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Career Paths

Preparing for the Future, Employment and Career Paths

Our Honours Bachelor of Arts will provide you with the intellectual foundations and critical-thinking skills that you need to grasp and master the complex social environment of information, media, technology, and communication. This will serve as a basis for life-long learning, including the learning of the technical and applied skills that are often part of the communications trade. More importantly, it will enable you to make progressive contributions to society.

Whether you are interested in working directly in media and communications, or appreciate that comprehending, participating, working and examining the so-called "information society" requires an in-depth knowledge thereof, our program is designed to provide you with the background, critical education and skills to do so.

York University has a career centre staffed with professionals who can support you in your job search. Consider these ideas and guidance to help you in this process.

Professional Paths

To assist you in choosing special areas of interest and navigating possible career paths in communication, we've organized careers into our four thematic areas: (1) media, culture and society; (2) politics and policy; (3) interpersonal and organizational communication; and (4) critical technology studies. Please note that the examples below are not comprehensive, nor are they mutually exclusive.

Media and Culture

Focused on the relationship between media and culture, the courses in this area cover the range of old and new media from the traditional print to broadcast media and new interactive web-based media. Graduating students have gone on to work in the communication and cultural industries and to develop alternatives in non-profit and public media education and production.

Specific categories of jobs include journalist, writer, or editor; media researcher (conducting research on television content, television ratings or audience research, for example); media developer (creating specialty content, ESL or ethnic programming); creative work in arts and entertainment (copyrighter, producer, director, sales representative); intercultural communications advisor; historians of media and cultural history; and teacher/media educator (developing media literacy in high schools for example).

Politics and Policy

Understanding the business of media and the relationships between the economic and political dimensions of communication and culture is necessary to identify and participate in production and decisions regarding them.

Potential jobs include: media analyst (researches particular issues or news coverage); media relations (works with media in producing and managing coverage); political communication (speech writer, media liaison, or campaign director); public affairs coordinator; professional lobbyist; public opinion researcher; policy developer or analyst (interpreting and developing corporate and public policies on culture and communication); communications law (intellectual property, copyright law, communication rights); or communication specialist (managing communication with/to the public through a range of media, including public relations, government communications, non-profit and activist organizations).

Critical Technology Studies

Technology increasingly permeates all spheres of our lives-work, leisure and health, to name a few. As we bring it into existence we are constantly being transformed by it, and thus examination of both processes of creation and use of technology is crucial. Graduates focusing on this area will acquire the knowledge necessary to think with and about (new) media and emerging technologies in their relationship to social and cultural practices and the circulation of ideas and values.

Potential employment opportunities include: information architect, policymaker (for government or media institutions), media researcher, journalist, telecommunications specialist, teaching new media, systems analyst; technology coordinator; website or software designer, creative work in new media, and technical assistants.

Interpersonal and Organizational Communication

Courses in this area study communication at various levels of society: the personal relationship, the social group and the broader organizational structure. The focus in this area is on studying the ways in which we communicate to create organized lives at each of these levels; the nature of the relationships and organizations we create; and our need to change them when faced with many of the kinds of issues raised in the other thematic areas.

Employment in these areas include: communications officer (could be focused on internal and/or external communications); public or community affairs specialist, communication coordinator and/or facilitator (facilitates meetings, internal decision-making, organizational change); human resources management; public administration; interpersonal and group counseling; labour mediation; and conflict mediation.

Career Websites

To assist you in identifying the current range of employment opportunities in communication studies, the following websites are provided. Please note that they are for your information only and that their inclusion here does not constitute an endorsement by the department.

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