OFFICIAL14 What is the conversation mainly about?

[00:00.00]NARRATOR: Listen to a conversation between a student and his faculty advisor.
[00:05.99]FEMALE ADVISOR: Hi, Steve. I scheduled this appointment ‘cause it's been a while since we touched base.
[00:11.29]MALE STUDENT: I know. I've been really busy. [00:13.53]A friend of mine works on the school paper. [00:15.88]He asked if I'd like to try reporting. [00:17.76]So I did, and I really love it.
[00:19.90]FEMALE ADVISOR: Hey, that sounds great.
[00:21.45]MALE STUDENT: Yeah, the first article I wrote, it was a profile of the chemistry professor, the one who was named teacher of the year. [00:27.48]My article ran on the front page. [00:30.33]When I saw my name, I mean, my byline, in print, I was hooked. [00:34.44]Now I know this is what I want to do—be a reporter.
[00:38.19]FEMALE ADVISOR: Isn't it great to discover something that you really enjoy? [00:41.30]And I read that article, too. [00:43.23]It was very good.
[00:44.49]MALE STUDENT: To be honest, the article got lots of editing. [00:47.15]In fact, I barely recognized a couple of paragraphs. [00:50.44]But the editor explained why the changes were made. [00:53.42]I learned a lot, and my second article didn’t need nearly as many changes.
[00:57.48]FEMALE ADVISOR: Sounds like you've got a real knack for this.
[00:59.86]MALE STUDENT: Yeah. Anyway, I'm glad you scheduled this meeting ‘cause I wanna change my major to journalism now.
[01:05.88]FEMALE ADVISOR: Um. The university doesn't offer a major in journalism.
[01:10.32]MALE STUDENT: Oh no!
[01:11.60]FEMALE ADVISOR: But—
[01:11.94]MALE STUDENT: I-I mean…should I transfer to another school? [01:14.92]Or major in English?
[01:16.09]FEMALE ADVISOR: Well, wait a minute. [01:17.09]Let me explain why the major isn’t offered. [01:20.12]Editors at newspapers…editors…I mean, when you apply for a reporting job, editors look at two things: they wanna see clips, you know, some of your published articles. They’ll also want you to try out. [01:34.58]They’ll give you an assignment, like um, covering a press conference or some other event, and then see if you can craft a story about it, accurately, on deadline.
[01:42.79]MALE STUDENT: So they don’t even look at my major?
[01:45.25]FEMALE ADVISOR: It’s not that they don’t look at it … it’s … well, having a degree in something other than journalism should actually work to your advantage.
[01:53.08]MALE STUDENT: How?
[01:53.81]FEMALE ADVISOR: Most journalists specialize these days. [01:56.73]They only write about science, or business, or technology, for example. [02:00.84]Is there a type of reporting you think you might like to specialize in?
[02:04.97]MALE STUDENT: Well, I think it’d be really cool to cover the Supreme Court. [02:08.97]I mean, their decisions affect so many people.
[02:11.63]FEMALE ADVISOR: That’s a goal worth striving for. [02:14.24]So, why not continue majoring in political science? [02:17.27]And, as electives, you could take some pre-law classes, like constitutional law. [02:22.55]And as for your work on the student newspaper, maybe they’d let you cover some local court cases, ones that students and professors here would wanna read about.
[02:30.28]MALE STUDENT: Do you know of any?
[02:31.48]FEMALE ADVISOR: Well, I do, actually. [02:33.06]There’s a case involving this computer software program that one of our professors wrote. [02:37.45]The district court’s deciding if the university’s entitled to any of the professor’s profits.
[02:42.27]MALE STUDENT: Wow. I’ll definitely follow up on that.