Impactful jobs for journalism degree graduates

Considering a journalism degree, currently studying, or already graduated? This guide will take you through some of the most promising career paths you could enter with a background in journalism.

These aren’t just any careers. At Probably Good, we believe your career is one of the most significant opportunities you have to make a positive difference. With this in mind, in this article, we’ll explore some of the most impactful careers where a journalism degree can open doors and potentially offer unique advantages.

Journalism

Unsurprisingly, careers in journalism are one of our recommendations for journalism degree graduates and majors. But what exactly does a journalist do? 

At its core, journalism is about informing the public and shaping how we understand the world. Whether through breaking news, longform investigations, or analysis and commentary, journalists play a vital role in influencing public discourse.

But while that mission is consistent, the day-to-day reality of journalism can vary a lot. Journalists work across a wide range of mediums—print, online, radio, TV, and social media—each requiring different skills and connecting with different audiences.

There’s also a lot of variation in the kind of journalism you might do. Some journalists are on the front lines of fast-moving events, publishing stories as they unfold. Others spend weeks or months digging into a single topic, uncovering important information and helping others understand it. Some spend most of their time at a desk; others travel regularly for field reporting, interviews, or press briefings.

If you’re studying journalism, you’re already taking a strong first step. Through your coursework, you can start building a portfolio—whether it’s written articles, multimedia pieces, or audio stories—that shows your ability to communicate clearly and effectively. That kind of practical experience, alongside the more theoretical understanding of journalism you’ll develop, can help you stand out as you enter the field.

How much impact could you have?

High-impact journalism has the power to drive significant positive change. By informing both the public and policymakers of important (and perhaps overlooked) issues, high-quality journalism can play an important role in positive change.

For instance, reporting by journalists like Ida B. Wells on violence against Black Americans and racial inequality in the USA in the early 20th Century was an important driver of civil rights reform. By revealing important inequities such as this, journalism can help shape public opinion on important causes and highlight injustices that may not otherwise receive attention. Journalism can also play an important role in challenging corruption, in many instances leading to positive political change.

Journalists can also provide helpful analysis of issues. This can help improve public discourse around important problems, shaping decisions made by governments and companies. For example, writers at The Economist helped shape conversations around COVID-19 through their detailed estimates of its impacts.

However, journalism isn’t inherently a positive career – there are lots of modes of journalism, and it can tackle all manner of topics, from celebrity gossip to foreign policy. The problem is that, like any industry, journalism is driven by public demand – and there’s generally less demand for the large-scale, persistent issues that affect people around the world. 

That’s why the journalism roles we’re most enthusiastic about are those that spotlight big, important problems – especially those that are neglected by mainstream coverage. This includes topics within high-priority global problems, which are often impactful to cover in part because they’re neglected.

There are promising opportunities in this space. For instance, Vox’s Future Perfect covers stories within high-priority cause areas often not covered in other outlets, like risks from AI, animal welfare, global health, and biosecurity. Other widely-read outlets like The Economist and Financial Times are highly respected and provide high-quality coverage of often-overlooked but important issues. Smaller magazines like Works in Progress, Asterisk, and Asimov Press do similar work, with a more targeted focus on big-picture questions for making the world a better place. 

So, if you’re able to get a role that allows you to cover the kinds of issues that can lead to large-scale change, or are able to do this freelance, then journalism can offer a chance of significant impact.

Journalism salaries

In the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports an average salary of $60,280 for news analysts, reporters, and journalists as of 2024. The top 10% of earners receive more than $160,000.

Getting started in journalism

Here are a few practical ideas for actions you can take now to test your personal fit and upskill for high-impact jobs in journalism:

• Start a blog. Keeping a blog will help you develop your writing quality, consistency, and pace. Because it’s public, you might even find helpful opportunities through your readership. Your blog doesn’t have to cover professional topics, but having a few relevant entries can strengthen your future journalism job applications.
• Write for a student publication. If you’re still a student, contributing to a student publication is an excellent way to gain journalism experience, improve writing through editing, and build editorial skills. This is a well-proven route for many journalists. You can also explore other university media clubs – like radio or video, which will help develop other important journalistic skills and provide valuable experience for your CV.
• Freelancing. A slightly deeper way to develop your journalistic skills, freelancing lets you build writing samples in areas of interest with minimal commitment or risk, as you can balance it with another job or your degree.

You can also consider pursuing an internship or fellowship in journalism, which you might be able to participate in during or after your degree. We’ve included a few below.

Communications

Communications roles are all about helping organizations or individuals share their work—whether it’s successes, challenges, services, or updates—with the right people, in the right way. It’s a broad field, but at its core, it’s about conveying information effectively to diverse audiences.

The day-to-day tasks in communications can vary widely depending on your role and area of focus. Common responsibilities include public relations, marketing, fundraising, writing newsletters, managing social media, and improving how teams communicate internally. All of these can help an organization work more smoothly and reach more people—potentially increasing the scale and effectiveness of its impact.

Communications professionals work across many sectors, from nonprofits and government to businesses and international institutions. Some are embedded within organizations, while others work independently or in agencies. Depending on the setting, your role might involve a specific type of communication or span a wide range of responsibilities.

A journalism degree or major is an excellent foundation for a communications career. Journalism is fundamentally about clear, compelling communication, and it trains you to think about different audiences and how to reach them. While you may not have formal training in marketing or corporate communications, your journalism background gives you strong transferable skills that make it easier to learn those on the job.

How much impact could you have?

Communications professionals’ work can often fly under the radar, but we think there’s a strong case that communications roles can contribute towards large amounts of positive impact.

A good communications specialist can make sure that their organization’s work is presented in the right way and seen by the right people. In these ways, communications work acts as a kind of multiplier of the organization’s broader impact. More concretely, here are just a few ways we think communications specialists can help their organization:

• Persuading important decision-makers. Good communications can lead decision-makers to take important actions, such as developing legislation or changing corporate practices. For instance, the Clean Air Task Force has successfully convinced policymakers to implement impactful climate policy. Behind these successes will have been skilled communicators able to reach and persuade the right people.
• Expanding an organization’s reach. Communications can play a role in marketing an organization, such as through newsletters, social media posts, and advertising campaigns. In a nonprofit, for example, this could be getting the attention of more potential supporters, donors, or people who would benefit from the nonprofit’s work.
• Influencing public attitudes and behaviors. Some communications professionals – mostly within nonprofits – work to increase the public’s awareness of issues addressed by their organization. This can help sway public behavior in important ways, for instance by influencing purchasing decisions. This can also lead to pressure on companies and policymakers to make positive changes.
• Improving communication within an organization. By smoothing out and improving internal communications processes, some communications specialists can help their organizations become more productive. This means the organization can do more impactful work with fewer resources.

An important factor to keep in mind is that the impact you can have in a communications role is closely tied to the organization you support. Since communications work often amplifies and enhances an organization’s efforts, its overall effectiveness depends on the value of the work being promoted. If the organization’s work isn’t doing much good, your contributions likely won’t either.

For that reason, the communications roles we’re most excited about are those within organizations—often, though not always, nonprofits—that are focused on high-priority cause areas and are committed to taking effective, evidence-informed approaches to helping others.

Communications salaries

In the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports an average salary of $70,300 for people in media and communications jobs as of 2024. This covers several professions, which vary in their relevance to the kinds of communications roles we’ve discussed.

Getting started in communications

Here are a few practical ideas for actions you can take now to test your personal fit and upskill for communications careers.

• Start writing: Regularly write on diverse topics for varied audiences to test your fit for communications roles. Blogging, student publications, or other consistent writing activities can help you determine if extensive writing suits your career aspirations, and will help you develop a portfolio you can show employers.
• Learn other forms of media: Though written communication is an important part of almost all communication jobs, knowing other kinds of media – such as video production and editing – will also add to your desirability for potential employers. Consider learning another form of media and completing a project.
• Get feedback: Seek input on your writing or other media content, especially from professionals. Honest, impartial feedback is invaluable for assessing how good a fit you might be for communications roles.
• Volunteer: Try communications tasks for student groups, nonprofits, or hobby organizations. These low-risk opportunities let you explore your potential while contributing meaningfully.

Below are a few internships and fellowships that look like particularly promising ways to gain experience in high-impact communications work.

Fundraising

Every organization needs funding to operate, especially those aiming to make a large-scale impact. For nonprofits, this funding usually comes from individuals and organizations willing to donate money. Fundraisers are responsible for reaching these potential donors and securing the funding needed to operate and expand.

Fundraising takes many forms. Though the first image that comes to mind might be someone soliciting donations on the street or door-to-door, much fundraising happens through other means. Some common functions of a fundraiser include building personal relationships with prospective large donors, creating digital marketing campaigns, and writing grant applications. 

So, there’s quite a breadth of ways that fundraisers operate – and roles will vary in which aspects of fundraising they focus on.

Journalism is a solid foundation for fundraising jobs, as you’ll develop strong communication skills for reaching different audiences, as well as familiarity with various forms of media used in fundraising. If there are any opportunities to study marketing within your journalism degree, this may come in useful for fundraising, too.

How much impact could you have?

The case for fundraising is straightforward: without funding, even the most promising nonprofit can’t function. A great fundraiser can make the difference between a life-changing program scaling up—or disappearing entirely. In that sense, the role can be incredibly high-impact.

Beyond bringing in money, fundraising and marketing efforts can also raise awareness of the broader issue your organization works on—even among people who don’t donate.

That said, fundraising carries the same caveat as communications roles: your impact depends heavily on where the money goes. If you’re helping fund programs that aren’t doing much good, even the most successful campaigns won’t translate into real-world impact. The most promising fundraising roles, then, are with organizations tackling important problems in effective ways.

Fundraising salaries

In the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports an average salary of $66,490 for fundraisers as of 2024. The top 10% of earners receive more than $106,000.

Getting started in fundraising

Here are a few practical ideas for actions you can take now to test your personal fit and upskill for fundraising careers.

• College alumni fundraising. If you’re currently completing a degree, many colleges and universities offer roles for students to raise funds from alumni. Although the most promising fundraising roles might look a little different from the experience you’d gain this way (and we generally wouldn’t recommend fundraising for universities as an impactful path), this is a good way for those in college to develop some career capital within fundraising and demonstrate concrete experience for employers.
• Experience with relevant tools. When applying for a fundraising role, it’s often desirable to have experience with digital tools like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) programs and email service providers. There’s an array of options for each of these types of software, but experience in one is likely to transfer to others and can set you apart from other candidates. 
• Consider upskilling with an online course. For instance, Anima International’s free Fundraising Essentials course introduces key concepts and practices in fundraising. Though Anima International is focused on animal welfare, the course is not exclusively designed for animal advocates. Free online courses for the tools and software mentioned above might also be worth checking out.

Below are a few internships and fellowships that look like particularly promising ways to gain experience in high-impact fundraising work.

Other relevant careers

The careers above are especially worth considering if you’ve got a journalism degree. But they’re not the only options. Below, we’ve pulled together a few other broad paths that might also be a good fit.

Advocacy and community building

Journalism could provide a useful background for roles that help raise awareness for high-priority cause areas and grow impactful movements. For example, the animal advocacy movement could benefit from skilled communicators able to reach the public, as could other movements and communities – such as groups trying to improve international aid and the Effective Altruism movement.

Spreading good ideas

Careers that let you communicate good ideas at scale, such as content creation, blogging, or even becoming a public intellectual, can help to make impactful ideas more widespread.

For instance, the YouTube channel Kurzgesagt produces videos on important topics such as factory farming and catastrophic risks to a massive audience. 

A journalism degree or major is a strong background for these kinds of careers—it’ll give you experience in both the creative and technical sides of communicating with the public. 

However, it’s worth keeping in mind that succeeding in this path is highly unlikely. There are many people competing to have their voices heard in the public sphere, and if you’re putting yourself in the limelight, you may have to develop expertise in a field to be taken seriously.

Roles for career capital

Regardless of the exact career path you go down, often the best way to have an impactful career over the long term is to focus on building useful skills, experience, and connections – known as career capital – early on in your career. Counterintuitively, this can mean taking jobs that aren’t directly impactful, but that might put you in a better place to take highly impactful jobs later on. Here are a few general guidelines for opportunities that can offer strong career capital:

• Jobs that offer strong development. Some roles will let you develop skills more quickly than others. For instance, graduate schemes are often focused on giving you professional development, and small, early-stage organizations can often offer more personal mentorship and opportunities to contribute. 
• Jobs in prestigious organizations. Roles in organizations with strong reputations for excellence will look impressive on your CV. They’ll also often give you experience in a high-performing environment, developing your general professional skills. This could include top consultancy firms, tech companies, and financial firms.
• Postgraduate education. Getting further education in your chosen field can unlock more, and sometimes better, opportunities. However, graduate degrees tend to be most useful in technical fields and academia rather than the roles you’ll likely be looking at with a journalism degree.

How does journalism compare to other degrees?

Journalism tends to be a pretty well-regarded degree—and for good reason. It teaches quite a few robustly useful skills, like communicating effectively, tech literacy, research skills, and working to tight deadlines. These are especially valuable in journalism and communications roles, but they can also be a real asset in many other fields.

A potential downside of journalism degrees is that you likely won’t develop deep knowledge of any specific subject, nor are you likely to learn useful technical skills (such as statistics). These are needed in quite a few high-impact careers. For instance, a grantmaker needs to communicate well, but they also need to have a deep understanding of the area they’re working in.

Because of that, if you already have (or are planning to get) a journalism degree, it might be worth thinking about how you can build on it. Picking up technical skills—like statistics or coding—or gaining knowledge in areas like global health or climate change could help you unlock more impactful opportunities than journalism alone might offer.

A quick note: this article covers very similar ground to our article on communications degrees because of the significant overlap between the two. Journalism is sometimes considered a subset of communications, and the subjects are often bundled together in the same program. This is to say, if one of these subjects appeals to you, it may be worth checking out the other, too.

Expanding your options

It’s important to note that this is just a small selection of the careers that you’ll be in a good position to pursue with a degree in journalism. These are careers that we think have a potential for high positive impact and personal fulfillment, and your degree will put you in a good place to pursue these kinds of jobs.

However, don’t feel limited by these options. Careers are flexible and often take unexpected directions. Your degree will provide a great first step for the jobs discussed in this article, but your true list of options is much larger than it might seem. 

In fact, most graduates (as many as 74%) go into careers unrelated to their degree subject or major. Because of this, it’s well worth keeping an open mind and exploring other paths, too, even if they don’t immediately seem relevant to your education.

What should you do next?

Here are a few suggestions for steps you can take next to plan your career and find great opportunities.

• Read our career advice series for a step-by-step guide on building a career that’s good for you and the world.
• Find great job opportunities on our high-impact job board and explore great internships and fellowships.
• See our career profiles for a full list of impactful careers that we’ve researched.
• Consider applying to our free 1-1 advising service, where we can give you helpful, tailored career advice.