There was a time when a career in the media was a dream for many young people leaving high school. “Many are called, few are chosen,” was the saying that was popular when communication programs were highly contingent. This is much less true today: most programs, both college and university, have seen a marked decline in enrollment in recent years.
The easy answer to explain this trend would be to blame the media crisis, which has led to job losses, which could suggest that this is a field with no prospects. But that would be a huge shortcut, believes Alain Dufresne, director of the Collège radio télévision de Québec (CRTQ), a private institution where several FM stars have been trained.
“Even if the media were rolling in money like they were in the late 1990s and early 2000s, we wouldn’t have more students,” he says, convinced, and likes to point out that there are still plenty of job opportunities in the field. Alain Dufresne says he is regularly contacted by owners of regional radio stations who are willing to hire graduates from his school. However, the CRTQ no longer trains enough people to meet the needs. And if his renowned radio program is being neglected in this way today, it is simply because young people no longer listen to the airwaves, his director says bluntly.
“When I was a teenager, I would lock myself in my room to listen to CHOM with the sound on. What radio station do teenagers listen to in their rooms today? Radio has not been interested in them for at least 25 years. And it’s the same for TV. Broadcasters are hooked on the sacrosanct target of 25-50 year olds. Young people no longer identify with it. It’s only normal that they don’t dream of becoming the next Mario Lirette or the next Patrick Masbourian,” proclaims this industry veteran, now in his early sixties.
Alain Dufresne remembers that the CRTQ used to welcome an average of 50 to 60 students each year. Ten years ago, the number of registrations had already dropped to around twenty. Now, we’re talking about barely ten students per cohort. What’s more, those who take the radio training are much older than before. Very few have left high school.
“Often, these are people who have already worked in other fields and who have been told that they have storytelling skills and that they should sign up for radio. Most of them don’t listen to radio. And since they are already established in life, sometimes with children, a buddy or a blonde, it’s very difficult to convince them to go and host in Baie-Comeau or Matane when there is a job which opens in a station there,” explains Mr. Dufresne.
Journalism continues to inspire dreams, but differently
Ottawa’s La Cité College closed its radio program two years ago due to lack of enrollment. However, the number of journalism and television production students at the institution has remained roughly the same for the past five years.
At Concordia University, the number of applications submitted for admission to journalism has increased over the past 10 years, if we take into account registrations not only at the undergraduate level, but also at the master’s and doctoral levels. On the other hand, applications for admission to the bachelor’s degree in journalism are in sharp decline at UQAM: the drop is 24% between 2016 and 2023. Certainly, some programs in education are doing worse. The fact remains that among the main bachelor’s degrees with quotas at UQAM, such as psychology or law, the one in journalism is experiencing one of the most significant drops.
Roland-Yves Carignan, a professor at UQAM’s School of Media, is not overly concerned about it. “Our students still dream of doing journalism. I would just say that aspirations have changed. They no longer dream of being the next Bernard Derome. They no longer see journalism only in terms of the big media, like Radio-Canada, The Press Or The Duty“They are also interested in the idea of being freelancers or working in smaller media outlets, which have more niche audiences,” says this former news director of the Duty.
Also difficult for public relations
The number of applications for admission is declining in most communication programs, even those that are not specifically focused on media. In seven years, there has been a 27% decrease in the number of applications from candidates wishing to join UQAM’s Bachelor of Public Relations program. The universities of Sherbrooke and Montreal also report a decline in applications for their Bachelor of Communication programs.
At Université Laval, the bachelor’s degree in public communication has a substantial dropout rate. The total number of first-, second- and third-year students has fallen by 40% compared to 10 years ago.
“There may be fewer of our students who want to be journalists than before, but those who do want to become journalists are very motivated. They know that what awaits them will not be easy. On the other hand, more of those who come to work in public relations or advertising become disillusioned along the way. Many initially think that it will be easier because of what influencers are selling them. But they quickly realize that these are very difficult fields,” notes Thierry Watine, director of the Department of Information and Communication at Université Laval.