
Indicative. These bands are an editorial estimate assembled from public reporting, and have not yet been reconciled against a named dataset. Treat them as a shape, not a promise — the same title pays very differently across a service company, a product company and a start-up.
Outlook
Hiring demand
Stable — steady, predictable hiring.
Exposure to automation
High. A substantial part of what this role does today can already be done by software. It is not a reason to rule it out, but it is a reason to aim at the judgement-heavy end of it.
What does a Journalist do?
What this actually looks like
A day as a Journalist
What you would actually be doing
- Finding the story, which takes far longer than telling it
- Calling people who would rather not talk to you, and calling again
- Verifying a claim before it goes out, every single time
- Writing to a length and a deadline that are both fixed
- Cutting your own work to half its length without losing the point
Who you work with
- Sources, some of whom are taking a risk by speaking to you
- Editors who change your work
- Photographers, camera crews and production colleagues
What you work with
- Content management and publishing systems
- Public records, RTI applications and document databases
- Analytics showing what people actually read
Where and when: Newsrooms or freelance from anywhere. Deadline-driven and irregular — breaking news does not wait for office hours. Contract and freelance arrangements are now the norm.
Working conditions
- Typical hours
- Irregular, breaking-news hours
- Remote possible
- No — this is on-site work
- Travel
- high travel
- Physical demand
- medium physical demand
Reality check
Before you choose journalist
A report that only lists what is appealing about a career is an advertisement. This is the other half.
What people like about it
- Your work reaches people, and occasionally something changes because of it
- You meet a range of people no other career gives you access to
- Genuine independence once you have a reputation
- The skills transfer directly into communications and independent publishing
What is genuinely hard
- Pay is low at entry and uneven for years afterwards
- Job security in traditional media has fallen substantially
- Public work attracts public criticism, some of it personal and organised
- Reporting on power carries real professional and sometimes personal risk
- Who tends to enjoy this work
- Are curious about strangers, can write to a deadline rather than to a mood, and will check a fact a third time when it would be easier not to.
- What the education journey is really like
- A journalism or mass-communication degree is the direct route, but this field hires on published work more than on credentials. A degree in any subject plus a body of published pieces is common and respected — and the subject usually becomes your beat.
Other legitimate ways in
The first route does not always work, and it is not always the best one. These are real alternatives, not consolation prizes.
Newsroom route
- Journalism or mass communication degree, or any degree with published clippings
- Reporter or desk role at a publication or channel
- Beat correspondent, then senior correspondent or editor
The beat is what builds the contacts and the reputation. Choose one and stay in it.
Independent and specialist journalism
- Reporting experience with a defined subject area
- Freelance for multiple publications, or an independent newsletter or platform
- Build a paying readership, or a specialist reporting practice
More editorial freedom and less income security, and the subject specialism is what sustains it.
Who may not enjoy being a Journalist?
Nothing here is a judgement about you — it is what the job is like, listed so you can decide whether it is what you want.
- The hours look like this: irregular, breaking-news hours.
- It cannot be done remotely. The work needs you physically there.
- Travel is a constant feature of the job rather than an occasional trip.
- More of this work is exposed to automation than most, so the parts of it that are valuable will move during your career.
- Entry pay starts low — from about ₹1.8 lakh a year — and rises with what you can show rather than on the day you qualify.
The four hardest things about the work itself are listed above, under what is genuinely hard. If those and the points here describe things you would rather not sign up for, that is a real answer and worth having before a stream or a degree is chosen around it.
What skills does a Journalist need?
What the job actually asks for, split four ways. The assessment tells you which of these your own scores already speak to.
Technical skills
- Reporting — finding, verifying and standing up a story
- Interviewing, including people who do not want to talk
- Writing to length, to deadline and to a house style
- Records, data and document-based investigation
People skills
- Persisting after a source says no
- Protecting a source absolutely
- Handling pressure not to publish
Digital and AI skills
- Data journalism — spreadsheets, records and basic analysis
- Digital publishing and audience analytics
- Verification and open source research tools
Industry knowledge
- How ownership and advertising shape what gets covered
- How print, broadcast, digital and independent journalism differ as careers
- Which beats build a reputation, and how independent publishing now works
If Journalist appeals, also look at
Chosen by how far the interest pattern and the weighted activities of each one overlap with this. The reason is printed so you can disagree with it.
Media & Communication
People move between these two often. Experience in one counts toward the other. Both use language & writing.
News Anchor & Broadcast Presenter
Media & Communication
People move between these two often. Experience in one counts toward the other. Both use language & writing.
Media & Communication
People move between these two often. Experience in one counts toward the other. Both use language & writing.
Media & Communication
People move between these two often. Experience in one counts toward the other. Both use language & writing.
Media & Communication
Built on the same language & writing interest. You get in through Any bachelor's degree.
Streams this is reachable from
Exams worth knowing about
Where an exam has its own page, it lists every other career it opens — useful if this one turns out not to fit.
- CUET
- IIMC entrance
- University merit
Where this qualification also leads
The degrees on this route open other doors too. Worth knowing before you commit to one destination.
Who tends to be happy here
People who rate these highly tend to stay in this work. If none of them sound like you, that is worth taking seriously.
- Independence
- Achievement
- Recognition
Are you sure Journalist is the career you want?
Everything above describes the job. None of it tells you whether it fits you. So it is worth asking plainly, before a stream or a degree gets chosen around it.
- Not sure? Then this is exactly the question the assessment exists to answer. It compares you against Journalist and 196 other careers, and shows the arithmetic behind every score, so you can see why rather than being handed a verdict.
- Quite sure? Then double-check anyway. Being certain is not the same as having checked, and the cost of finding out late is counted in years rather than in the 45 minutes this takes. If it confirms what you already think, you carry on with a reason instead of a hope — plus the education route, the entrance exams and a ninety-day plan.
And if it does not line up, nothing closes. Journalist stays on your list with the gap named and a route attached, next to the careers your profile already reaches — so the answer is something to act on either way.
Other Media & Communication careers
Last verified 2026-08-01. This is a career-guidance instrument. It is not a clinical or diagnostic tool. It does not measure intelligence, IQ, or a person’s worth. Its results are one input among several, and are intended to be interpreted with a trained counsellor.