10 Hottest Career Options in Media Industry

If you’re looking to build a future in the media industry, these are the hottest career options in media available. These careers are greatly sought after, pay well and the demand is ever-increasing.

#1. Graphic Designer

Graphic designers create visual concepts, using computer software or by hand, to communicate ideas that inspire, inform, and captivate consumers. They design the layout for advertisements, brochures, magazines, newspapers and the user experience + user interface for mobile apps and websites.

Required Skills: Sound knowledge about PhotoShop and CorelDraw. If you think playing with colors and fonts woes you, then opt for a career as a graphic designer. Every online and offline marketing company as well as website and mobile application company needs graphic designers.

Our Advice — While pursuing your mass media and communications course, take up an internship in a reputed firm. This will acquaint you with the working of the industry, give practical knowledge about the skills you need to develop and be an excellent networking opportunity.This is the hottest career option in media, and graphic designers are the most sought after in every industry.

Design is Thinking Made Visual.

#2. Public Relations — PR specialist develops and maintains relations of the client with organizations, newspapers, NGO’s and advertising firms. Their task is to ensure proper communication between the client and the media industry. This challenging role demands that the Public Relations professional ensures that the client is in positive news all the time.

Public Relations is the key to a successful brand.

Required Skills — Since the PR person has to deal with a huge large number of agencies, excellent communication skills are a must. Good networking and ability to maintain relations with multiple firms and media houses requires good email drafting skills. Additional duties will involve creating and editing advertisements, press releases and publications.

Publicity is absolutely crucial for every brand.

Our Advice — If you’re looking to plunge into the PR industry, start working on your communication and networking skills. Become a common face at networking events. The PR industry has been existing since a long time, yet it is one of the hottest career options in media. With an ever-increasing number of startups and corporate firms, this industry is nowhere close to saturation.

Bill Gates strongly believes in the power of PR.

#3. Advertisers — Advertising is the art of conveying a message to the masses. Advertising, promotions, and marketing managers plan programs to generate interest in a product or service. They work with art directors, sales agents, and financial staff members.

Required Skills — Strong knowledge about both online and offline marketing. Coordinating skills since the advertiser has to work with a wide range of people inside the firm and with the client. Ability to brainstorm the latest trends and craft eye-catching campaigns.

Our Advice — Advertising is a pretty demanding domain that tests your grit. To estimate the job responsibilities, take up an internship with the best advertising agency in your city. This prepares you for what lies ahead in the occupation of an advertiser.

Every advertise has to stand distinct and grab eyeballs.

#4. Film making — Blending creativity, teamwork and technicality, film making involves documentaries, short films, feature films, ads, commercial films and videos for TV. The job involves starting his way from raising capital for the film to overlooking distribution, screening and every other stage. Right from ideation, to the story, casting, music, screenplay, budget to sets and location, the film maker has to overlook every aspect.

Skills Required — Excellent teamwork as they have to coordinate with every aspect of the film. The best film makers are trained under the industry leaders. This gives them an insight into how to efficiently streamline their strengths and hire people to complement their shortcomings.

Our Advice — Choose a PG college that gives you practical training in film making. LJ Institute of Mass Media & Communications is considered Ahmedabad’s best college for film making. During internships the student gets to work with the top most film makers in India. So by the end of the course the student is no more a fresher.

Filmmaking is a craft.

#5. Social Media Manager — A social media manager has to manage a brand’s profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest to name a few. They have to strategize the type of posts that go live on each of these social networks. Conducting paid campaigns is a task that requires keen knowledge about the target audience and the algorithms of these networks.

Skills Required — The ability to test new concepts, analyse the results and change the campaign accordingly. The social media manager has to be highly flexible, every new idea has to be tested, analyzed and iterated. Collaborations with the graphic designer and copywriter are required, hence excellent teamwork skills are necessary.

Our Advice — A basic understanding of the way various social networks work is a must. Every social media has its own algorithms. We ask you to study these networks in-depth and their paid campaigns. Since most firms carry out paid marketing, it’s a social media manager’s task to craft a campaign in such a way that they receive the maximum Returns on Investment. With more than 1 billion people on social media and more than 1 million businesses advertising on these platforms, social media manager is among the hottest career options in media of this decade.

Social media marketer needs to be a constant leaner.

#6. Journalist — A career in journalism involves probing, analyzing and reporting local and global events, happenings and trends. We divide the opportunities into print and electronic media. A career in offline (print) journalism includes newspapers, magazines, tabloids, books and journals. Online journalism means creating content for internet, TV and radio. Based on your interest you can either choose aspects such as religion, youth, sports, crime, entertainment, politics, technology or education based on your aptitude.

Skills Required — A journalist has to be inquisitive, alert and adaptive to challenging situations. Since this field involves dealing with the masses, good communication skills are required. They have to distinguish the thin line between facts and fiction. Typically they should have qualities such as patience, perseverance and the body language that allows people to open up.

Our Advice — Be a master of one domain. As a journalist choose one field where you think you’d be able to excel. Work to creating your mark in that sector.

Journalism as a career requires courage to stick up for the unpopular.

#7. Editor — An editor typically performs the following tasks:

Proof-reads content for errors in language, spelling and grammar.

Rewrites the copy to make it readable.

Verifies the facts and stats.

Evaluates the submissions writers submit, works with other writers.

Helps in brainstorming and ideating for the articles.

Gives the final approval for the content that goes live.

Skills Required — Here we discus the skill-sets that different types of editors require.

#a. Copy Editors — They proofread for grammar, language, punctuation, readability, style of writing and whether it complies with the editorial policy. To enhance the clarity, they suggest changes. They verify the reference sources mentioned and the stats quoted. Additional responsibilities include layout of articles and finding photographs to match the write-ups.

#b. Publication Assistants — They proofread manuscripts submitted by authors, freelancers and edit raw proofs. For smaller newspapers, they collect and compile articles available on the internet and proofread articles submitted by the writers.

#c. Executive editors — They manage assistant editors and take a final call on the stories that are published. They hire journalists, writers, graphic designers and plan budgets. They work for either major publishing houses, top newspapers, television broadcasts, PR firms and advertising agencies/

#d. Assistant editors — They have to overlook specific departments such as sports, local news or global news.

Our Advice — Even executive editors started as assistant editors. What matters here is the expose that you get. Working with industry leaders helps you gain experience and you can quickly move upwards.

Editing is an essential part of every writeup.

#8. Copywriter — A copywriter researches and writes content for company blogs, creative one-liners for ads, e-books and company profiles to name a few. It is the copywriters’ responsibility to pose the company image as per the stakeholders needs in front of the audience. With content required in almost every field, this is the hottest career option in the media industry.

Skills Required — Researching and compiling the facts, statistics and data for the articles. The copywriter has to write it down in a precise and easily understandable way with pointers. Converting complex content into simpler format, they have to write it down in a way that even a 10 year old can understand.

Our Advice — You have to aim to be the best copywriter in the industry, only then will you be able to stand apart. Pick out the writer whose writing style you love, understand what makes him better than others and inculcate the god points in your write-ups. The only way to become a good writer is by practicing, start doing this while still in college so that you’ll be better than others by the time you pass out.

Copy is the best way to converse directly with the consumer.

#9. Photography — As a photographer you can either work as a freelancer of become a part of an advertising agency or work with a senior photographer. The options include:

Photojournalism — They work for newspapers and magazines to cover events, mishaps and various local situations. A photojournalist has to be highly alert and adapt to different situations.

Commercial photography — This includes photographing for merchandise, interiors, fashion models and other items used in advertising.

Food photography — The food photographer has to work with restaurants, food manufacturers and dairy industry. This includes photo-shoots in a kitchen, studio or restaurant.

Fashion photography — They have to work with media houses, magazines, ecommerce websites and with models. A keen knowledge about detailing is a must.

Wild life photography — These photographers work in centuries, national parks and forests. Patience, adaptability to the habitats and at times maintaining a steady pose for hours is a must for them. The biggest challenge for them is to monetize their profession.

Travel — Travel photographers document different landscapes, people, culture and their lifestyle. This profession is quickly gaining fame in India.

Currently photography is among the hottest career options in media industry.

Our Advice — Choose a mass media and communications institute that trains you in different types of photography. LJ Institute of Mass Media and Communications organizes photography workshops and seminars as a part of coursework.

Photography is an art, mastered by practicing and leaning the technicalities.

#10. Radio Broadcasting — The role of a radio broadcaster is to present news, sports, music, gossip and local happenings over the radio to the audience. This includes interviewing people and describing local events in the most engaging way. Being in charge of on-air entertainment is a fun job but requires a lot of grit.

Skills Required — Good narration skills and the ability to interview and moderate people is a must. A good sense of humor, presence of mind, technical skills such as control over mixer boards and operating broadcast automation tools is also required.

Our Advice — Choose educational institutes having radio stations that allow students to work on the air. Apply for internships at radio stations and learn behind-the-scenes skills for radio broadcasting.

A Radio Jockey has to connect to the listener on an emotional level.

For all students planning to pursue a career in media, LJIMC exposes you to the faucets of media industry as a part of the academic career.